Group writing

I use various little methods for making writing less of a chore for Ss. The old classic, "It was a dark and stormy night...,"  is way more fun if you do it in groups of 4 or 5 writing a sentence at a time; it also offers writing and error correction practice in equal measure.
A Shaggy Dog Story is another way where Ss are given a list of words by one S and they have to hide them in a written piece from another S (groups of 3)
Writing as another person, a fictional character, or even an abstract concept: eg Write a letter from Monday to Friday (pretending to be Monday)
Dear Friday,
I'm writing to ask if you'd like to swap jobs for a while...

Is this seat taken?

A really easy no materials multi level speaking activity
Students (Ss) ask question above or opposite "Is this seat free?" "Can I sit here?"
elicit context: bus, train, new school
elicit possible conversation questions
Great for meeting / assessing new Ss.
Can be done once error corrected done again.
Then basic writing, Ss make an imaginary persona
Name:
Job:
Nationality:
Hobbies:
Etc.
And repeat speaking activity as above (every other student stands up and moves around when/where teacher says so)