I was watching Sponge Bob and Patrick fixed an impossible plot in ten seconds and the episode ended. I won’t go into the details, but it reminded me that I often forget to wrap up unresolved stories. I want to get to the work of the illustrator, the quiz, and now to the metacognitive piece that I will start doing at the end of every class as per the post on “Rules 2012”.
But I can remember to resolve stories using the following skill, which I learned from Karen Rowan in a workshop once:
Skill #31: Un Petit Renseignement/Una Explicación Breve
In French the term un petit renseignement carries the meaning, “Here is a small bit of information.” In Spanish una explicación breve is “a short explanation”. We use these terms when there is not much time left to finish the story and we need to speed it up. This skill could also be referred to as the “Fast Forward” Skill.
If Gollum needs to find the ring, which is in a toilet in Albuquerque, and he is in a pool on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean with only ten minutes left in class, you can just stop the story, hold up your index finger to the class, and say, “Class, here is a small bit of information…”.
You then inform everyone, in one sentence in English or, in upper level classes, in the target language, that Gollum has a private jet that he now flies to Albuquerque where he is now looking into the toilet. Say this in a “knowing” way, like it is just between you and the class, and do it quickly. Problem of not finishing the story solved!
Of course we will need the Story Ender Fairy, who, as we say the three sentences to wrap the story up, waves his/her wand to make the actors fast forward to the end of the story. The fairy’s prop would have to be within reach of the fairy.