David’s brilliant idea also made me want to share what Anne wrote in the appendix to her story script books – a step by step way of scripting our own stories. Anne has always felt that we all should be able to write our own scripts because we are the only ones who know our kids and what structures they need and don’t need.
Being able to write our own scripts is kind of like being able to change your own tire on a road bike. It’s one thing to take your bike into a bike shop and have them do it, but we kind of need to be able to do it by ourselves as well, if we’re out on the road and blow a tire out there, which, as we all well know, happens often in teaching.
Here, then, is how Anne suggests we write our own story scripts:
Appendix C: How to Script a Story
I. Scripting a story to prepare for reading a novel or other text
1. Go to a chapter in the novel or short story, preferably the chapter you will be reading next with the class.
2. Read the first few pages carefully, watching for words/ structures that are:
• high frequency in real life
• high frequency in this chapter or the novel in general
• interesting enough to create an engaging script from
• not so specific as to be limiting (it’s okay to have one very specific word, like “vacuum cleaner” or “navigate”. The other two structures will need to be generic enough so that the story can go in a variety of directions.)
Jot down all words/ structures that fall into one or more of the above categories. The more categories they fall into, the more useful they will be to you and your students.
3. Look at the words you’ve jotted down. See if a story line appears to you. Don’t over think it, just start writing. Write the first sentence, then the second one. See if there is a pattern emerging that could become repetitive. In my experience, the structures/ vocabulary can become repetitive in one of two ways:
• you have the main character go to three locations and do more or less the same thing in each location. (Easier, but can come across as somewhat predictable.)
• you find ways to work the vocabulary into the script repeatedly. (More difficult, but the result is less contrived and more free-form.)
4. Assuming that you are developing a script that follows the pattern of three locations, script the first and then the second location. The third location should start out like the first two but you leave the end of it open, to see how the class will resolve it. (Examples to follow.)
5. If you are not going to do the three locations, write the script so that the target structures get used more than once. It’s harder than it sounds. I shoot for three times each, but am happy with twice each.
6. Write your script into a notebook. Write what level class it is for, and when you use it, write the date. Skip lines and leave spaces to write what the class comes up with. I usually do period 1 in red ink and period 5 in blue ink, so that I know which class came up with which detail.
Example: from Chapter 1 in The Trip of His Life, by Blaine Ray
possible phrases:
tries to takes/steals thief slaps his hand* runs away*
(the last two are not from the text. They appeared repeatedly in my script. If my students already knew one of the first three structures, I might take one of these two in its place.)
Note: all underlined items are the variables. You will fill the blanks in with information supplied by your students.
Johnny is a thief. He takes/steals tacos from hairdressers. One day he goes to Toys R Us and sees 34.5 hairdressers. He tries to take/steal a taco from a hairdresser named Susie. Susie is a tall, bearded hairdresser with 24 arms. She slaps Johnny’s hand and says, “Stop thief!” Johnny runs away.
He runs to the laundromat and sees 2 hairdressers.. He tries to take a taco from a hairdresser named Jenny. Jenny is short and beautiful and has no nose. She slaps Johnny’s hand and says, “Stop thief!” Johnny runs away.
Johnny runs to school and sees 4.7 hairdressers. He tries to take a taco from a hairdresser named Mr. Lynch. He takes the taco from Mr. Lynch! While he is eating the taco, Mr. Lynch takes one of Johnny’s gold teeth. This is what the script looks like in my notebook:
_________is a thief. He takes/ steals____________ from___________. One day he goes to ___________ and sees________ __________. He tries to take/ steal a_________ from a __________named___________. _________ is a _________________with___ _______. She slaps__________’s hand and says, “Stop thief!” _____________ runs away.
He runs to _______________and sees ___ ____________. He tries to take a______ from a __________ named _______. _______ is___________________. She slaps__________’s hand and says, “Stop thief!” ____________ runs away.
Johnny runs to ___________ and sees ____ __________. He tries to take a _______from a _____________named ________________. (Ending is up to the students.)
II. Scripting a story that is not associated with a particular text
There are a number of instances in which it is not preferable to script a story to prepare students for reading. If you are expected to reach certain benchmarks or cover certain topics, you can script your stories from those. Often, the students will ask me how to say a phrase, and because I recognize it as an important, high-frequency structure, I script a story around it. It is also fun to hear an anecdote or read a funny article in the paper and script a story that echoes the action of the anecdote or article. Anything funny that happens in the stream of life can become a story. We just remember to make all humor at the expense of no one.
The method for scripting stories that are not associated with a particular text is the same as the one described above: I jot down at least 5 or 6 phrases and look at them, playing with them in my mind, until a story line emerges. If it is hard or time-consuming at first, don’t give up. It gets immeasurably easier with practice.
[Important Note: Remember that, in TPR Storytelling, we create stories with our students in the past tense. Then, we read them in the present tense the next day. Identification of present tense forms in reading is easily done when the story has been told in the past. Most PQA activities, as well as dialogues within stories, occur in the present tense, as well, so the students get a good amount of three tenses (present, past, imperfect) as they go through their academic week. Before TPRS, teachers considered it impossible to teach three verb tenses in the first year of study, and maybe that was true with traditional methods. Now, it is easily done. The important result is that, when students thus trained respond to past tense questions, their responses are not frozen in the present tense, vastly helping confidence and overall acquisition, not to mention scores on standardized examinations that align, as all should, with the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.]