Dear Ben,
I attended your workshop at Collegiate in Louisville, Kentucky one weekend in April. I very much enjoyed what you and Tina had to share with us.
Before the end of the school year, I decided to try out a story with my students. I teach Kindergarten through 5th grade, but due to timing, I was only able to try it out with first and second grade. I had students create ICIs. I could only give students two classes (25 minutes each) to create their characters. Some of them needed more time. It took three 25-minute sessions to create the stories. After we created the stories, I typed them up. The next class for second grade (I didn’t see first grade anymore) I read their stories straight through in French. I then read it to them in English (they had to repeat after me), and then they had to repeat after me in French. They were really engaged every time I read it in both languages. They then drew the story in comic form. I’ve attached, one for each second grade class, the ICI we used and one or two examples of the comics. I’ve blocked out the student names, so feel free to share in other workshops.
The students were really engaged in the stories. Every class, I shared the progress of other classes, and that inspired them to keep working on their stories. I only used a couple jobs – artists, professeur, actors. I know there are things to improve and tighten up on. However, I had a really fun time creating these stories with them. Next year, I will have my own classroom (I’ve been on a cart), so I can really see this model expanding next year.
Thank you for your time. I have been inspired.
Sincerely,
Erica Ridge
Bobby le loup
Johnny le garcon
Love le papillon
Sammy le poisson