Skip added a riff to the Student Generated (Skeleton) Story idea set forth by Michele. She provided structures to the kids and had them quickly write stories, choosing one and going with it, but, unless I am mistaken, Skip offered an option of asking the kids for basing a story on some expressions that they would like to know (the already famous I Am Pancakes line is an example – talk about hooking in a bunch of young kids! – I Am Pancakes!) and then going through the process Michele describes below. In fact, I am going to paste Skip’s comment here so we don’t have to look for it in putting this new riff into our classes if we want to. Here it is, followed by the blog Skip asked Michele for:
Hi Michele –
I have been wanting to thank you for taking the time to write out step by step instructions on Ben’s blog (3/6/2010-way down under the comments) on how to have students create stories from 3 structures..
After reading your “instructions” I gave it a try in my class and OH MY GOODNESS – it worked so well! To get the structures I asked 3-4 students in the Spanish 1 class to write down a word that they would like to know in Spanish but didn’t. I used those words as the structures. Their words/structures were:
I am Pancakes
I want to throw it
I do what I want
Put it away!
feed me!
make me a sandwich!
It worked beautifully. We had actors and everything. I had them give me words on Wednesday. Thursday when I came in I had actually planned to NOT try the new idea because I was a bit nervous to try something new. They asked me immediately if we were going to use their words. Of course I said yes. The “buy in” was fantastic. I had no trouble at all finding the “best” story. The other groups were green with envy and I could tell they couldn’t wait for the next time. Everything you said would happen did. The L2 flowed for most of the period. I also liked the fact that it brought in the first person – something we hadn’t worked with much this year.
Thank you so very much. I am going to forward your “instructions” to my colleagues because I think they would find this idea very helpful them as well.
I appreciate your support and help.
Sincerely
Skip Crosby
Poland, Maine
Michele’s instructions:
I walk into class, put three structures on the board (here are the ones I used last week, when we were studying Russian Golden Age writers):
participated in
not knowing about
was arrested
I do a minimum of establishing meaning, maybe a grammar pop-up, and maybe a little bit of PQA (these particular words are a bit dangerous for PQA).
I pair up the kids (Ben puts them into groups of 5-7) and give each group 1/8 piece of a sheet of paper (Ben gives them 1/4) and I say, “You have three minutes to write down a story using these three phrases.” I want them to make them up in L1, so that they take very little time, but now many write them in Russian. At two minutes I start collecting the stories. I let myself laugh as I read them, or make comments so that they all know I’ve read theirs and appreciated them.
[I think Laurie or Ben said that they have them write stories first and then do the PQA stuff. That’s probably a better idea, because it would be all L2 after those first two minutes.]
I take a quick look at the stories as I collect them to see which ones will work most easily. Sometimes the way the kids use the structures doesn’t work well for Russian, and sometimes the vocabulary is too complex.
One pair wrote, “Mimi [a girl in the class] went to play bingo, not knowing that no one under 18 can participate in bingo games. She was arrested.”
I asked that story: Class, who went? (Lots of suggestions, mostly from their own stories resulted.) Yes! It was Mimi! Class, where did she go? (I put a finger up to halt the group that wrote from answering the question.) No, not to the moon, the Olympics. . . she went to play. . . yes! Bingo! But class, she went to Bingo and she didn’t know. . . that LeBron James would be there…that the choir was singing instead…that the electricity was out…that it was a bar, not a Bingo parlor… no, class, she didn’t know that she couldn’t participate! Why not? And so on, until we have the skeleton story in place.
(Note: it’s less free for the class as a whole, because I am not going to accept their suggestions unless they miraculously get the answers right, than it is when we ask an Anne Matava story–in those, the kids get more free rein with the story. Here, they are waiting to find out what happened, and the kids whose story it is are bursting with pride and anticipation. In Anne’s stories, I can make specific kids heroes by choosing their suggestions. Either way kids get recognition, but there’s more control with pre-scripted stories. Sometimes groups will “leak” stories to their friends, and then there are shouts of “nichestna!” unfair.)
Then we can do a number of things. I can type the story up on the LCD as they dictate. I can have someone draw it on the board, or have groups draw separate pieces on white boards as I retell (that is a Susie tactic that lets you repeat numerous times, then repeat again as you ask which is what picture, allows you to use the vocab again as you comment on the drawings, and so on). I can back the actors up to their original positions and ask for the details, either from the actors or from the class…how often does she participate in Bingo? or try to participate? why did she participate that night? how did she get there? did her mom know? who arrested her? did she spend the night in jail after having been arrested? what did she say to her mom? did she explain to her mom why she wanted to participate in Bingo?
Students can write it up as a dictation or a fast write. If it’s a higher-level group, they can add in the details that they like in their fast write. We can do a parallel story.
Or we can just go on to the next student script: “Two monkeys wanted to participate in the Olympics. They trained and became curling champions. They went to Vancouver, not knowing that only humans could participate in the Olympics. They got so mad that they sabotaged the track and were arrested.”
We follow the same process–the kids who wrote the story barely holding themselves back from blurting out the answers, throwing in details to reclaim ownership of the story–maybe I give a quiz if the period comes to an end–
And then we might make it to a third story (”Donny went to participate in a soccer game, but he broke the rules and was arrested”). Then I might write that up, and we might extend it in the next class, or choose one story for our aide to expand on for us.
Now that Laurie has been sharing her tactics, I plan to try to pull all the stories together from three or four classes to make embedded readings, because I think they will be watching for their own ideas with great excitement. But that will be after we come back from spring break, our annual language competition, and parent-teacher conferences, so I’m going to be absolutely spring-loaded by the time we are ready to go again.