Misc.

Sometimes I blend structures from Anne’s stories. Like I took 
se sent comme/feels like 
from Wendy Goes To A Psychiatrist and took  
seul/lonely 
from Lene 
and pulled  
mignon/cute
from the text of Lene (Anne had not targeted it but I wanted my kids to know it)
so my new structures were 
feels lonely and cute 
and, combining the two Anne stories, a girl was lonely and wanted a (whatever) and went to (wherever) but the (whatever) wasn’t cute and on and on.
Another thing is that I also take answers sooner now. If, in the above story, a girl wants a pet, as Anne said in her story, I used to think that by gosh she will want a pet, because the script says that. But that is a recipe for disaster in a story. Now, I am sure to take one of the first answers. [credit: Michele Whaley describing Katya Paukova’s storyasking style in a recent blog entry here]
One class is into smurfs, because of Jennie Kelly [ed. note: those Alaskans kick ass]. So instead of telling the kids that the girl wanted a pet (even though Anne didn’t underline it and so it was not a variable), I took smurf and the story had that personalized power that alone puts sails under a story.
Taking answers sooner works, and you can still stay close to the script. It’s funny, the best stories stay close to the script, but, at the same time, are filled with many variable answers provided by the kids.