Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Starting Stories
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6 thoughts on “Starting Stories”
My very best stories are never the ones where I’m trying to force the targeted textbook vocabulary. Rather, they’re the simplest ones that I thought would be boring. Have you taken a look at the stories from Look, I Can Talk? A lot of them, when you get down to the bare bones of it, are simple, and you can find lots of success with that.
LICT stories are indeed simple and it is the way it was explained to us, with all the other LICT instructions, that made people burn (in one case) that book. I feel like posting this line from you Erin on every page of this site, so true is it:
…my very best stories are never the ones where I’m trying to force the targeted textbook vocabulary….
Unless, of course, Stephen Krashen had it wrong.
I usually get through the first chapter of LICT then I’m done with it. I hate to knock on it and be negative but the structure choices beyond chapter 1 are terrible in my opinion, unless it’s me. They’re almost impossible to PQA and its difficult acting out the stories. The readings are the most useful aspect.
I have often tried in the past to make things work with the textbook. Right now, the textbook is winning because of inflexible district standardization requirements, but I am hoping that will change.
Re: making things work with the textbook, just realize that you are probably up against an entirely different philosophy that doesn’t support CI. I think the typical textbook gives a long list of nouns or adjectives or verbs, and a few things you can do with them. For example, in the food chapter of my book, you can like or not like a long list of foods. Or you can say you should or shouldn’t eat them. If you try to use all the words, or try to use only the words, your story will seriously limp, because the vocab wasn’t designed for conversation. It was designed to be predictable and follow regular patterns. Ben’s rock eating analogy was just right… taste, texture, color, nutrition… rocks are just as interesting as some of the stories that can come from trying to include too much of the textbook stuff, and just as harmful/useless as eating rocks…
So, if you are trying to parallel other classes that are using a book, it helps if you are free to pare down the required vocab to less than you thought possible, truly what you think will be the very most helpful. Otherwise, your potential story may be trapped in a strait-jacket. One year, I tried having kids be responsible for recognizing all the words on the list, and then focusing in on the main things. It was too much for most of them, because many of the words were low frequency, low interest, and had little of the raw material for stories. If they learned all 700+ of those words, the average kid had little left for soaking in much about how to use them.
On the other hand, I went to Sr. Wooly’s presentation at NTPRS, and one of the most helpful things I got from it was the way he used scenarios to add interest. The concept was something I read this summer in _Stein_on_Writing: give each character a different script. Sr. Wooly whispered a background to each actor for the upcoming dialogue: he’s about to ask you to marry him; you’re about to break up with her. Then he asked them to talk about the weather. That was an ingenious way to make boring conversation interesting.
Using emotional contexts can make repetitions on a reading or acting fun, too. I used “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” for a brain break today. First time normally, then in chipmunk voice, then low voice, then romantically. Very fun. And I won’t have to teach any of those body parts directly, probably, because they’ll get them on an occasional brain break.
I’m starting to get the hang of brain breaks and use them to my advantage. I’m going to play a color game so I don’t have to teach colors directly, too. I say a color, they all run to find an object in the room of that color.
I love the “Head, Shoulders…” and color brain break!! Thank you for the ideas.