This article is only for those doing the Ultimate CI approach:
Of the six questioning levels used in the Ultimate CI approach, QL5 is always going to be the longest, the most complex and the most important. It is here where you build levels of dramatic tension that are impossible in the tableaux, where you only get the four basic questioning levels.
So now we can finally define and articulate the precise difference between tableaux and stories – tableaux consist of four questioning levels and stories consist of six. By the end of Book 2, we should have alleviated our concerns and dispelled the myth in the TPRS/CI world that stories are difficult to do. They are not, especially if you set them up properly in QL1-QL4.
One can say in general terms that you create a story from INTUITIVE IDEAS THAT COME TO YOU DURING THE TABLEAU CREATION PROCESS. IF NO STORY LINE HAS COME TO YOU BY THE END OF THE TABLEAU, IT MEANS THAT YOU ARE NOT BEING GIFTED WITH A STORY FROM THE STORY GODS THAT DAY AND SO YOU HUMBLY END THE TABLEAU AT THE END OF QL4.
Never blame yourself if a story doesn’t magically appear. It wasn’t in the tableau’s DNA, so bail out and continue on around the Star. Trust your intuition, which is a new thing in education.
THERE IS NO MECHANICAL TECHNIQUE OF MOVING INTO A STORY. WE JUST HAVE TO ADMIT THAT. Why? Because most of this work – if it is to fully align with Krashen and the current state-of-the-art research – is based on intuition – those little messages that pop up in your mind during the creation of a tableau.
Why has this idea not been met with open arms in the CI community? It is because it is not just the kids who have lost their imagination. We have too.
As CI teachers, we have over the years caused our instruction to lose its joy. Why not listen to your intuition to guide you in class? Listen to the voice of the intuition during a tableau. Listen to the voice of the heart.
As Meher Baba has said:
“Do not listen to the voice of the mind. Listen to the voice of the heart. The mind wavers; the heart does not. Mind fears; heart is not daunted.” (Love Alone Prevails p.357)