Remember the Maine Hogs? We heard from one of them the other day, how she was doing after graduating, grunting snarkingly in the college grammar troughs. She was looking for the high quality food she enjoyed from Anne’s kitchen while hearing Anne Matava stories for four years, but, according to her, was finding only kitchen scraps. Here is that link:
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=7949
Oh well.
Anne fed those hogs some high quality food, for sure. We know that because many of us use those same stories in our classes. (I am still trying to coax that second volume out of her – it’s not easy but I will ask her about it next week.)
If one of Anne’s stories rocks the house, she immediately sends it to me and I put it here as a blog entry. Whenever I get observed, or anytime the kids get low on air, I know that I can pull out one of those “house rockers”, like the one I used yesterday when visited by some guests:
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=8057
And it did rock the house. It’s nice to know that we can count on a story to fly (Skip Crosby did that story too and agreed that it had wings of its own). But what is it that makes a story script fly? Why is it that, in her first story script book, Anne even chose to specifically describe how we can write our own stories? I decided to study the stories in her first story script book for clues.
I saw that each of the three structures presented for the Step One work (establishing meaning, gesturing, PQA) showed up neatly in each of the three locations. In the example below, the variables that the Hogs came up with in response to Anne’s circled questions are underlined. I italicized the structures. Look at how each structure appears in each location:
Table Manners, part 1
is annoyed, irritated
during dinner
stop…!
Gloria’s mother is annoyed, because Gloria is spitting tobacco during dinner. She says, “Stop spitting tobacco during dinner! That annoys me!” So Gloria stops spitting tobacco during dinner.
Then Gloria starts talking on her cell phone during dinner. (She talks to Billy Idol in Chinese. They talk about Chinese food.) Gloria’s mother is annoyed. She says, “Stop talking on the cell phone during dinner! That annoys me!” So Gloria stops talking on the cell phone during dinner.
Then Gloria starts cutting her fingernails and toenails during dinner. Gloria’s mother is annoyed. She says, “Stop cutting your fingernails and toenails during dinner!” This time Gloria doesn’t stop. She cuts off her hands and feet and puts them in her mother’s bed. Her mother is not annoyed; she likes it.*
Now, because of the precision in which each target structure appears in the story, we can stay close to the story line and properly park/circle/spiral/get reps on them.
Those of us (I am the worst offender) who tend to be like jack rabbits in the parking lot, darting out of the lot at the slightest appearance of something edible in the weeds outside of the lot, are kept in the lot by the sturdiness, the craftsmanship, of the parking lot.
Notice in particular how it is the placing of the three structures through the three locations like hurricane rods through a house that allows us to keep from going too wide, off the tracks into the weeds.
Notice also above how the (underlined) variables in the story change, but not the (italicized) structures. To repeat that – each variable gives way/disappears to allow a new variable to appear in the next location
[- in the first location, the protagonist was spitting tobacco
– in the second, she was talking on her cell phone
– in the third, she was cutting her nails]
but the structures don’ t change. This gives only the appearance of change in this story. The students’ minds, being entirely focused on the new content/meaning, are thus tricked into hearing massive amounts of repetitions of the target structures, which is the point of stories and of the CI process.
Thus, stories are an elegant way of bringing Dr. Krashen’s ideas into the classroom. This is the genius of Blaine Ray. If it is Dr. Krashen who has suggested that we can all drink as much CI soda pop as we want in our classrooms, it is Blaine who has come up with the formula for Coke.
So, if we want our stories to work, we have to remember that a well crafted script, with its three structures in three locations working there for us, steadies the waters as the variables continue plopping into the story script.
I would like to repeat that each new variable only creates the illusion of zany events in a laughter filled classroom. The fact is that, as the students’ conscious minds wrap around and claim class ownership of each new entertaining variable, their unconscious minds are hearing massive repetition of the real goal of the lesson – the deep neurological embedding** of the target structures into the deeper mind.
In stories there is therefore some intensely serious language acquisition going on. The glitzy changing content sits on a strong unchanging underwater steel rod foundation of the target structures.
The changing variables give the kids input that is interesting. The unchanging structures guarantee our kids input that is comprehensible. This gives us the best shot at guaranteeing our students smooth sailing in calm waters as, together, we navigate our Krashen made boats through the CI oceans.
*just a comment on how Anne’s stories always seem to have those last three lines in the script underlined. It further illustrates how the variables have (only seemingly) overtaken the story. The kids think that they have created this final story content. But they really haven’t. They threw out stuff, some of which was accepted into the the story, but it was the structures that drove those variables into the new content. The structures were the stars, and the variables were incidental. It is a skillful trick and further illustrates the necessity, when doing stories, to stick with Blaine’s formula if you want it all to work (which is not true at all with PQA, but is with stories).
**I once heard Dr. Krashen in Denver say something to the effect that language learning is nothing but a deep repetitive pounding into the unconscious mind of comprehensible input in the form of listening and reading, and, after thousands of hours of that, we just start speaking and writing naturally. I can’t remember the exact quote.