Wesley Heights, Year One
Eaddy – Meagan Cascone
Learning Objective/Exit Outcomes:
- Students will be able to use details when telling a story.
- Students will be able to listen and add onto a story.
- Students will be able to think on the spot.
- Students will be able to use their creativity to tell a story quickly and cohesively.
State Standards:
ELAGSE4W3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
- Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.
- Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.
- Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events.
- Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
- Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.
ELAGSE4SL1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
TA4.RE.1 Engage actively and appropriately as an audience member.
- Participate as audience.
- Demonstrate appropriate theatre etiquette.
TA4.CN.1 Explore how theatre connects to life experience, careers, and other content. a. Connect theatre experiences to life experiences and other content areas.
Integration Area/Subject:
ELA/Theatre
Materials/Playing Space:
We used the front of the room as our playing space.
Description:
The PAIR specialist demonstrated the activity with a group of five students. She said that “Every good story begins with once upon a time…” and explained that when she was pointing to the student, they would continue the story until she pointed to another student. She reminded the students that the only guidelines were that they had to keep it appropriate. Other than that, they should use their imaginations and creativity.
After the PAIR specialist facilitated the first round, the teacher stepped in and conducted the next two rounds of the strategy. The PAIR specialist realized that the students were trying to make the stories too realistic instead of giving themselves the freedom to make them whatever they wanted, so she stepped into the next round and threw in a couple parts to the story that would make the students think outside the box. After that, the students seemed to loosen up and have more fun with the stories they were telling.
Once a few different stories were told, the teacher instructed the students to take out a piece of paper and tell a story, much like the ones we just did, and include as many details as they could. The objective of the activity was to get their creative juices flowing so that writing a fictional story would come easier and would be more fun for them.
Notes:
In doing this activity again, I would suggest that the teacher throw in an out of the box idea for the story towards the beginning so that the students see that it’s okay to be a little bit silly and creative.