An activity to facilitate student’s understanding of sentence structure and storytelling. Also helps with active listening and cooperative problem solving.
Collective Storytelling
step 1
Ask the students to stand in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder facing forward. Start by asking them for the name of a story that has never been told, or build a title from content that is being used in class. Ask a volunteer, on one side of the line to offer the first sentence of the story.
step 2
Ask students to stand in a line, shoulder-to-shoulder facing the audience. Instruct one side of the line to begin telling a story, one word at a time. Each student is only allowed to speak one word at a time. It is important to stress that listening is the key to success in this exercise.
step 3
The story continues along to the end of the line, and can either terminate in a period or continue with a comma. The story is not allowed to stop the first time through. Cycle through the students two to three times, and then bring the story to a close.
step 4
Experiment with switching up the order of the students, or with making each sentence the length of the line of students.
step 5
As another level of complexity, ask each student to speak an entire sentence of the story, rather than just a word. See how this
alters the dynamic of the story.
variation
Experiment with supplying the last sentence of the story, so that they have to arrive at a specific conclusion.
