Chain story

My memories of first trying out this activity were part of a storytelling course I taught to future teachers at university. It was a dream group: advanced, imaginative, highly-motivated and close-knit (at least in my memory), so the activity ran itself and took much of the lesson (oh, double joy!).

In the real world, though, you don't need an advanced group for this activity, and it may do the motivating and knitting for you. Some imagination helps, of course.

Who it's for:
All levels

What it's for:
Speaking, energy-raising, creating a story

What you need:
A short story from Spotlight, slips of paper, a soft, classroom-appropriate ball

What you do:
Before the lesson, choose words or phrases from the short story of your choice and write them on separate slips of paper, enough for one or two per student in your class. From the short story on page 43 of the 1/2011 issue, for example, you might choose a range of items — depending on the level — such as: personnel department, visa, congratulations, prestigious, split up, Sydney, job, children, five years, health, idiot

Give each student one or two slips of paper, and the chance to look their words up in a dictionary, which might inspire them in terms of collocations, idiomatic usage, etc. They should keep their words a secret.

You can decide how to set the scene. Reading out the first paragraph from the original story will give some students support, but others might prefer to start off their own story.

Throw the ball to the first student, who should start or continue the story, incorporating his or her word as unobtrusively as possible. You may want to set a time limit appropriate to the group for each contribution. The student throws the ball to another student, and so the story continues. The last student in the group ends the story. 

Classroom management tip: get students to hold up their catching hand at the end of a turn if they have not yet had the ball.

At the end of the activity, pair students up to guess which words each student has been assigned, then check. Read the story with the group or listen to it on Spotlight Audio, getting students to note the words in context as they appear.

As an extension, you can get the students to collaboratively write up their version of the story in small groups.

*The next Try It Out will appear on 17 January 2011. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!