The story weavers

Manaswini Sridhar

As parents and as educators, we teach our children to speak and then to write. Once they have grasped the fundamentals of both, we urge them to develop these skills further by reading more books, by talking more, or by writing more. For most children (and also for adults who are learning a new language), this is monotonous and dreary. The child is not only advised to pore over dictionaries and the Thesaurus in order to improve sentence structure and vocabulary, but also become an expert at the art of self editing in order to have an error-free product. We almost never think of making the exercise fun or interesting maybe because the puritan in us says, “It is something that everyone has to master; so what’s the big deal?”

https://cooperativegames.com/cooperative-storytelling/ explains the art of storytelling in class in which children narrate familiar stories, with each child restricting himself/herself to only one sentence. The task here is to be aware not only of the tense that the story begins with, but also the tense that the previous narrator has used. The last child has to ensure that the story ends with his/her sentence. If some children have left out a few details of the story, the others have to make certain that the story does not end before it reaches the last child; therefore, they add details that are not really there in the original story. This helps in developing the child’s originality, which is so essential for language improvement.

The next version of the storytelling mentioned in the above website is where the story is developed in such a way that each narrator in turn gives the plot a positive twist by using the word fortunately, and then alternately a negative twist by using the word unfortunately. It is indeed an extremely useful technique in developing language skills and also daring the child to be creative. A simple story could be along the following lines:
Father had promised to take us to the beach. Fortunately, it was sunny, so we knew he wouldn’t break his promise. Unfortunately, mother said that she had a headache and wouldn’t be able to accompany us. Fortunately, father found her medication and told her to take it and accompany us so that we wouldn’t be disappointed. Unfortunately, grandmother rang up at the wrong time and father talked to her for ages. Fortunately, mother, who seemed better now, urged him to complete the conversation so that we could go out, while pointing out to him that he needed to keep his promise. Unfortunately, father then remembered a promise that she had recently not fulfilled. Fortunately, the dog started barking so much that father felt going out would do everyone a lot of good. Unfortunately, we forgot to take the sunscreen lotion with us and got really burnt during the long ride in the car. Fortunately, the weather on the beach was pleasant, and we could swim in the cool water and also play in the sand. Unfortunately, all too soon we had to leave. Fortunately, mother suggested we have a pizza before heading back home. Unfortunately, all the pizza joints were jam-packed, and so we had to settle for a small udupi restaurant instead. Fortunately, the food was so yummy that we all gulped it down like we hadn’t eaten for days. Unfortunately … and so it can continue.

What is the value of such an exercise for children? It helps children think of various options in a situation. It also helps them listen to what is happening in the story and add to it logically, or illogically! They soon grasp the fact that even a germ of an idea can be elaborated. The exercise also taps the imagination of the child because every situation can have a positive or a negative impact. So that children really think on their feet, and remain unaware of when their turn is to be (some children do not listen to what is happening; they only rehearse in their minds what they will say), teachers can write down all the names of the children on small chits of paper and shuffle the chits; the teacher can then call out the name of the child that is on top of the pile, and the child concerned strings the narrative. Students may be at the edge of their seats, wondering when it will be their turn. But pay no attention to this slight discomfort; it will make the students better listeners and therefore they will be more exposed to various ideas as the plot unfolds unimaginably!

Once the story is concluded, the teacher can set this as a writing task. It will help the teacher and the students assess whether they have been good listeners. The task can be given on the same day or on the following day. It is not mandatory for students to reproduce the exact replica of what they have heard. They can begin with the first sentence of the story, and then write their own original one since they have already had an exercise in switching from one situation to another. So give the creative students of the class the liberty to come up with an entirely different story. For the other students of the class who are more comfortable with reproducing what they have heard, give them the freedom of writing what they have already learned. However, request the writers of the more original stories to read aloud what they have written so that the other students in the class learn more about experimenting with ideas and structure.

The teacher can also have children do a chain story using conjunctions. This helps children understand what conjunctions are, how they are used, and what they actually mean. The very same story that the children created using fortunately and unfortunately can be retold or rewritten using conjunctions. Children will discern that they may need to make certain modifications in the structure of the sentences when they are using conjunctions; mere substitution may not work out in certain cases.

Father had promised to take us to the beach. Since it was sunny, we knew he wouldn’t break his promise. However, mother said that she had a headache and wouldn’t be able to accompany us. But father found her medication and told her to take it and accompany us so that we wouldn’t be disappointed. While we were getting ready to leave, grandmother rang up at the wrong time and father talked to her for ages. Since mother seemed better now, she urged him to complete the conversation so that we could go out, pointing out that he needed to keep his promise. Hardly had mother talked about promises than father remembered a promise that she had recently not fulfilled. Meanwhile, the dog started barking so much that father felt going out would do everyone a lot of good. However, we forgot to take the sunscreen lotion and got really burnt during the long ride in the car. Since the weather on the beach was pleasant, we could swim in the cool water and also play in the sand. However, all too soon we had to leave. As we were leaving, mother suggested that we have a pizza before heading home. However, all the pizza joints were jam-packed, so we had to settle for a small udupi restaurant instead. Even though we were not totally happy, we found that the food was so yummy that we all gulped it down like we hadn’t eaten for days.

The exercise may seem repetitive, but let’s face it… language, not unlike math, has to be repeated in various ways and forms so that students understand the fundamentals in order to be able to operate independently. This exercise could be used in storytelling competitions also in which Team A begins all the sentences with fortunately and team B begins all their sentences with unfortunately. The team that fortunately doesn’t run out of ideas is crowned the winner!

The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.