Storytelling

This storytelling exercise is based on a classic campfire game. Students will work together to tell a story, but who tells the story and where they start and pick up again is up to chance. This exercise is great for students to practice active listening, using good diction when speaking, and thinking on their feet, as well as working together to tell a story in an engaging and clear way. MaterialsYou’ll need a length of rope, at least one foot in length per student (for example: 20 students = minimum 20-foot rope). Tie a knot in the rope about a third of the way down the length, then tie the two ends of the rope together so it becomes a circle. You should have two knots in the rope now, with different lengths of rope between each knot. You can tie ribbons or strips of fabric around the two knots if you need to make them more obvious. For fun, if you want to embrace the traditional campfire game atmosphere, you can dim the lights, play soft nighttime nature sounds in the background, and/or set up a prop campfire in the middle of the circle, but these are optional. Instructions1. Have students sit or stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder, around the rope. Students will pick up the rope and hold it loosely with both hands. 2. One student will start telling a story about any topic. (If you need an opening line to get started, we’ve got lots of ideas here). Since this exercise is based on a campfire game, the stories tend to lean towards the spooky, mysterious, or paranormal, but of course your students can tell whatever story they like. Encourage students to use their voices and facial expressions to create excitement and really engage the listeners in the story they’re telling. 3. While they are telling the story, the full class will slide the rope gently and quietly through their hands around the circle, clockwise, without looking at the rope. 4. When the current storyteller feels a knot in their hands, they must stop speaking immediately, even if they’re in the middle of a sentence. 5. Whoever is closest to or touching the second knot must pick up the story exactly where the previous storyteller left off and continue it. Continue sliding the rope in the same clockwise direction and repeating the sequence — each student adds on to the story and stops when they feel a knot, and the student closest to the other knot continues. Some students will have shorter or longer additions because of the length of rope between the knots. Depending on how the student moves their hands, they might miss a knot and have to continue with another full rotation of the rope until they find a knot — that’s ok. Remember to slide the rope slowly or each story addition will be too short. 6. Continue adding on until your students run out of ideas, you run out of time, or one of the students comes up with a natural ending to the story. 7. Students will complete an exit slip after this exercise (found below).

Writing monologues is a skill that takes practice. When students are learning how to write monologues, it’s easy for them to fall into the trap of writing a story spoken by one person. Storytelling narrative structure is familiar — we are taught to read and write stories from a young age. Monologues are different. The purpose of a monologue is to communicate rather than simply describe or narrate something that already happened. When teaching students how to write a monologue, our goal is to move them away from the storytelling framework they are used to writing in, and into a character communication experience. Here is a bare bones guide to the difference between a monologue and a story. This is not an exhaustive list of all the nuances that make a monologue, but it’s a good place to start, especially if students have never written a monologue before. A monologue is:• Written in the first person • Spoken by one person to a listener • Used to communicate something important • Set in the present, which is alive and active • Urgent and action-filled (The character has a need: a need to share, a need to reveal, a need to explain, etc.) • A mini play… NOT a story A story is:• Written in the third person • Spoken by one or more people to an audience • Used to share an account of something that has happened • Set in the past, which is over and done • Often passive and/or impersonal (explaining something that happened to someone else or why something came to be the way it is) • Entertaining, but not a monologue, even if it’s told by one person If students aren’t sure whether what they are writing is a monologue or a story, have them read through their piece and answer the following questions: • Is this written in first person or third person? • Who is the character speaking to, a specific person or a general audience? • Is it communicating something or describing/narrating something? • Is it set in the present or the past? • Is it active or passive? Compare the answers to the points listed above (or use the handy chart available to download below). If the student’s piece is more in line with the first column, they’ve written a monologue. If their piece is more in line with the second column, they’ve likely written a story. They’ll need to adjust or re-format their piece to make it an active, communicative monologue.