Variety is the spice of routine (speaking/writing)-Craig Sheehy

These are ideas of how to get students speaking/writing the story in a low-stress manner.

10. Tell is to the Wall/Walking in a Circle:  Craig says that his kids find a spot on the wall to re-tell the story to or they walk in a circle.  He points out that some scientist says that walking 1.8 mi/hr is the optimal speed to get oxygen to the brain, which helps with learning.  We brainstormed that you could set up culture posters that the kids tell it to...maybe a poster of a monument or of a famous TL-speaking person.  Then, they switch spots every so often to get them up and moving.

9.  Talk to the Hand:  In this exercise, students draw a face on their hand and then tell the story to their hand.  You can also have them sing it to their hand in a particular style (opera, rap, country, etc)

8.  Balderdash: Retell to a partner and you try to sneak in a lie about the story.  If the partner catches you, they yell Balderdash and correct the lie.

7. I must have missed the name of this one: Start with a person and have them say the first sentence of the story.  Student number two repeats the first sentence and adds the second sentence.  Student 3 repeats the second sentence and adds the third and so on. 

6.  Unnatural selection retell: Use PowerSchool or some other randomizer to pick a person to re-tell.  If there are certain kids who will shut down, you can "choose" yourself.

5. What do you remember?:  In this exercise, students volunteer to tell the class things they remember from the story.  It could be a sentence or a detail or whatever.

4. Sing Off, Rap Off, Tell Off: Pick two volunteers to go head to head to try and out perform the other. 

3.  Harry Potter: Students are asked to add or subtract details (redux or addux).  This is a great activity to train kids to summarize information and give only the essential information.  A very high level skill that is hard to teach.

2. Retell charades: Either the kids re-tell the story and the prof acts it out or they do it in pairs.  Or both!

1. Around the world in 80 words: Kids retell the story one word at a time.  For example: S1: There S2: was S3: a S4: boy S5: who......  They have to say the punctuation marks, which count as a turn also.  Students are also allowed to add details not included in the original story.

Phew!  Soooooooo much goodness in 3 1/2 hours.