Not the End of My Tale

 While my younger students are on their Around the World Virtual Trip, my older students are working on various writing assignments. We decided to try out Six Word Stories this week after discussing Flash Fiction. Is it really posibble to write a story in six words? After reading many samples, we realized that what you write is just enough for your mind to fill in the blanks with the rest of the story. Even if it is only six words, it still needs a character and conflict. And the best ones also have a twist.  After writing both together and individually, we thought this was a fun genre of writing. The next step up from this is called Dribble, with max 50 words. After that comes Drabble with a max of 100 words. As a natural progression, I plan to have my students turn one of their six word stories into a dribble for our next lesson. What will enhance the story and head the reader in the right direction? For the picture on the right, here is a sample of a six-word story:  P...

  I had the privilege today to hold a storytelling workshop for a group of teachers. By using oral storytelling, teachers can improve concentration and motivation in their students. This is a common problem with language teachers (and perhaps even class teachers) of students who do not pay attention or ones who lack motivation.  Just imagine if you could solve that problem by having a story in your toolbox that you can tell to the whole group at the drop of a hat (or the blink of an eye). Let me explain how storytelling works with your brain for an optimal learning situation. First, according to recent educational neuroscience, the brain needs three things to be able to learn and move information to long-term memory. Education needs to be meaningful, relevant and enjoyable. By telling an oral story, you can stimulate the brain of the listener to relax  (letting go of stress that prohibits learning when the amygdala is overactive). For many, the act of listening to a sto...

The same story of the week, but this time it is in English. Not our problem It was a beautiful, sunny day throughout the kingdom. The king and his advisor sat together and each ate bread with honey. The view from the window showed the square below the castle and all the people gathered there. While they talked about this and that,, the king leaned out the window to better look around. Just then a drop of honey dropped from the king's bread, but the king did not notice that it fell down and landed on the windowsill. And then ... Plopp, plopp, plopp (can use your hand to show the drop as it drops) The honey landed on the ground below the window. The advisor immediately noticed when the honey droplet landed on the street and immediately asked the king. "Your Majesty, a drop of honey fell to the ground. Should I have someone clean it up?" "No no. It's not our problem", the king replied. Soon a little fly came by. Swish, Swish, Swis...