INFORMATION

ESOL Student Level: High Beginner+
Description: An oral, "free-flow" method for creating stories. The stories can then be literally transcribed, or a retold version/interpretation of them can be written down after the telling.

MATERIALS

• Real Storytelling Box(es), either already-made or Boxes that students have created themselves. They can be designed very simply or, with time, more elaborately. A Storytelling Box can also be owned/created individually or as a group. It is a special box into which the following kinds of items, or combinations thereof, are placed:
  • Small, smooth stones (or ceramic squares) onto which words, signs or symbols are painted, written or imprinted.
  • Small, unusual objects (e.g. toys, things from nature, household items, small bits of clothing, coins, and so on).
  • Slips of paper or flat sticks with words or pictures on them.
• Online "Prompts" Use one or more of the sites listed below as prompts for finding people, places, things, etc.
  • Picture Prompts
  • Writing Roulette

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Students work in groups of 3-5. The instructor can frame a beginning, allow one of the group members to "set the stage", or leave it completely up to the individual storyteller from the very start. This, and any other parameters, should be clear from the start (e.g. a time limit, use of a tape recorder, a minimum or maximum number of items pulled from the Box, specific time/tense that should be used).
   
   
2. The first storyteller begins by drawing out an object from the box without looking (the element of surprise makes it more interesting and challenging!). The drawn item must be used sequentially in the story and stays out of the Box until the story is finished; i.e. it can't be put back into the box and exchanged, or saved until later in the story, or redrawn in the same story.
   
   
3. The story continues until such time as the teller becomes "stumped", and pulls out another object. This process continues until the teller determines that the story is finished.
   
   
4. At this point there are several options for a corresponding written version of the story:
   • A audio or video taped story can then be transcribed.
   • Students in the group can write the story as they remember it.
   • The individual teller can write her/his own story as it is remembered.

• Author the story as a group. One person begins a story and stops at a crucial point. The box then goes to the next person in the circle who draws out a new object from the Box, and uses it to continue the story. The Box continues to go from person-to-person around the group in this way, thereby creating a "chain" story.
  
• Illustrate the stories.
  
• Bind the stories up in individual books for students to read and share with each other, or as a class anthology.
  
• See the activity "Basket Case" for an activity that is similar, yet allows the teller more control over the sequence of events in the story.