Speedy Tales

Students write chain stories with a limited amount of time. After the writing session, each student takes a turn reading a tale out loud.

Learner Level: Intermediate – Advanced
Theme: Storytelling
Skills: Writing
Time: 10-20 minutes
Materials: paper and pens
Grouping: Whole class
Preparation: None

Teacher Instructions:

1. Tell students you are going to write short stories together. Each time you say “switch” the students have to pass their paper one to the left. Give students about 1 minute to write a sentence. (Encourage more advanced students to use dialogue.)
2. Read these instructions out loud. Each student should only write one sentence at a time before passing the paper.
a) First sentence: Use Once Upon a Time to introduce the main character. (pass the paper)
b) Second sentence: Introduce the setting. (pass the paper)
c) Third sentence: Introduce a conflict. (pass the paper)
d) Fourth sentence: Introduce another character. (pass the paper)
e) FIfth sentence: Make the conflict bigger. (pass the paper)
f) Sixth sentence: Make the conflict even bigger. (pass the paper)
g) Seventh sentence: Start to resolve the conflict. (pass the paper)
h) Eight sentence: Fully resolve the conflict. (pass the paper)
i) Ninth sentence: End the story.
3. After the stories are written, have students read the stories out loud. Which story is the best? What makes it a good story?

For Example:

Student 1: Once upon a time there was a boy named Scott.
Student 2: Scott was walking through a dark forest.
Student 3: Suddenly Scott tripped on a pothole and broke his leg.
Student 4: A monkey jumped on Scott’s back and said hello.
Student 5: “Ah, a talking monkey,” screamed Scott.
Student 6: The monkey screamed back and stole the boys house keys.
Student 1: Then Scott’s dad arrived with a water gun.
Student 2: “I’ll soak you if you don’t hand over the keys,” said Scott’s dad.
Student 3: “Come and get them and I’ll give you a banana,” said the monkey from the top of the tree.

Teacher 2 Teacher:

If your students like this exercise, adapt the warm up by having them fold the paper over each time they write a sentence. This makes the reading out loud part more interesting.(WARNING: Stories may not make sense. You may want to change the title of the Warm Up to Silly Tales.)