Build a story from one sentence
As you might have seen in ‘The cat sat on the mat’, it is a lot of fun to let the mind run free by applying the simple ‘Who, what, where, why, when, and how.’ As an extension of that video, here’s a simple exercise that can be fun for different ages and stages.
First, ask your young people to write a simple sentence, or perhaps you can give them a series of choices. Here are some examples.
- She walked along the path.
- The team ran onto the field.
- The tree stood outside the house.
- He wrote the name on the page.
- The plane flew over the mountain.
- The flag fluttered in the wind.
- The student kicked the ball at the window.
- The dog chewed the box.
Yes, they are all very simple, but they can be incredible launching pads. All it takes is some imagination. So, what do you do next?
Ask your young people to apply ‘Who, what, where, why, when, and how’ to various parts of any chosen sentence. This allows them to build a ‘reservoir’ of answers from which a story can be built. Not all answers may be useful, but the process of obtaining them stimulates thinking, sometimes in the most unexpected directions.
It is up to each young person to decide when they have enough information in their reservoir to begin their story. At any time, they can return to the original sentence (or any other sentence for that matter) to ask more questions and gain more information.
The below pictures are some notes (or are they scribbles?!) that I took when showing my thinking process to some Year 7 students and teachers. I chose the first sentence: ‘She walked along the path,’ and I concentrated on three parts as a starting point.
- What did ‘she’ look like?
- How did ‘she’ walk?
- What was the path made of? And where was it going?
My answers were not at all planned. They just jumped to mind. After a few minutes, I had enough to at least begin the story. As you can see in the above photo, the writing process was far from tidy! Eventually, this is what I wrote (see below). You will note the story is not finished because I invited the class to finish it for me. Some young people chose to keep the story going without an end in sight. Either way, the exercise allowed the class to explore.
She walked along the path and cursed her arthritis. Holding onto a walking stick had become so very difficult, and every single step was painful. Oh dear, the pain. Yes, that’s what old age was. It was pain.
A faint scent of roses told her she was nearly there. She looked up from the path and saw the garden blooming with reds and yellows.
She continued walking, her stick tapping on the concrete in a slow, slow rhythm. One……..Two……..Three……….Four……….
Onwards she walked.
Finally, she arrived at the red brick building. The glass doors slid open, and she stepped ever so carefully onto a shiny floor. She passed the reception desk where two young nurses smiled gently at her as she passed.
She headed along a familiar white corridor to the third room on the right. A name plate hung on the wall outside the door. She paused for a moment to run her fingers over the name. The letters gave her comfort because they took her to places long ago. Friday night dances, whiffs of lavender perfume, Scrabble, the wedding, the honeymoon, the holidays, that freezing yet beautiful cruise in Alaska…Goodness, what a life they’d had.
She opened the door and… (?????? Can you finish the story?)
Why not try ‘Build a story from one sentence’ with your class? It is a great way to encourage our young people to use their imaginations and defy the often- heard comment: ‘I don’t know what to write about.’
Tag:#Educators
