September 7, 2015

I think we are making a connection!  Praise the Lord!  We are starting from another direction.  Tell your story first and then write it!  I have drug out some old and I mean old tape recorders and have put students in a quiet place all alone and asked them to tell their story.  First, we did a graphic organizer so they have some notes to refer back to as they tell their story and not forget something important.  They tell their stories to a small group of students (2-3) and it records as the child is telling his or her story.  Afterwards I let them go to a quiet place alone and listen to their story.  They can stop and restart the recorder as much as they would like.  Then they tried to write it down, but it was hard because they were trying to write word for word what they said.  I have to work with them so that they understand that every time we tell a story it is a little different and when they write a story they have told it will not be exactly how they told it.  I mainly wanted them to understand that they have lots of stories inside their memory banks and even more ideas for stories in their imagination.  We are on the right track!