In this lesson, students will explore collaboration as a means for telling stories. In the games, students will take turns contributing ideas and through the structure of the exercises, build short stories together.

Lesson Overview

Estimated Time: 1 40-minute class period, or can be integrated into the literacy block

Learning Goals
  • I can generate ideas in response to provided prompts and situations.
  • I can express my ideas clearly, using words that make sense for the situation.
  • I can listen actively to others ideas.
  • I can add my ideas to others’ ideas to build a story together. 
Readiness

Students will be ready to play these games with very little preparation needed. However, they will need encouragement to continually practice focusing on the players in the middle and being active listeners.

Terminology
Materials
  • Teacher can write down the prompts, “I am a…” / “I’m going to keep” on the whiteboard to support students
  • Emojis for display

Minds On

Whole Class > Emoji Greetings

Invite students to stand in a circle. Display a variety of emojis (printed on paper or projected on a screen). Select one emoji that students will use to inspire their tone of voice. Invite students to greet each other, one at a time. Their greeting should reflect their chosen emoji (e.g., if the emoji is :D their greeting will be happy). Encourage students to make eye contact, if possible. You do not have to pull a new emoji for each students’ turn. Staying on the same emotion not only provides good practice and reinforcement, but challenges students to show emotions in different ways. 

Action

Whole Class > “I am a…”

  • Invite students to stand in a circle. Explain to the class that in this game, there are three players per round, entering the circle one at a time.
  • Player 1 enters the circle/mimes/offers:  “I am a… (e.g. tree)”
  • Player 2 makes a connection and adds: “I am a… (e.g. bird)”
  • Player 3 adds: “I am a… (e.g. worm)
  • Player 1 responds: “I’m going to keep… (States Player 2’s or Player 3’s idea, not their name) e.g., the bird.”
  • The player who was chosen to stay repeats their idea (e.g. Player 2 says: “I am a bird,”) and a new sequence is created.

Teacher Prompt: What connections can you make to what the first player offered? Who else is in this story? What do we see near______ (the first object)? Who uses _____(these objects)? How can we use our bodies to show________(the objects).

Whole Class > Environment Build

Invite the class to stand in a circle. Ask the class for a suggestion of an environment to create collaboratively (e.g., a movie theatre). Player 1 enters the centre of the circle and announces what part of the environment they are embodying, e.g., “I am the… popcorn machine” as they mime that object/character (no other words are necessary). One at a time, students add their ideas e.g., “I’m the screen.”, “I’m the sticky floor!” (until the environment feels complete or all students have contributed).

Consolidation

Whole Class > Discussion Questions

Explain to students that when we listen to others’ offers, we make connections and get new ideas of our own. We created fun and exciting stories by choosing ideas that connected to the ideas we just heard.  

Teacher prompts:

  • Was there an idea that surprised you?
  • Did you surprise yourself with an idea you had?
  • How did we use our voice and/or our bodies to show these different objects and environments?
  • When we used specific words, we could really visualize the environment. Was there an idea that you heard that helped you make a picture in your mind?

Extension: Encourage students to use specific elements of dance vocabulary to describe how they used their bodies.

Additional Resources

Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction: Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan

Differentiation
  • To start, students will be expected to contribute a simple idea, e.g. “I am the __(noun)__”
  • Students can choose a single word, few words, or a phrase depending on their ease of language
Accommodations
  • If a student is having difficulty generating idea, they can ask the teacher/a classmate and collaboratively the group can support them
  • Students can always “pass” – if this is a trend, a teacher-led check-in would be beneficial to ensure that a student is participating when possible
Assessment as Learning

Using PDF #3 Exit Card, students complete a self-assessment