Teacher Toolbox Ows

One Sentence Story Description: One Sentence Story is a verbal activity that asks students to actively listen and respond to one another to create a collaborative story. Students apply their knowledge of story structure (beginning, middle, end, problem/solution, etc.) within an ensemble-based improvisational activity.

Directions: Here is a step by step guide to using One Sentence Story: 1. Have the students gather together and sit in a circle. 2. Give directions that the students will create a story together using one sentence at a time, based on a specific topic. Remind them that their story must have a beginning, middle, and end. 3. Choose a topic or story for the students to tell. 4. Either choose to start the story yourself or choose a student to begin the story. Also choose if the circle is going to go clockwise or counter clockwise to the story starter. 5. The students will then create the story sentence by sentence, until an ending is found. 6. If necessary, pause the story to make suggestions for more effective story telling. 7. At the end of the story ask the students to reflect on the experience. Some reflection questions could be: a. How did we do with this activity? b. How might we improve our story if we wanted to tell it again? c. What was the main conflict of our story? Why? How was it resolved? d. Did our story follow proper plot structure?

When to Use This Strategy: The best times to use this strategy would be: 1. At the beginning of the year as an icebreaker exercise.

2. As a warm up activity throughout the year. 3. When introducing story structure in plays. 4. As an improv activity in an Improvisational Acting unit. 5. Before having students write their own original plays.

Variations: Here are some variations of this strategy: 1. One-word story: Students may only use one word at a time. 2. Alphabet Story: Each sentence must start with the next letter in the alphabet A-Z. 3. One Sentence Fairy Tale: Using a fairy tale as a basis, the students will try to retell the fairy tale using one sentence or one word at a time.