Lesson Five: The students were enthusiastic about the story “The Tailor” and the story maps that they had created.
I decided that it was time to give them the opportunity to re-tell the story. Before that however, we used a strategy called “telling the wall” to practice individual storytelling. With much direction and a bit of humour, we positioned ourselves facing the wall. To begin with, the student’s task was to say three things about themselves in a quiet, loud and scary voice. Some students found this to be awkward and needed some encouragement to stay focussed. Others enjoyed the challenge of hearing themselves speak – many said that their voices bounced back at them when they spoke. One student said that it was most fun to use his scary voice to speak:
“Telling the wall” was a creative and non-threatening way to practicing speaking. The wall acted like a neutral listener and surprisingly projected the students voices back to them. This strategy will definitely needed revisiting until the students feel comfortable standing and talking to the wall.
Scaffolding used: “telling the wall” strategy