An Activity from the FLE Materials Adaptation & Development Class

by Zeynep Eda Alpsoy, Ahmet Güzel, FLE Senior Students/ October, 2015                                                                     

Chain Story for High Level Students

This activity is aimed for the learners who are at the intermediate level and above. The students will be creating a chain story by using some words and also by obeying the rules of the game. First, every student writes two words. Whether they are nouns or verbs does not matter. After every student writes the words, they fold their paper and put into a pocket. After the teacher mixes the words, every student picks two words. Before the students start telling the story, the teacher starts a story on which the students can build their stories. Later on, the first student looks at his/her words and rolls the dice the teacher provides at the beginning. Each number on the dice symbolizes a certain rule. For example:

1: Use one if clause sentence in your story

2: Use one reported speech in your story

3: Use one relative or noun clause in your story

4:  Use 1 comparative or superlative sentence in your story

5: Use one passive sentence in your story

6: Use 2 of the words you have in one sentence

After the first student continues the story by using 2 of the words and obeying the rule of the dice, he/she chooses a number from another pocket to determine who will continue the story next. (Every student is given a number at the beginning). The story continues like that, the teacher takes his/her notes to follow how the story goes and to remind the students at the end what they have been talking about.

Although we liked this activity very much at the beginning, we realized that having so many procedures in one single activity is a bit too complicated and it hinders the speed and flow of the class. However, it is quite entertaining and beneficial once the students understand how the procedure works.

In order to lessen this complicatedness,

-The teacher can write the words before the class and these words can be structured around a certain theme

-Instead of drawing lottery to determine the next person to speak, the teacher can determine the next person, so the procedure gets simplified.

-The number of words can be reduced to one.