Cross-Curriculum Applications of Storytelling

story follow-up activities at different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

  1. KNOWLEDGE Review story material in preparation for higher level activities.
    • Review the whole assembly program: what stories did we hear?
    • Recall specific facts (memory game): Who said __? When did __? Where was__?
    • Recall events in the story and make a simple list of scenes.
    • Re-visualize story scenes, focussing on colors, views, and textures.
    • Draw a favorite scene from the story.
     
  2. COMPREHENSION Reinforce "basic thinking skills".
    • Name characters in their order of appearance.
    • Discuss motivation: Why did __ do __?
    • Brainstorm adjectives to describe characters, setting, actions, reactions.
    • Explain a scene [How did __ escape, etc] in words or pictures.
    • Arrange pictures of the story scenes into proper sequence.
    • Retell this story in your own words (orally or written).
     
  3. APPLICATION Use story information in different ways or settings.
    • Make a map, showing the whole story sequence in a single diagram.
    • Act in character like the animals or people in the story.
    • Look up information about each kind of animal, its appearance and behavior. What animals are closely related to it? Make a chart.
    • Re-enact this story as an impromptu skit (group); or use stick or finger puppets (individual).
    • Retell this story outside of school, for instance to restless siblings on a car trip or to friends at a slumber party.
    • Retell the story by writing a letter about it to someone who was not here today: Grandma, imaginary foreign pen pal… [This is more fun than writing dry Thank you notes to the storyteller, and inspires more fluency!]
     
  4. ANALYSIS Clarify elements, relationships, organizational principals within the story.
    • Plot structure: What was the first Problem in the story? Did its Solution create a second Problem, and so on? [Many stories have this structure.]
    • Graph the story's action (x = elapsed time, y = excitement/interest) showing episodes, resolutions.
    • Compare: What did the characters have in common? What were their differences?
    • What is each character’s role in the story [hero, villain, helper, etc]?
    • Compare/contrast the heroes [or villains] from two different stories.
    • Compare/contrast this story’s plot with other tales.
     
  5. SYNTHESIS Produce something new from story material plus fresh material.
    • Problem solving: suggest alternate solutions to the story’s main problem.
    • Sequel: Tell the further adventures of these characters together.
    • Compose a ballad which tells the story to music.
    • Variation: Retell the story using different but related characters/animals researched above (3), which live in a different setting or time.
    • Variation: Retell the story from the viewpoint of the villain.
    • Genre: Write/tell/illustrate a new story of this type.
     
  6. EVALUATION Use evidence or criteria to judge the new product.
    • Evaluate the alternate solutions for the problem, suggested above (5), according to criteria such as speed, danger, expense, difficulty, etc.
    • Debate: If the story involved a dispute between characters, divide the class; each side invents arguments in their character’s favor and challenges the other side’s arguments. What criteria should determine the “winner”?
    • Discuss: Which character was most important in the story? Why (criteria)?
    • Discuss: What makes this story funny? Cite actions, dialog, misunderstandings.