This is a fun activity to review a scene in a book or a portion of a story it is called Build Me A Scene and is an improv exercise. We are reading the novel Esperanza as a class and I told the students that I was the narrator of the book and had just arrived to the bus station in Guatemala City and they needed to recreate what I was seeing as I walked into the bus station. They needed to collaborate with each other to make sure that they represent the most important elements of the scene. You can certainly choose to do this in small groups or as a class. I chose to do it as a whole class activity.
I choose whole class or small group depending upon my goal for the activity, how much time I want to spend and how in depth I want to go. It is successful and well received both ways.
Students needed to give me a thorough picture and each student needed to tell me who or what they were and an additional piece of information having to do with why they are in the scene. I am pretty strict about them staying in the target language. This is a re-tell and we have thoroughly discussed the story or chapter, vocabulary has been front-loaded and reviewed extensively throughout and in many cases posted on the board. They are not allowed to be someone or something that they cannot identify and give a detail about in the target language.
This is just a great opportunity for fun, movement and interaction with a story or text.
I choose whole class or small group depending upon my goal for the activity, how much time I want to spend and how in depth I want to go. It is successful and well received both ways.
Students needed to give me a thorough picture and each student needed to tell me who or what they were and an additional piece of information having to do with why they are in the scene. I am pretty strict about them staying in the target language. This is a re-tell and we have thoroughly discussed the story or chapter, vocabulary has been front-loaded and reviewed extensively throughout and in many cases posted on the board. They are not allowed to be someone or something that they cannot identify and give a detail about in the target language.
This is just a great opportunity for fun, movement and interaction with a story or text.