‘Story Mountain’ stories about Victorian children at work
Theme of the session: re-telling stories in my own words; creating an extended story using a model structure
Warm-up
Circle-time storytelling – ‘pass the story’. Participants stand in a circle and each person contributes one word of a story, going round the circle – making it up as they go along. This can also be a lead-in to paired writing exercises where pupils take turns to write a sentence or line of a poem or story.
Researching a story – taking notes
Notes are taken from reading a text stuck on the wall of the classroom. To adapt this exercise you could take notes by describing a place, or a part of the room, or by listening to a recording or watching a film.
This note taking exercise is done in groups.
Each group is given a text to find and asked to take a few one-word notes to remind themselves later. They can take notes onto the back of the index cards they will use for their stories. They are not given the source texts on their tables – this means that they have to rely on their notes when they devise their stories.
Devising a story – mime
Following the story mountain model, each group is first asked to devise a mime depicting an incident in the life of the child they are researching. For example, a chimney sweep. They use their notes as reminders for content and details, and use their imaginations to create a full story. The mimes are narrated by one child while the others act out the story. These can be performed to the whole class when they’re ready.
The reason for this exercise before writing the stories is to get children used to expanding their notes into a full narrative before being confronted with an unwritten story.
The story mountain
Story ‘a day in my life’ by a working child
First, draw a mountain with one main peak and several smaller ones on the board.
The story mountain builds up to its peak with a series of sentences describing context and events. The first and last phrases are given to ‘top and tail’ the story. Connectives are used to expand details. Model first draft (phrases underlined are given as frame):
1. This morning, I got up very early and went to the factory.
2. When I arrived it was very noisy and dirty because of all the machines.
3. I began to tie threads together where they had broken.
4. I tied threads together all day until my eyes hurt and my fingers were bleeding.
5. And that’s why I’m so exhausted.
Extension: second draft
The first draft can be extended by working with a thesaurus and/or dictionary and by adding extra detail. You can also take out the numbers and make it one continuous piece of prose:
Draft 2:
1. This morning, I got up very early and went to a big factory called a cotton mill.
2. When I arrived it was very noisy and polluted because of all the machines.
3. I began to tie threads together where they had broken, reaching in between the machines as they clattered up and down.
4. I tied threads together all day until my eyes hurt and my fingers were bleeding from the rough cotton and the fast-moving machines.
5. And that’s why I’m so exhausted.
Final story:
This morning, I got up very early and went to the big factory called a cotton mill. When I arrived it was very noisy and polluted because of all the machines. I began to tie threads together where they had broken, reaching in between the machines as they clattered up and down. I tied threads together all day until my eyes hurt and my fingers were bleeding from the rough cotton and the fast-moving machines. And that’s why I’m so exhausted.
