Rule Light - Prepared - Spontaneous

Have students watch a silent clip and then make a dialogue to go with it. My current favourite is a an animated show called "Primal" about a caveman and his dinosaur buddy where each episode is under half an hour. I assign groups to write dialogue for five or six minute stretches of the movie, then they must narrate the show in their own words and/or add dialogue, perhaps even voices or accents.

This would fit in the rule light and prepared category as they do have to think up dialogue beforehand and then create words to fit the length of the scene. If we are adding spontaneous words and reactions (which can be a blast) I'd move this to the rule light/spontaneous category. This gets students thinking and reacting naturally.

Picture storyboard + targeted vocabulary.

Spontaneous / Rule light

Students are given a cut up series of images such as a an out of order storyboard that they must put into order and creative a cohesive narrative using targeted vocabulary. At the moment, I am using a classic short story called "The Ghost of the Lagoon," so there is a picture of a shark, blood, dog, throne, skull, boat, coconut, grass skirts, etc. Students are encouraged to use their imagination and be creative, with the only success criteria being that they include the pre-taught vocabulary in their storytelling. This works well with comparative work, as we end up having a half dozen "alternative" stories (often better than the original) and students are able to compare their creation what the text actually is. Stories are recorded, and perhaps acted out in front of class for further speech work.