Story Wedges
~ Lori Jackson

I read Hattie and The Fox to the group and then distributed to groups of 6 or 7, six wedges from a huge circle. They were asked to number them from 1 to 6 and work together to create an illustrated retelling. The wonderful thing about being in my own room is that all my art supplies are handy. It was fun, they were so inhibited at first at the idea of drawing but then really got into it. As the students then negotiated how they would retell the story, there was thirty minutes of discussion, retelling, revision of retells as someone brought out an idea that had been left out. Then the wedges were assembled into the circle and the group did a retelling. They were so in to it by now, the retellings were animated and hilarious. We then spent a bit of time talking about how this idea could be used in different ways and with more complex reading. This was not originally my idea.