Angela's Speech Contest - Preparing Her Stories to Tell
Last March 2021, I was informed by my former student Lucy that her daughter Angela was invited to participate in a Speech Competition. In this competition, Angela has to tell a story. This story must contain four (4) keywords given by the committee. However, the committee gave them two sets of keywords that will be used in the contest. They were not told which of these 2 sets Angela will be asked to use. So I told her to prepare two stories. I checked the ones she wrote and made her memorize both. We practiced several times during class hours. Aside from this, she will be asked questions, too.
This April, Lucy shared that Angela was chosen to advance to the next round. She will compete with other students in their city. This time, she was given ten (10) sets of words. She told me that she can't memorize ten stories so we decided to put 3-4 groups of words together in one story. Her mom sent me the words and we chose which words can possibly be used in one story. Here are the groups:
STORY GROUP OF WORDS 01: pig, wolf, happy, house, camping, bear, fish, garden, water, wonderful, seaside, eye book foolish tell.
STORY GROUP OF WORDS 02: busy tomorrow weekend swim, artist draw backyard beautiful, building, pond terrific, park.
STORY GROUP OF WORDS 03: energy bike wash noisy, sweater frozen blow, put shirt smelly wind.
STORY DETAILS 01:STORY DETAILS 02:
STORY DETAILS 03:
Fifty minutes is definitely not enough for her to finish three outlines. I wanted her to think of the content of her story. It will be easier for her to memorize if she came up with it herself. But we had already exceeded our class time so I told her I will have to add the other words for story number 03 myself while writing the draft. After our class, since one of my students was absent, I started working on the first group of words guided by Angela's story outline.
A family is going on a camping trip. They pass by a beautiful garden of colorful flowers owned by a foolish man. After some time, they find a good camping site with only a few campers around. Little do they know there are wild animals such as bears, pigs and even wolves lurking in the dark.
They set up their tents. It is almost sunset when they hear a sudden movement and see a wolf staring from afar. They scramble away quickly as it chased after them. The wolf wants to eat them, and they have no place to hide! They run toward the seaside and jump into the sea. Under the clear water, they see a lot of fish, but the wolf is nowhere in sight. They were so happy and relieved.
“Dear, wake up! It’s dinner time.” The little girl opens her eyes and finds herself in her house, holding her favorite book. She tells her mom about her wonderful and exciting dream.
This story has a total of 165 words which Angela can definitely recite in one minute or even less since she talks really fast. Today, I finished the next two groups of words. I had to change or add some details to fit the story.
STORY 02
I was invited to be a contestant at an Art competition called ‘I am a Little Artist’. I was busy preparing for it this weekend. It’s an important competition for me so I wanted to give my best. I decided to practice and draw. I pictured a scene in my mind. It’s a beautiful town, the town where my family lives. I held my pencil and started. First, I drew some buildings. Next, I sketched a pond and a man walking towards it for a swim. Then, I drew a house with a big backyard. I put in a park at the center and added some people here and there enjoying their time with their family and friends. Finally, I colored the picture, shading each part carefully. When I was done, I held it up and smiled. It was terrific! I am sure it would be a perfect piece for the competition tomorrow.
STORY 03
My mom and I walk to the entrance of shopping mall. I look at the leaves dancing as the wind blows. Children’s day is fast approaching. We are going to buy some presents for my classmates. We proceed to the children’s clothing section and see rows of shirts and sweaters. My mom puts a pair of trousers for Jack and a skirt for Jenny in the basket to pay for them. We passed by some shops that sell cool bikes.
“What do you want for dinner?” I hear my mom ask bringing my attention back to her. I tell her loudly what I want over the noisy chatter around us. We go to the frozen food section and see a number of freezers containing ice cream and frozen goods. My mom opens one. I feel the cool and weird smelly air come out of it. She takes out a bag of dumplings.
After half a day of walking, I feel my energy become depleted. I sit beside my dad while my mom cooks. “It’s dinner time!” I wash my hands and prepare to dig in.
I didn't think of the titles for her stories yet. I want her to give these stories a title herself. On Thursday, I am expecting her to have already memorized at least two out of the three. She needs to practice telling the stories in one minute. It won't be that hard for the two stories since both contain 170 words and below. But the last one exceeds 180 so we'll have to see if she can fit it in one minute or I'll have to rewrite and lessen the number of words.
