Story Prompts
By Susan Mandel Glazer

I recently watched Phyllis Fantauzzo, a Senior Clinician and a certified School Psychologist at the Center for Reading and Writing, guide Timothy, a child who would never put pencil to paper, to construct a story. Timothy's reluctance to write anything caused Phyllis to use a structured framework to relieve his anxiety and to help him produce text.

"I used to get stuck before Phyllis taught me how to write a story in three lines," said Timothy. "My favorite story I wrote was about a fish. He's the main character. Phyllis said that the main person in the story has to have a problem. Sharks are in the ocean and they like to eat fish. So my fish's problem was that he was going to get eaten. I didn't want that to happen, so I wrote the solution – he escaped!" Here's Timothy's three-line story:

A fish is in the ocean.
(character) (where)
It was going to get eaten by a shark.
(problem)
He escaped from the shark.
(solution to the problem).

Three-line framework
The three-line framework provided a structure that facilitated feelings of control. Tim could take a risk and write because the map permitted him to be in charge. He knew exactly how to proceed. Once he got the gist of the process, he wrote three-line stories whenever there was time. The three-line story map became his trusted companion. How wonderful it was to see this reluctant writer composing short stories independently, one after another, using the three-line story framework.

Interesting stories
This contrived process for writing stories was necessary for Tim, who truly feared the writing process. Once he knew he could produce text, he could be guided to expand, elaborate, justify and produce interesting stories.

Involved discussions about his stories led Tim's teacher to know that he was ready to expand his texts. One informal conversation was quite convincing.

"You know why my fish was in the ocean?" Tim asked his teacher.

"Tell me," responded Phyllis.

"Well, because that's where he lived and he liked to swim and you can't swim on land," he answered.

Tim was justifying his statement and that was Phyllis' cue to prompt Tim to extend his stories. The next time Tim approached Phyllis and asked her if she wanted to hear his story, she seized the teachable moment.

Tim read to her, "A fish was in an ocean. It was going to be eaten by a shark. He escaped from the shark."

"Read it to me again, Tim," requested Phyllis.

Tim began, "A fish was in an ocean..."

Phyllis immediately interjected, "Because?"

Tim looked at Phyllis and hesitantly responded, "A fish was in an ocean because...he liked to swim."

"Write that down, Tim," coaxed Phyllis, tapping her finger on the page in his story journal.

Tim chose to begin on a clean sheet of paper and wrote down his extended text and then read it out loud. "A fish was in an ocean because he liked to swim." I noticed that Tim dragged out the word "because" as Phyllis had done, indicating that he knew this was how to make his story longer.

"And?" coaxed Phyllis.

"It was going to be eaten by a shark," replied Tim.

"It was going to be eaten by a shark, because?"

"Because he was hungry," he said.

"Write that down," Phyllis said. Tim wrote the sentence in his journal and reread his story. This time when he came to the final line he read, without coaxing, "He escaped from the shark BECAUSE he didn't like him at all."

"Write that down," Phyllis directed. At the completion of the conversation, Tim's finished story read as follows.

A fish was in an ocean because he liked to swim.
It was going to be eaten by a shark because he was hungry.
He escaped from the shark because he didn't like him at all.

The child had underlined the word "because" each time it appeared. When asked why he decided to underline the word "because," he responded, "The word because made me make the story long and it told why the fish was in the ocean."

Conversation prompts
Eight year old Diana was also able to expand her three-line story with the prompt "because" and with other prompts as well. Her first draft of a story involving a puppy read as follows.

A puppy was in a classroom.
The puppy wanted to go outside.
She looked up and she saw an open window.

The prompts that were used in conversation to guide Diana in expanding her story are underlined below. Here is her final story:

A puppy was in a classroom because a teacher brought it to school for show and tell. The puppy wanted to go outside but it could not get out of the classroom. She could not think of any way to get out. She looked up. She saw an open window. So, the puppy jumped up and got out!

Diana added justification and then went beyond. The prompts pushed both youngsters to move from producing basic stories to more interesting text.

Recoding ideas into writing
I have found that prompts used in conversations similar to the one included in this column drive kids to write. The students hear their teachers and peers use these words and intuitively say them to themselves as they recode ideas into writing. Be sure to try the prompts in the yellow box above and let me know if they work for you. Good luck!

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Susan Mandel Glazer is the Director of the Center for Reading and Writing at Rider University in Lawrence, NJ.

February, 2004, Vol.34, No.5