Blog Post Title Two

Imaginary environment

This exercise helps students see pictures in their minds as they read.

Read any story or section of a story. Then ask the class to imagine that they are standing in the middle of that scene and to describe in great detail what they see in their imagination in every direction. Ask the group or bring up one or two students at a time to help you create the imaginary environment. Completely describe one direction at a time until you have done all four directions, plus above and below. Draw out more and more details through questions: "What is over here next to the tree? Describe the building to me. Are the windows clean or dirty? Can you see anything through them? What can you see? What else?. . . "

Any choice is fine as long as students can justify the choice within the context of the given circumstances of the story, historical period, etc. If some student wants a dinosaur or rocket ship in every scene, explain that theatre is a group art form and some individual choices, no matter how cool, have to be overridden in favor of what will help the group accomplish their task. You can always create a prehistoric or moonscape environment another day!

After you have a detailed imaginary environment created, ask the class to move around in the environment and let themselves really see what is there. Ask them to touch the imaginary items but not to actually touch real thing in the room. (Move your hand right above the floor to feel the pebbles in the road. Don't actually touch the floor tiles.) Ask them to interact with the environment in some way. Either coach them through it in a kind of narrative pantomime: "You try to pick up a stone, but it's heavier than you think. It takes two hands. You have to get your weight under it . . ." Or coach them to individually discover something new in the environment and interact with it."

 Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.