Tiny Tales

Activity

Ongoing engagement

Laura Gibbs

Encourage short, focused storytelling, easy to share with others, writing stories in 100 words (or fewer), or 6 words or 2 sentences, etc.

Tech needed: Shared online space

Synchronous, Asynchronous

Accessibility: Text-based

Duration: Variable

Student preparation: None

Educator preparation: Minimal

ACTIVITY PURPOSE

Encourage short, focused storytelling, easy to share with others, writing stories in 100 words (or fewer), or 6 words or 2 sentences, etc.

USEFUL FOR

Improving writing skills and encouraging creative expression and confidence; the brevity makes it easier for students to read each others’ stories.
It will also help students focus their message and understand the value of quality over quantity.
It will help students in future endeavours that have word count limits. It will also reduce the amount of reading professors need to do!

PREPARATION

Prepare a prompt for students to write their stories for.
Explain the value of word limits and learning to work with exact word limits.
Make sure students know how to use MS Word or Google docs word counter, or use a word counter extension in the browser (or learning how to use Control-Shift-C to count words in highlighted text if using GoogleDoc, etc.).

INSTRUCTIONS

Invite students to write two pieces of microfiction: one should be exactly 100 words (a “drabble”), and the other can be another 100-word story or a shorter form such as 50 words, 25 words, 6 words, a story in 140 or 280 characters, or a two-sentence story. The two stories can explore the same idea in different formats or present entirely different themes. Students can draw inspiration from course materials, personal experiences, or original ideas. Encourage them to include a title, an author’s note to explain their thinking, and an image with credit. A word or character count tool is recommended.

View sample teaching materials developed by Laura Gibbs about producing 100-word stories below:

DURATION

Variable, but the idea is that shorter writing takes less time to write, to revise, to read, to comment on, etc. – more time/space for more stories.

ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES

Laura’s students share their stories in their blogs, but they can also be shared in a Google Doc, Padlet, etc. (example from Jessica Knott: Uplift and Shine in Exactly 55).
As you can see from the demo video, Laura uses 100-word stories; Jessica uses 55-word. These are things to be written asynchronously and shared with others. You can also do individual 6-word or 10-word (or random length by picking from a deck of cards) stories. Or you can do group storytelling where everyone’s contribution to the story is a certain length and build on each other live or in a Google Doc. The shorter stories can be done synchronously or asynchronously.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

Writing space: Google Docs is a great writing environment for sharing and feedback, especially with the handy word counter built in that lets you highlight a chunk of text and get a word count for just that amount. Most word processors do the same.
Sharing space: can also be Google Docs or something else like Padlet, etc., and if you want to publish it can be on a Google site, blog, Pressbooks, etc.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Tiny Tales of Fall 2020 from Laura Gibbs and her students.
A Tiny Tales Teaching Guide based on the idea of taking existing stories and re-telling them in new ways
Tiny Tales Series by Laura Gibbs.

Tiny Tales

Laura Gibbs

ACTIVITY PURPOSE

USEFUL FOR

PREPARATION

INSTRUCTIONS

DURATION

ADAPTATIONS AND EXAMPLES

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

USEFUL RESOURCES

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