Lights, Camera, Action! Get your students excited to practice inferencing and perspective taking with this creative approach to story retelling. This activity teaches inferencing and perspective taking while engaging students in making a movie. Combining their background knowledge with what they notice from the story helps them follow the breadcrumbs that lead to inferring. But that’s not all! They get abundant practice in oral language as they figure out how to describe what characters are thinking and feeling, and why. Ideal for grades 3 and up. 

The book Gregory, The Terrible Eater is ideal for this activity. It has a clear story arc and multiple differing perspectives, plus it’s a story that makes students giggle. It can be used to increase oral language complexity even if you’re not working on making inferences and perspective taking. 

Here’s what you’ll get:

Instructions 

24 story images - Ready to be cut out and laminated

Thought Bubble Image

2 sets of Scene Cards - 1 ready for use, 1 prepared with a dotted font for tracing

Evaluation Questions - Pre/Post questions to assess client’s progress

Scene progress checklist

How to Use

• When teaching inference and perspective taking, use the thought bubble to help students really nail the concept of different characters having different thoughts. They may want to hold the thought bubble over a character’s head as they describe their thoughts.
• Each scene is named in a way that invites discussion about it. For example, Scene One card reads “Gregory’s Problem.” Before filming, talk through the questions that naturally arise from the title–what was Gregory’s problem? Who thought it was a problem? Why was it a problem? Here’s where the traceable scene cards come in handy. The concept is reinforced as they trace the words. 
• Introduce each scene with a scene card. 
• Rehearse until they can narrate their part accurately, and then film
• Teach students how to describe why characters feel the way they do, and why they make the choices they do. This is where complex oral language really grows!
• You get the most oral and pragmatic language growth when students narrate the movie, as opposed to acting it out. This allows them to explicitly describe those parts of the story that are usually implied and unspoken. 

You’ll love watching your students’ language abilities expand as they navigate story narration.  The motivation to see themselves in a movie keeps them going through the rough spots - because sometimes they will need to redo a scene multiple times to get their narration accurate. Watching the finished movie together is a HUGE reward and confidence booster. 

All you need is to print the packet and laminate the images, preparing them with velcro, felt, or tape to use with a flannel or white board. You will also need a camera to capture the action and maybe some popcorn for a movie party!