Begin to paraphrase and retell the story from the experience of different characters from within the passage. Use the first-person "I saw, I felt"...

 

Explore various reactions within the experience. Try seeing through the lens of each character in passage. 

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Tell the story (Paraphrase)

By now you will have a rudimentary memory of the event EXPERIENCE  implanted by the first two steps, Exegesis (study), and Experience. Now the student has the opportunity to own this experience as their own memory. This step should be a vibrant retelling of what the student has seen with all the rich variety of real personal experience. Initially, when we share a recent event, it is a bit messy and disorganized. Only when a story is told over and over again does it get polished in the telling and the storyteller is able to see what the most impactful part of the story is for them and for the hearers. The messiness should be embraced at this stage. The paraphrase should be filled with joy, imagination, and meaning. It must get them really talking. It could be a rather messy expression of a recently acquired experience than an executive summary of the main points of the story.

 

 

Option 1: Walk Through for long passages (requires two or more)

 

NOTE: This is most beneficial for longer passages that have various locations. 

To refresh the memory of the experience before the participant tells their paraphrase by staging a walk-through of the text with the other participants. One should select participants to play different roles and they should be able to speak or act out what the various characters do in the text using their paraphrase. This is only a rough blocking out of the sequence of the story, to get a visual take in aiding the visual memory we are creating. Do not turn the event into a skit. Have fun, but we want to (quietly) discourage theater.

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Option 2: Loose Paraphrase

The participants should get into twos. Unaided, they share their paraphrase with another person. They can put all the details in that they can remember but also make it a fun, enjoyable experience. After they do it, ask them to note what was left out. The memory will only retain what is important enough, what makes sense in the sequence. Obviously, the forgotten parts need to be incorporated better and to be given more meaning for the memory to hold onto. 

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Option 3 Literal Paraphrase:

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Again the participants should be in twos. Unaided, they share their paraphrase with another person. However, now they should make it as close to the text as they can. It is still their own words and reality but it is matching the brevity of the original. This is something that they have experienced. 

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Further Options Mixing It Up: 

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Do the whole paraphrase in different ways to see how the meaning changes when you share it with a different goal in mind. 

Get the participants to share the paraphrase:
• in a foreign accent 

• as if they are doing it to children 3, 6, 12, 15 years of age 

• as if they are trying to convince an atheist or a person of another religion that this story happened 

• as if they are trying to be understood by people whose English is not very good 

• as if they are speaking to a crowd of 5,000 with no microphone 

• as if they are sitting around a kitchen table with 3 people.