Working in pairs consisting of a listener and a speaker, have each set of students imagine that they are standing outside of the speaker's front door. Have the speaker verbally give the attentive listener an imaginary errand to do. The speaker must carefully explain to his or her partner how to go into the house, travel to the bedroom, and, once there, describe where to find a special treasure somewhere in the room. Have the speaker tell the partner a story about why the thing to be retrieved is special and then have speaker verbally explain how to travel back to the front door to bring the special thing out to where the speaker will be waiting.
This improvisational speech exercise encourages confidence in one's ability to describe a sequence of events. The journey from one's own front door to one's bedroom is well known by the speaker. The speaker may discover in discussing this exercise afterwards, that he or she imagined the house clearly and "saw" more detail than was mentioned. Telling a folktale has a similar process. The teller imagines the landscape of the tale and guides the listeners on a mental journey.
