The completed activity lets learners reorder five original event IDs, inspect three story branches, and check whether a proposed ending has support in the supplied events. The base story supplies a key. The staff-unavailable branch supplies only another request, so hallway approval remains missing. The check addresses those fixed facts; the teacher reviews the retelling.
Give the character a goal and an obstacle
ReadWriteThink's Story Map description organizes work around character, setting, conflict, and resolution. Use those concepts for an original event-card activity without reproducing its organizer or claiming to have run its interactive tool. ReadWriteThink: Story Map
Give learners these five base cards:
| ID | Original fictional event | Role in the starting story |
|---|---|---|
| T1 | Lin wants to deliver the club poster before the meeting. | Character goal |
| T2 | The club room is locked. | Conflict |
| T3 | Lin reads a sign: “Staff desk holds spare key.” | Clue |
| T4 | Lin asks a staff member for help. | Attempt |
| T5 | The staff member provides the key. | Supplied result |
Offer Ending A: “Lin opens the club room and hangs the poster.” It is supported by the supplied key sequence. Keep the learner's order, retelling, and support explanation blank; retain this example reasoning in a separate teacher key.
No card proves that a real room has a spare key or that a real staff member would provide it. The fictional setup supplies those facts for this story only.
Ask what enables the ending
A straightforward sequence is T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, then Ending A. The learner should be able to explain that the locked room blocks the goal, the sign suggests a route to help, the request leads to receiving the key, and the key enables opening the room.
Ask students which event supports each part of the ending:
| Ending claim | Supplied support | Question for the retelling |
|---|---|---|
| Lin can seek help for the lock | T3 sign; T4 request | What clue guided the attempt? |
| Lin has the key | T5 | What happened after asking? |
| Lin opens the room | T2 obstacle plus T5 key result | What changed so entry became possible? |
Keep card IDs visible after rearranging. A learner may introduce the locked room before explaining Lin's goal, or retell a later scene with a clear reference to earlier events. Different presentation orders can work if the causal sequence remains understandable.
The key is a supported example, not proof that one universal narrative order exists. Teacher review should distinguish a purposeful flashback from an unexplained missing cause. Do not automatically mark every order other than T1–T5 wrong.
Try a separate staff-unavailable ending
For an alternate branch, use a revised attempt T4B: “Lin tries to find a staff member,” followed by T5B: “The staff member is unavailable.” These explicitly added variant cards replace T4 and T5; the branch no longer supplies the key. Do not keep T5's successful result active in the same branch unless the story explicitly introduces a later event explaining it.
A proposed continuation is T6: “Lin asks the organizer about an approved hallway display.” This is a new attempt, not approval or a posted outcome. The branch needs an additional supplied approval event before its ending can say that Lin posted the poster there.
| Alternate branch state | What the story supports |
|---|---|
| T5B staff unavailable | The original key route has not succeeded |
| New T6 organizer request | Lin sought an alternative |
| Approval card absent | Approval and hallway posting are not established |
| New approval card explicitly supplied | A matching hallway-posting ending can be developed |
Learners can author a new fictional approval card as a creative extension, but must label it a new addition to the story. They cannot claim that the original base packet already contained it. Leave the actual learner-authored card and retelling blank until supplied.
This distinction helps the story keep its own rules. “Lin asked” and “the organizer agreed” are different events, even in fiction. The game asks the learner to make that bridge visible rather than hide it inside the ending.
Revise a branch together
Use the card-ID field and Move earlier or Move later buttons to change presentation order. Every move announces the updated positions. The check does not reject a flashback simply because its order differs from the sample. Select the closed-desk branch to replace the spare-key clue with T3C and discuss which causal bridge needs new wording. Branch changes clear the old ending and feedback. Reset restores the base sequence. Keep newly invented events separate from supplied facts in the learner's retelling.
Copy a prompt for this example
Make an original storytelling event-card workshop. Base T1 Lin wants to deliver the club poster before the meeting; T2 club room locked; T3 sign says Staff desk holds spare key; T4 Lin asks staff for help; T5 staff provides the key. Ending room-opening/poster-hanging is supported by T5. Allow labeled card-ID selection and move-earlier/later controls with announced positions; do not grade one mandatory narrative order. Alternate branch replaces T4/T5 with T4B seeking staff and T5B staff unavailable, then T6 asking organizer about an approved hallway display. That request is not approval: hallway posting remains unsupported without a new supplied approval event. A separate closed-desk variant replaces T3 with T3C Staff desk closed and removes the old sign. Include ending input, blank retelling/reason, fixed support checks, separate teacher example, and reset. Branch changes clear stale ending/feedback. Teacher reviews creative ordering and causal explanations, with no automatic semantic grading.
Return one complete HTML file. Make the active event sequence and Move earlier/Move later controls easy to scan, with the ending explanation beneath them. Stack the worksheet on a phone and use readable type, visible field labels and keyboard focus. Keep the teacher example separate from the learner retelling.
For a group retelling, NOS can display this prepared HTML card sequence. Move one event, ask the next speaker to explain its role, and keep the missing approval visible until a learner explicitly authors a new fictional event for teacher review.