Introduction

Storytelling is an essential skill that middle school students should develop for effective communication. One important aspect of storytelling is providing sufficient background information to ensure the listener understands the context. This blog post introduces an engaging, no-prep activity called Background Brief that helps students recognize the importance of providing complete background information in their stories. By participating in this activity, students will learn to include essential details such as who, what, where, and when, making their stories more engaging and coherent.

No-Prep Activity: Background Brief

The Background Brief activity requires no preparation or materials from the educator. The main objective is to help students identify missing background information in a story and understand the impact of incomplete details on the listener’s understanding.

Here’s how the activity works:

1. Divide students into pairs or small groups.
2. Ask each student to think of a short story or recent event from their life. They will then share this story with their partner or group, intentionally leaving out one piece of background information (who, what, where, or when).
3. After a student shares their story, the partner or group members will try to identify the missing background information and discuss how it affected their understanding of the story.
4. Once the missing detail has been identified, the storyteller can provide the missing piece of information and explain why it is crucial for the listener’s comprehension.
5. Students then switch roles and repeat the process.

Discussion Questions

After completing the Background Brief activity, facilitate a group discussion using the following questions:

1. How did it feel when you listened to a story with missing background information? Were you able to fully understand the story?
2. What strategies did you use to identify the missing information? Were some types of missing details more challenging to identify than others?
3. How can providing complete background information help improve our communication with others?
4. Can you think of a situation where it would be especially important to provide all the relevant background information? Why?

Related Skills

In addition to enhancing storytelling skills, Background Brief also supports the development of other essential social-emotional learning skills, such as:

• Active listening
• Empathy
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving

Next Steps

Background Brief is just one example of the many activities available to help students develop essential social-emotional skills. To access more free sample materials and resources, including activities, videos, and lessons, visit Everyday Speech’s Sample Materials page and sign up today. By incorporating these resources into your educational practice, you can support students in building a strong foundation for effective communication and emotional well-being.