Anecdotes & Tall Stories at Centenary High

Spent the day at Centenary High today with Year 10's, Year 8's and Year 11's.

We were working with anecdotes with the 10's and 11's and tall stories with the year 8's.

Anecdotes are a bit challenging for high school students because they are basically personal stories. Still my 'All the People Who ' game comes in handy.

Tall Stories are related of course. Often the start of a tall story is an anecdote. Worked with the year 8s to do the start of a tall story set in Jindalee. Here's the start. They have to finish it off.


Centenary State High School is located in the middle of Jindalee, and is sandwiched between 4 streets; Jarup, Curragundi, Moolanda and Yallambee.  It is built on a hill, which can make travelling around the school tedious and tiring, however it did mean that the area was not subject to flooding during the Brisbane floods of January 2011. 
 




Jindalee State School on the other hand was heavily flooded, particularly one block.  It was decided by the Principals of both Centenary High and Jindalee State School that the year 7s at the state school would be housed at Centenary for the first 8 weeks of the school year while the flooding was dealt with.
 
One morning I saw a small blond girl near the tuckshop.  She was wearing a yellow and blue shirt with a large sun on the left side of her chest that said ‘Jindalee State School’.  She appeared to be nervous. 

I came across to her and said, “Are you okay?”  

She shrugged and said, “I feel a little out of place, but I’m okay”.  She then shuffled off silently and sat on a patch of grass.  

I noticed that she had assumed a cowering position by sitting down and hugging her knees.  Her eyes were darting from left to right and back again, and her lip was quivering.
 
I realised that she seemed anything but okay.  I went over to her again.  I bent down and patted her on the back, and asked her again, “Are you sure you’re okay?” 
 
All of a sudden, the small girl jumped up and screamed in my face, “Don’t touch me!”  She waved her hands around like tree branches in a storm, and, before I knew it, she slammed a meat pie from the tuckshop straight into my face.
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I got an email today with a Year 8 story in it. Mikala has finished the story off. Here it is.