Mapping a Story
to Make it Your Own
A story map is a diagram, a transcription of key moments of the story in space.
👦🏻 Target age: 8 years and up
⏰ Duration: 10 to 30 minutes
🎯Educational Objectives
👉 Use your visual memory:
Memorize the story by focusing on the key steps
Encourage internalization of the narrative
👉 Enable improvisation:
Use your own words to tell the story
👉 Develop the following skills:
• Schematic representation
• Planning
• Organizing
• Linking cause and effect
• Cooperating
⚠️ Note: No rote memorization!
Rote memorization can lead to a mental block if one word is forgotten. In contrast, with a story, what needs to be memorized is not the words, but the logical sequence of key story moments and the relevant motifs without which the narrative loses all meaning. Once this "image path" is memorized, the words come naturally and can be adapted.
💡 In the past, some illiterate storytellers could tell stories for several nights, memorizing epics of over 500,000 verses orally! They relied on auditory memory (rhythm, repetition, melody) and visual memory through narrative diagrams.
Some storytellers imagine following their character over the shoulder. A mental map of possible story events is then created in their mind.
🟢 Activity 1. Build a Collective Map
⏰ Duration: 20 min
To memorize, draw these key moments to practice mentally visualizing the story steps.
1) The facilitator tells the story
Summary: Half-Chicken leaves home to reclaim the hundred crowns the king borrowed from him. On the way, he meets a fox, a wolf, and a river, and brings them along. Each of these new friends will help him convince the king to repay the hundred crowns.
2) Identify collectively the key moments of the story
Ask the children: "What happens first? And then?" Gradually build the collective story map on the board.
Once this first map model is completed, ask students to draw their own map.
3) Children draw the story steps
⏰ Duration: 5 to 10 min
• Encourage children to make very simple drawings so the steps are easily identified; this document is for them only. Drawing the story map is not an art project! A few simple lines are enough.
Drawing minimizes writing.
Children can create their own code:
• Geometric shapes (e.g., a black triangle for a wolf)
• Use of colored stickers
🟢 Activity 2. Mix the Steps
⏰ Duration: 10 min
• From the collective map, ask students to each draw a story step on a sheet of paper or cardboard.
• Mix the cards and ask them to put them in the correct order. This will help them memorize the sequence of key story moments.
🟢 Activity 3. Link Emotions to Key Story Moments
⏰ Duration: 20 min
Some storytellers like to associate key moments with emotions to feel more comfortable telling the story.
- Associate an emotion with each key story moment. Note it on each card.
- Optionally use a color code for emotions (laughter / sadness / violence / mystery / daydream / happiness…)
🟢 Activity 4. Tell the Story!
⏰ Duration: 30 min
Once the steps are well memorized, encourage children to tell the story to the group. Gradually, they make the story their own.
🟢 Activity 5. At Home
Strengthen the link between school and home: students take their map home to tell the story. Families can then share their listening experience through a questionnaire or recording.
🟢 Other Activities…
• Ask students to draw a story map. Exchange the maps and have them tell the story drawn by a classmate.
• For a simpler version, ask them to guess which known story matches a given diagram.
• Another idea: play "Chinese whispers" (telephone) with stories, adding a diagram between two oral narrations to see how the story evolves.