Talking to Anne about testing stories... (Email to Mommy)

So, today went really well. I went by myself and had a great time with Anne. We discussed the Fall story and talked about testing (telling) the stories with other people, her friends and family. She seemed to be excited about it and even thought of one or two questions on her own. I’m going to work this afternoon on getting some questions ready- that are specific to the story. Then I can do testing without Anne too (using her recording of the story), with our neighbors and Aunty and Uncle for example…even Gaitree, and Anju. Of course, it’s better with the actual story-teller there. We’ll start with that with Anne, but since she most likely won’t be coming to this side of the mountain, I’ll be able to test the stories on my own over here…It’s so exciting!!!

I told Anne that the best test of a story is after telling it see if the person can re-tell it. She got a funny look on her face when I told her that, but seemed to really understand. I said, probably they’ll be able to remember some…probably not all…but those parts they can’t remember, we will need to try and find out why they couldn’t or didn’t remember them…."Are they not important? Were they too hard to remember? Was it not clear in the first telling of the story? Do they not understand the words or the transition?"

I told her that I’m really excited for her to see if people can remember, or not remember her stories…and then be able to work on them to make them better- I think she is really excited too. And when I mentioned to her about telling the stories to her family (on her own) and asking them questions and reporting back to me how it went, she seemed fine with that idea. I told her we would do it together tomorrow and then tomorrow night, she could do it with her family. She seemed so excited about it. I wonder if she’ll go ahead and tell her family tonight! Nah…probably not. But still…my excitement might have rubbed off on her, because I was really excited sharing with her!!

As I was coming home, I saw Precious and the other neighbors- they gave me a hard time for not visiting them in the past few days. I said I would go tonight. I hope Precious can help me with some of the questions for testing. We’ll see…

Love ya!

~ Elizabeth