The Story-Telling Roller Coaster

I just posted this on Ben Slavic's blog, in response to his post about Uninterrupted Flow:

I’ve been making a big deal about uninterrupted flow lately. I teach elementary school Spanish, and interruptions are usually the name of the game. But I’ve been talking to my students about momentum and how much more fun it is when we let the story momentum build and carry everyone along with it. This week one student likened it to a roller coaster, and that image has been working great: when we’re just learning the new structures and circling on them until we’ve got ‘em down, it’s kind of like going up that first big vertical climb on the roller coaster. Once we get to the top (having mastered the key structures), it’s “Wheee!” as the story takes off and pulls us along for a riotous joyride. But if we keep stopping for interruptions during the initial uphill portion, the roller coaster slides back down and we have to start again. They seem to get that. It’s helped me gain some allies who now remind their classmates, “Come on, guys! We’ve got to get to the top!”