Ojectives
To practise techniques for
telling interesting stories in English.
Specific linguistic objectives
according to the level of the group.
Duration
50 minutes in the classroom, plus
homework.
Activity
15 minutes - The students are
each given a piece of paper divided into six sections. The teacher asks a
question such as ‘where were you?’ and all of the students individually write
their answers in the first section on their paper before folding it over so
that it is hidden. The papers are all passed on to another student who writes
in the second section the answer to the teacher’s second question and folds it
over again. This process is repeated until all of the sections are completed,
with the questions designed to guide the students through the plot of a story.
15 minutes - The students form
groups of about five or six and each reads their story aloud to the group, with
the teacher then asking for a couple of volunteers to read theirs to the whole
class.
5 minutes – The teacher asks the
students to discuss what makes a story exciting before brainstorming all of the
ideas as a class, with the teacher guiding the discussion to ensure a range of
ideas.
15 minutes – In their groups the
students work to give a title to each of their stories, and if they have more
time they choose one student’s story and discuss what specific improvements
that would make.
Homework – The students rewrite their
stories at home, incorporating a range of tenses and vocabulary and other
techniques to grab the attention of the reader (structure of a story, direct
speech etc.).
Adjustments
To adjust the task for different
ages of students, the teacher could change the questions asked to encourage the
use of different verb tenses such as the simple past (‘what did you do?’), the
past continuous (‘what were you doing?’), or the past perfect (‘what had
happened before?’). If there are different levels within the same class, the
adjustment for their level would come at the point of rewriting with the
teacher having different expectations for different students regarding the
range of tenses and vocabulary used. Guided by the teacher, they could also
choose the original text of this lower-level student to discuss as a group so
that they have more scaffolding to produce their own work at home.
In order to plan this activity you would need to indicate the questions asked, not just "Where were you?". They will indeed determine the kind of story they write. Also, when I talk about writing activities I tend to emphasise the idea of more extensive writing, not just short sentences. This can be a very good starting point6, as with that "skeleton story" each group, or else individually at home, can develop a fuller story adding details. For example, if the answer to the question you give is "I was at home", they could develop it into "I was alone at home doing my home work for maths".
ResponderEliminar