How to use stories in the classroom.

Speaker: Yana Gridasova

grade.ua

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Key takeaways:

practical tips for choosing, delivering and using stories for memorable and meaningful language learning.

Why use stories?�

• As more young learner teachers adopt classroom practices that focus on teaching the whole child, stories have become a key resource for providing a natural, engaging context for learning language. But when we read to children we are doing so much more than just teaching them English.

Why use stories?�

• We are encouraging their imagination, exploring other cultures and teaching them about the world.

Why use stories?�

• Listening to and participating in stories also develops a range of linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social and cultural skills. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to make storytelling with your English language learners a regular part of your routine.

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BOOK COLLECTION

• Nowadays, there are so many wonderful children’s stories to choose from; however, not all of them are appropriate to use with language learners.

• What do you pay attention to ?

Before you buy anything, here are some specific characteristics you should look for when selecting a book to use with your young learners:

• Repetitive words and phrases.

• An easy-to-follow sequence.

• A predictable or familiar storyline.

• Illustrations that support the understanding of the text.

• Interesting characters that the listeners can identify with.

Before you buy anything, here are some specific characteristics you should look for when selecting a book to use with your young learners:

• Humour and lots of action.

• An exciting ending with an appropriate conclusion.

• A clear message or moral.

• An appropriate length for the age group / level.

• Topics or content that can link into the curriculum.

The use of space

• Whenever possible, designate a special area in the classroom for storytelling, even if this means moving the furniture around. You should also establish a routine and some rules to follow during story-time.

The use of space

• For example, you may like to get the children to ask questions at the end to avoid constant interruptions. Don’t forget to make sure everyone can see both you and the book clearly. If a child can’t see then they will miss out on the essential language support from the gestures you use and the pictures that help them to understand the meaning. This can lead to them losing interest and getting distracted.

The use of space

• Finally, remember you should only begin reading when everyone is settled and focused.

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Generating interest

• slowly reveal the cover

• hide the book and have students look for it

• bring the book out of a special bag or box

Providing language support

Show the cover of the book and elicit words and ideas the students know based on the title and/or images.

Providing language support

Use flashcards or real objects to pre-teach key vocabulary

Providing language support

teach them a rhyme or a game that ties in with the topic or language used in the story.

Providing language support

students predict what the story is about by showing them images or reading aloud key sentences from the story

Follow-up activities

Story sequencing

In this activity students are encouraged to collaborate to recall a familiar story, illustrating the key stages and retelling it to their classmates.

Instructions:

1. In groups, students decide on the key stages of the story they are going to illustrate. Stronger groups of students should be encouraged to think of more stages (this provides differentiation).

2. Hand a piece of blank paper to each group and ask them to draw lines to divide the paper into equal-sized boxes. They will need one box for each key stage of the story, so if a group has more stages it might be better to give them several pieces of paper so they have enough space for their drawings. (Alternatively, you could pre-make these before the class and hand them out to groups.)

Instructions:

3. In each box, students draw a picture to represent the key stages of the story. Depending on the level of the class/group, they could write a sentence (or more) underneath each picture to describe what is happening.

4. Students take turns retelling the whole story with the others in their group, using the pictures and words to help them.

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Instructions:

5. Students then cut up the page and divide the pictures equally between the members of the group.

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6. The group works together to retell the story for their classmates, with each member reading out their part and showing their pictures in the correct order.

7. The pictures can be kept in an envelope and used again in future lessons. (You might want to write a number on the back of each picture for later reference.)

Lift the flap book

In this activity children learn the meaning and form of words in context by creating illustrated flaps to cover key words in a book.

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Instructions:

1. In groups, the children each select a word from a page of the book and copy it on to a piece of paper. (Monitor to make sure the chosen words can be easily illustrated and that the whole group understands the meaning of each word; you may wish to give groups specific pages from the book to look through, so they don’t all choose the same pages/words.)

2. Divide the words between the members of the group, so that students have a different word to the one they initially chose. Ask them not to show the others what they got! Give each student one Post-it note.

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Instructions:

3. Each students should cut up their Post-it note to create a flap to stick over their word in the book (but don’t stick them on the book yet!). They should then each draw a picture on the Post-it to illustrate the meaning of their word.

4. Students show their drawings to the others in their group and see if they can guess the word.

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5. Stick the Post-it notes over the words in the book.

6. Choose someone to be the ‘teacher’ and read the story to the class.

Instructions:

7. When the storyteller reaches a flap, he or she should stop and show the drawing. The other students should call out the word, and the storyteller can then lift the flap to see if they are right.

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Storyboarding

In this activity children retell a familiar story, and then the teacher takes photos to create a storyboard.

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Instructions:

1. After reading a short story out loud, put the children in groups.

2. Students should choose between 5–10 key moments in the story, and then recreate those scenes using their bodies and/or other props. (Note: Depending on your class size and the time you have available, you could either ask each group to choose and recreate their own key scenes, or choose the key scenes as a class and assign one or two to each group.)

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Instructions:

3. Take photos of each scene, upload them to the computer and print them out. (You may want to print each image on to white paper with some space below it, if you want students to try step 5.)

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4. Within their groups, students can then put the images in order and take turns

to retell the story to each other.

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5. With guidance, students can write sentences below each image and staple it together like a book.

Instructions:

6. A shortened version of this activity is to photocopy images from the story (laminate if possible to make them more durable), mix them up, then hand them out (in sets) to groups. The groups then have to put them back into the correct order and retell the story. It can be made into a race, with points awarded to the group who finishes correctly first.

KIT KAT

• A man and his wife went shopping, for the day, in Manchester. They agreed to meet in a little café they both knew, at the end of the afternoon. The woman arrived first; she was tired. She got a coffee and a Kit Kat bar of chocolate. She had a lot of shopping bags so she put the chocolate in one of her bags and carried the bags and the coffee to a table.
• She sat down opposite a man. He was reading a newspaper. He was a black man; she could see his hands. She was tired so she closed her eyes, for a moment. Then she drank some coffee and then she said, to herself, “Now for the Kit Kat!” Suddenly, this man’s right hand came slowly from the newspaper and slowly broke off a finger of the Kit Kat! (The chocolate was on a plate on the table) Then he ate it!
• The woman was amazed! Then his hand came back again! He broke off another finger of chocolate and ate it! So the woman took the chocolate and ate the third piece!
• Then the man’s hand came again and looked for the chocolate. He couldn’t find the chocolate so he looked over his newspaper and saw her outraged face. He said, “Madam?”

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KIT KAT

• She said, “People in this country don’t do that sort of thing, you know!”
• He said, “I’m very sorry!” And he stood up and left the cafe.
• The woman’s husband came and said, “Why are you so angry?”
• She said, “One of these black people ate my Kit Kat!”
• “Really?” He said, “How many bars of Kit Kat did you buy?”
• She said, “What a stupid question! I bought one bar of chocolate!”
• He said, “But there’s one bar of Kit Kat in your shopping bag!
• She had eaten the man’s chocolate!

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Fitness for purpose

1. YLE exams have 4 levels.
2. There are 4 parts in the Starters exam.
3. There are 3 parts in the Movers exam.
4. Starters exam lasts for 2 hours.
5. During the speaking part there are two kids and two examiners in the room.

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How much do you know?

Pre A1 Starters, A1 Movers and A2 Flyers

Are designed to motivate young learners and build their confidence step-by-step:

• Designed for young learners aged 6–12
• Practical skills for the real world
• No pass or fail – every child gets a certificate that celebrates their achievement
• Fun and colourful exam materials
• Available on demand

How results are reported

Support Materials

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