Young learners do not fully understand the value of learning a foreign language and their motivation is controlled externally, e.g. by their parents, teachers and activities. In my experience, I have observed that children are particularly motivated by stories. Apart from being meaningful and enjoyable, stories offer a whole imaginary world (Cameron 2001: 159) and help to expand students’ learning in a variety of ways and with different activities.
When it comes to designing effective storytelling activities, it is important for teachers to think about activities before, during, and after the storytelling (Shin and Crandall 2014: 216). The following suggestions are aimed at teachers working with coursebook stories and without story cards.
Before
Aim: to create interest and engage with the story, to start predicting, to prepare the children with the language to understand the story.
1) Vocabulary
Check if there are any key new words.
Introduce the words through illustrations, objects, mime, context.
Practise the words through games (memory, picture word-matching, pelmanism, bingo, repeat if it’s true, drawing).
Please note that the children don’t need to know every word in the story.
2) Predicting
Look at the pictures. Who do you think the main characters are in this story? Why?
Why do you think this story is called (“Classroom Land”)?
During
Aim: to keep the children engaged, to check general comprehension.
1) Q & A
Use questions during the storytelling to check comprehension of the story and keep the children engaged. You could ask questions about the characters, setting, plot.
2) Jump up word card (Source: Wright 2000: 36)
a) Give each child a word card before the story. Ask them to jump up and sit down every time they hear their word.
b) Divide the class into two teams. Show a card with two-three words on it to each group. Tell or play the story and children jump up and sit down if they hear their word. Ask the children to notice what their neighbour’s word is.
c) Ask them to jump up whenever they hear a certain kind of word (a number, a colour, an animal, etc.)
3) Displaying pictures (Source: Wright 2000: 36)
Give pictures of the key vocabulary before the story. Ask children to hold them up at the appropriate moment in the story.
4) True or false?
Read the story while children follow it in their books. Change some words as you’re reading (you could use the wrong vocabulary word or change characters’ actions). Ask the children to put up their hands when they hear a different word.
After
Aim: to check more detailed comprehension, to personalise the experience, to add cross-curricular links, to share personal responses.
1) Comprehension questions
The children work in groups and write down 3-5 comprehension questions.
Please note that it works well if the children have some models to follow.
2) Muddled sentences
Choose key sentences from the story. Write them on paper. Cut them up into single sentences. The children arrange the sentences into the correct sequence.
3) Draw and guess (Source: Wright 2000: 44)
The children draw a picture from the story, then show it to their neighbour who should guess which part of the story the picture is from.
4) Map
The children identify the main character’s emotions in the story and draw a feelings map.
5) Book cover
The children design a book cover for the story, including an illustration and the title.
6) Clips
Watch a variety of clips about the concepts explored in the story, to broaden children’s understanding of the themes and concepts explored. As a follow-up, the children create a poster with the facts.
Comentarios