I don’t tell stories every single day (Bless me Blaine, for I have sinned). That is just too much pressure on me. I just can’t tell it like Blaine does. I do more than tell stories because my students and I need a break, so I do as many stories as I can, but intersperse stories with other activities which are mostly comprehensible input.
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That being said, I am TOTALLY convinced that the interaction in telling/asking a story is where the acquisition is at. Nothing comes close to a good class story for getting kids to pay attention long enough to acquire something.
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Here is a schedule that I am able to maintain week after week:
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Monday—Class Chat & Sustained Silent Reading–How was your weekend? Kids LOVE this activity. They love talking about themselves and hearing about one another. I channel Oprah and keep it going by asking follow up questions and being fascinated. The class chat, or “Charla” often lasts the entire period. Free reading at the end, if time–usually not. They leave class saying, “Ha ha! We tricked profe into just talking in Spanish the entire hour and we didn’t do anything!” An entire hour spent in interesting comprehensible input, all listening, all contributing, all in the TL. I’ll take it.
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Spanish I and II students often need help talking in the past tenses like this, so I give them a cheat sheet with common verbs in the past tenses to give them a jump start.
Tuesday—Tell/Ask a Story. We usually only get through a tiny fraction of the story because the kids keep saying such interesting things that I feel like I need to explore their comments and ideas a bit. We usually get to several reps of the target structure(s), but not much more, and sometimes we only set the stage for the target structure. I usually end by saying, “We’ll finish the story tomorrow.” Yeah, right, profe.
Wednesday—Tell/Ask a Story & Sustained Silent Reading. Where were we with that story? We continue the story, but if I am real tired, we will also do free reading for a while at the end of class. Hey, reading is valid CI too, right? All right, clase, we’ll finish the story tomorrow. Sure we will, profe.
Thursday—Tell/Ask a Story & Kindergarten Reading. OK, let’s get back to that story…Where were we again? But our time gets cut short because we also do “Kindergarten Time” on Thursdays. This is an extremely popular part of the class and students will not allow me to forget it. The really “with it” classes will organize themselves so that some volunteer brings treats each week. When it is about time to begin, students will just get up, push back the desks, unroll the throw rug to sit on, begin passing out treats and plop down. Even a clueless dolt like me can get that it is time to quit telling the story and begin reading a picture book to them. They sit on the floor, lean against one another and eat a snack. I read and show them the pictures and lavish them with attention; it’s back to kindergarten when school was fun. OK, well, we’ll finish that story tomorrow or next week…
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Friday—Tell/Ask a Story & PAT. Most classes get the daily routine by this time of the year, so we may continue with the story, but classes rack up a ton of P.A.T. minutes each week, which means that in many classes PAT takes up most of the period. For PAT we play a game that is comprehensible input-based and helps to reinforce the current vocabulary and structures. The games are usually rowdy and loud–I tell them that if we don’t get any complaints for excessive noise, the game was not successful. I do not have to always run PAT games, though. Sometimes I will sit and enter grades in the electronic grade book while the students play. “Class M.C.” is a coveted classroom job, so a student will take the responsibility of running the game and another will write the scores on the board while I do my necessary secretarial work.
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Throw in the novels we read as a class, music (I enjoy playing the guitar, singing and sharing YouyTube songs too), the occasional test, administrative interruptions and culturally relevant holidays like Dia de los Muertos, Columbus Day or Christmas and it is a wonder that I can teach ANY stories at all! The fact is, I try to tell stories every chance I get, but so much is happening that I just never can tell enough stories!
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Take the pressure off of yourself. Tell stories when you can and enjoy the time when you do.
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Works for me!
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