One challenge we have to face when teaching is trying not to repeat ourselves to make our lessons a little bit more entertaining, particularly when you have to revise grammar. In my case, tenses. It was time to tell stories, what else!
However, simply asking them to write an anecdote or a story using the tenses we had been revising sounded really dull, so I thought of a way of adding a touch of creativity to the task. I was going to oblige them to think outside the box and it was a risk with C2 students, who tend to expect lessons with a formal academic tone.
Step 1: Organizing the students in groups
The activity is conceived to be carried out in small groups. Students tend to sit with the same partners in every class and that’s something I like to break every so often, so they get to know each other better and the atmosphere of the class is more relaxed. One of the systems I use to make them mingle is colour cards. I pick as many cards as students, in as many colours as groups we need, and I shuffle the cards. I give each student one card and ask them to sit with partners holding cards of the same colour. (We’ll use this system again later on when they finish the first part of the activity)
Step 2: The narrative elements in the story
The students have to write a story or fake anecdote with some fixed elements chosen at random from a list. To choose these elements we use digital wheels. In this case, I chose Wordwall, but there are other apps (wheeldecide, wheel of names…) that can be used as well for the purpose. (Analogic alternative: You can also make pack of cards for each narrative element instead).
- There is a wheel to decide WHO the characters involved in the narrative are
- The MOOD of the story
- And the SETTING
Step 3: Vocabulary and grammar retrieving
Students at C2 level are usually very confident when revising grammar, and make very few errors in specific grammar activities. The same thing happens regarding vocabulary exercises. The problem comes when they are expected to use all that knowledge actively in their speech. That’s something we teachers need to force them to do sometimes. And in our activity, apart from asking them to use a variety of verbal forms, they will have to integrate descriptive vocabulary from exercises they have previously done: ways of walking, ways of looking and ways of talking.
Before they start speaking, we revise the vocabulary by acting it out. We spin the wheel for each “way of” list, and students have to move, talk or look according to the word that appears on the screen. If they are reluctant to do any kind of acting, you can ask for volunteers.
Then the wheels will choose one word at random from each list and they will have to include them in their story.
Step 4: Writing process
Once they have spun the wheels for each element of the story and the vocabulary they have to include, they talk in groups and write a short story or anecdote together. They have to write it in the first person. All the members of the group will have to pay attention and take notes of the story because they will have to retell it later on.
Step 5: Speaking
Once all the stories are finished, students change groups again (I regroup them using the colour system, trying to avoid the students from the same group end up together, if possible. If the numbers make this impossible, they work in pairs or tell the story for the whole class).
When they tell the story, they have to pretend that it really happened to them or they heard it on the radio o social media. Make sure they don’t simply read it aloud.
Step 6: Podcast
Each story can be used as the source for a class podcast entitled: “You won’t believe what happened to me!”