Story-based Approach to Teaching Grammar

1. Story-based Approach to Teaching Grammar • Implicit Explanations • Guided Participation • Explicit Explanations

2. Implicit Explanations • Learners analyze the grammar explanation for themselves

3. Guided Participation • Teachers and learners collaborate on and co-construct the grammar explanation

4. Explicit Explanations • Teacher provides explanation for learners

5. PACE: A Story-based and Guided Participatory Approach • Presentation • Attention • Co-construction • Extension

6. Presentation • Teacher foreshadows the grammar explanation through the use of integrated discourse (stories, poems, taped listening selection, etc.); emphasis is on comprehension and meaning.

7. Attention • Teacher uses “multiple passes” and recycles the story line through pictures, TPR activities, and role playing, which deepens comprehension and increases learner participation. Again, emphasis is on meaning.

8. Co-construction • Once comprehension is achieved and meaning understood, the teacher turns the learners’ attention to focus on form. Both teacher and learner co-construct the grammar explanation.

9. Extension • Through extension activities (i.e., integrative activities that relate to the story theme), the learners need to use the grammatical structure(s) in order to carry out a particular function or task. (Shrum/Glisan, 2000)

10. Steps for Designing a Contextualized Story-based Lesson (Shrum/Glisan, 2000) • Select an appropriate text for students and instructional purposes • Do you like the text and find it appealing? • Does the story lend itself to “stageable actions”? • Does the story suggest connections to academic content?

11. Does the story represent some aspect of the target culture that you will address? • Does the story present stereotypes or reasonable and fair depictions of the target language culture? • Is the language accessible or can it be made accessible through story-telling simplifications?

12. Is the theme of the story one that can be expanded upon and extended into various activities? • Does the story adequately represent a grammatical structure on which you will later focus? • Does the story lend itself to addressing some of the national/state/local standards?