Engaging students with authentic stories

1. Engaging students with authentic stories with Nathalie Pariswww.nattalingo.co.ukTwitter: @NattalingoFacebook: @nattalingo Pinterest: Nattalingo YouTube: Nattalingo Productions LinkedIn: Nathalie Paris

2. What are you trying to achieve by using authentic stories? What do you choose? How can you exploit the stories you have selected so the students are engaged… with minimal preparation?

3. What are you trying to achieve by using authentic stories? We and our students will have a lot of fun! Students get to see new or familiar language in context. They learn new vocabulary. They gain in fluency and confidence. The experience will motivate our students to learn languages. It will encourage them to read for pleasure. It will hopefully inspire them to write. Using stories creates an emotion… So we are hoping to ENGAGE them more!

4. Have you used authentic stories with your students before? If so, what is YOUR all-time favourite story/book to share with a class and why? How do you choose a good story? It is very personal… A good investment: how can you use a story/book over and over again?

5. If you are going to buy only a handful of books, I recommend you make it these! • A story translated from English • A traditional story or fairy tale • A fun story which you and the students will want to revisit • A book of poetry • A children’s novel – to use extracts from

6. A story translated from English: “Les amis d’Elmer”, David McKee • A traditional story or fairy tale: “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge”, Charles Perrault • A fun story which the children will want to revisit: “Le loup qui voulait changer de couleur”, Orianne Lallemand & Eléonore Thuillier • A book of poetry: “Comptines en chocolat”, Corrine Albaut • A children’s novel – to use extracts from: “La 2CV la nuit”, François Place

7. A story translated from English: “De la cabeza a los pies”, Eric Carle • A traditional story or fairy tale: “La ratita presumida” • A fun story which the children will want to revisit: “La siesta perfecta”, Pato Mena • A book of poetry: “La tabla de multiplicar en verso”, Gloria Fuertes • A children’s novel – to use extracts from: “Cuentos de la selva”, Horacio Quiroga

8. A story translated from English: “WirgehenaufBärenjagd”, Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury • A traditional story or fairy tale: “Hänsel und Gretel”, Brüder Grimm • A fun story which the children will want to revisit: “Vom kleinen Maulwurf, der wissen wollte, wer ihm auf den Kopf gemacht hat“, WermerHoltzwarth & Wolf Erlbruch • A book of poetry: “Zauberwort: Die schönsten Gedichte für Kinder“, RotaHrenski & Christine Brand (with thanks to Angela McMachlan https://www.thelivelylanguagescompany.net/ ) • A children’s novel – to use extracts from: “Emil und die Detektive”, Erich Kästner

9. A story translated from English: “Walter Canis Inflatus”, William Kotzwinkle & Glenn Murray (bilingual) • A traditional story or fairy tale: “Fairy Tales in Latin: Fabulae Mirabiles”, Victor Barocas & Brad Rhodes • Fun stories which the children will want to revisit: “Minimus mini books”, Barbara Bell &Helen Forte • A book of poetry: Virgil • A children’s novel: “Winnie Ille Pu”, A.A. Milne

10. NOW I HAVE A BOOK… BUT WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY SELECTED STORY… with minimal preparation? • There are different approaches to start with. • What aspect of the story do you want to target? • What do you want from it? • Decide your focus • Choose the activities, bearing in mind it will always help develop more than one skill at a time…

11. Examples of engaging activities if your focus is listening skills • Pupils listen out for a specific word/phrase/sentence in the story and perform a specific action • Pupils listen out for a specific sound in the story and perform a specific action • Pupils are told a familiar story but not told what it is • Pupils have a list of questions which they have to answer after listening to the story (or part of)

12. Examples of engaging activities if your focus is speaking skills • Pupils listen and watch when the teacher stops and performs a specific action: they then say a specific word • Choral repetition of parts of the story • Choral telling of the story • Pupils perform the story (within a group, to the class, to another class, to a younger class, in assembly, in a feeder school, in a secondary school, with props and/or puppets; a narrator can be included) • Joining in with onomatopoeia • If there is a dialogue, split the class in 2/3/4, with each group playing a specific part

13. Examples of activities if your focus is reading skills • You may want to invest in a visualizer if you do not have one already! • Challenge pupils to look for specific words, eg means of transport • Human sentences are made to re-tell the story • Pupils use the dictionaries to translate a passage into English • A passage is given without its punctuation • Pupils answer some written questions in English about the story • Pupils read for cognates • Pupils have a copy of the text in front of them; when the teacher stops reading, they have to keep reading out themselves; this can be played in teams: what is the next word?

14. Examples of engaging activities if your focus is writing skills • Pupils adapt (part of) the story • Pupils rewrite a simplified version of the story • Pupils make a mini book based on the story • A selected passage form the story is dictated to the class • Pupils write their opinion of the story in the target language • Pupils write a book review • Examples of activities if your focus is a grammar point • Pupils to find the infinitives/adjectives etc in a passage • Pupils to change the nouns/adjectives etc in a passage • Pupils rewrite the story in a different person • Pupils rewrite the story in a different tense

15. MY FAVOURITE SUGGESTIONS: • FLA/native speaker/visitor shares a story with a small group • Pupil(s) read(s) the story to a younger pupil/class • Pupils read on their own • Look out for the cultural aspect of the story: versions of fairy tales, references to cultural events, food • Pupils look for when “tu” and “vous” (or any other grammar rule you would like them to work out) are used in a story. • “Speed-dating” with books

16. EXPLOITING POEMS: • Suzi Bewell’s • https://petitepipelette.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/sanako-tilt-show-creative-use-of-poetry-in-mfl/ • EXPLOITING PASSAGES FROM NOVELS: • ALL literature wiki for ideas and structure HAVE FUN choosing your next book. GIVE IT A GO and share a new story with a class. ASK IF YOU NEED ANY HELP!

17. This was... Nathalie Pariswww.nattalingo.co.ukTwitter: @NattalingoFacebook: @nattalingo Pinterest: Nattalingo YouTube: Nattalingo Productions LinkedIn: Nathalie Paris Please leave some feedback via the slips. If you would like to keep in touch, please write your email on the sheet on the tables!