Topic: Telling a story

Aims:

· To develop the ability to tell a story fluently.

· To develop the ability to understand and accurately use a range of

narrative tenses.

Level: Intermediate and higher

Introduction

The use of narrative to tell stories and anecdotes forms an important part of

our everyday communication. During this lesson students will have the

opportunity to develop both their accuracy and fluency by creating and then

telling a story. They will then have the chance to develop their

understanding of a range of narrative tenses by focusing on both the

meaning and the form of the structures.

The lesson plan is followed by some suggested follow up activities.

Procedure

Speaking task:

· Give the students the questions from Worksheet A and ask them to read

them and look for any words they don't understand.

Rationale: As students read through the questions they will be forming a

mental framework of the story that they expect the questions to be about.

· Check that they understand three key words: wings, angel and priest.

You can do this by making a quick sketch on the board and asking what

it is.

· Tell the students that the questions are all about a story, but you don't

have the story and that they must invent the story for you. Put them in

pairs to do this and tell them that they must do it together orally and must

not write anything down.

Rationale: by insisting that they don't write you will push them to use

their oral ability more. If the students really struggle you could let them

make brief notes.

· Circulate around the room and be available for support if students need

it. Also listen carefully as they work on the story and make notes of any

errors or new vocabulary they need for feedback later on. You could also

make notes of some of the good sentences or vocabulary some

students are using too, so you make a balance between correction and

praise.

Telling a story – Lesson Plan - © BBC | British Council 2003

 

· When they have finished, tell students that they will have to tell the story

and give them a little more time to work together and make sure they can

remember everything.

· Get the students to change the pairs so that they all have a new partner

to work with and get each student to tell their new partner the story they

invented.

Tip: This is another good time to monitor carefully and listen for errors or

new vocabulary that the students need.

· Once they have both told their partner the story, ask students which story

they preferred.

Tip: at this point you could use the notes that you've made while

monitoring to do some feedback and correction.

· Ask questions from Worksheet A at random around the class to the

students and see if the students answer using the correct tenses.

Focus on Meaning:

· Give out Worksheet B with the concepts and example sentences and

ask the students to match them to the concepts to the sentences.

Answers:

Example sentences:

1. It had been raining for many days.

2. Paul was walking home from work when he saw the old man.

3. When he told his wife about the man with wings she said he

was mad.

b.

c.

a.

Concepts:

a. A finished action that is followed by another action

b. An action that happened before a time in the past

c. An action that was interrupted by a second action

· Once they've matched them, tell them the correct answers.

Telling a story – Lesson Plan - © BBC | British Council 2003

Language work - timelines

· Give students the timelines Worksheet C and ask students to match the

lines to the example sentences. Then ask them to label the parts of the

timeline with the correct actions.

Tip: Some students may be quite confused by timelines the first time

they see them, so it might be a good idea to draw one on the board as

an example making clear that the line is time passing and where future

and past are in relation to now.

Answers:

_raining _ _ _? Now

Past ______________________________|____________Future

told wife said mad Now

Past ___________|_______|____________|____________Future

_ walking home _ ? Now

Past ___________|___________________|____________Future

saw man

Check that they have done it correctly.

Telling a story – Lesson Plan - © BBC | British Council 2003

Focus on Form:

· Give the students Worksheet D and ask them to label the parts of the

form.

Tip: When I do this with students I prefer to use the minimum of

metalanguage and only label the 'generative' part of the form that can be

used to generate more sentences.

Answers:

1. Past perfect continuous

subject + had been verb + ing …

It had been raining for days.

2. Past simple - Past simple

conjun

ction

subject verb in past …

When he told his wife about the old man with wings.

subject verb in past …

she said he was mad.

3. Past continuous - Past simple

subject verb to be in

past

verb + ing …

Paul was walking home from work

conjunction subject verb in past form …

when he saw the old man.

· Check that they have done it correctly.

Follow up:

· Get the students to write their story.

· Ask them to illustrate their story.

· Put the stories up around the room and get the students to read them all

and award marks out of ten. You could give them a list of criteria to do

this for example; imagination, range of vocabulary, correct use of tenses,

spelling, good use of descriptive language etc