Category Archives: Storytelling tips

The Power of the Picture Dictionary

This year, I added another comprehensible input element to my classroom –The Picture Dictionary. I had heard about it for the last few years and considered it a great idea, I just never implemented it. Over the last few weeks, … Continue reading

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Filed under Classroom Management, Storytelling tips, Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar

Ira Glass on Storytelling part 2 [youtube part 4]

Here is one more segment from Ira Glass that I found to be helpful on storytelling. Reflective moments in our stories make them more real and apart of life, rather than just some random story that we are telling as … Continue reading

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Ira Glass on Storytelling

I found this link on Michel Bakers blog. [the link to her blog is above under more blogs] She has a lot of solid basic ideas for stortelling that really made sense. Check it out.

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Level 2 Story

Here is a story that I told with my level 2. I don’t profess to be a native speaker of Spanish, so you may find things here and there. Also, the students were dressed up because it is homecoming and … Continue reading

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Filed under Storytelling tips, Teaching Discoveries, Uncategorized

Free Form Stories with Middle Schoolers

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Filed under Storytelling tips, Teaching Discoveries, TPRS Basics

The 4 Gestures

At the beginning of the year I teach my students four gestures to communicate whether they understand or not. These are so vital to the students’ acquisition because they are taking charge of whether they understand or not. Here are … Continue reading

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Using Timed Writings in the Beginning of the Year

Each year I have the fantastic problem of not knowing exactly how to ease in with my level 2 class. They have already acquired a lot of vocabulary, so the TPR phase isn’t a good fit, but they are not … Continue reading

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Filed under Storytelling tips, TPRS Basics

More Dialogue This Year

One of the many goals that I have for this year is to have more dialogue in the class stories. It’s through dialogue that the students get repeated exposure to the “yo” and “tú” [first and second person] forms as … Continue reading

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Finding Ways Around Awkward Vocabulary

From time to time we have vocabulary that is…well, awkward. I ran into this one day when I was trying to use the word sweats. I quickly found out that most teenagers don’t like to be known for sweating because … Continue reading

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Filed under PQA, Storytelling tips, TPRS Basics

Understanding Story a Little More

I continue to find so much in what Kendall Haven has written in his book, Story Proof: the science behind the startling power of story. This is so important to what we do because we invite our students to enter … Continue reading

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