Category Archives: Story activities

The story behind the image

Posted on September 12, 2014 by bryankandel

Here’s another trick to get more reps. We’ve been using this story (un accidente de autobús), which is based on the structures crashed, broke his ankle and “that’s life”.  It’s a home run story that always goes over well because … Continue reading →

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NTPRS 2014

Posted on July 25, 2014 by bryankandel

I met many people during the week at NTPRS who mentioned that they enjoy reading this site.  Thanks for the encouraging comments.  The comments also made me realize that people ACTUALLY read this stuff, so I better get it together. … Continue reading →

Posted in Professional Development, Stories/Storytelling, Story activities, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Mad Libs – CI style

Posted on March 3, 2014 by bryankandel

Here’s a slight variation on storytelling if you feel you need a change-up in the routine.  In a “Mad-Libs” style, students provide the details for a story without knowing how they will fit until the story comes together.  You can … Continue reading →

Posted in Stories/Storytelling, Story activities | 2 Comments

The magical toad that changed my life

Posted on January 19, 2014 by bryankandel

Here are a couple of activities for comparing tenses with students.  We started with the following story script to be asked in class.  The emphasized structures were: tocaba la batería – used to play the drums era perezoso(a) – was … Continue reading →

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A true friend always listens

Posted on November 23, 2013 by bryankandel

Here’s an idea that’s just quirky enough to work.  I wanted to do a quick retell/speaking practice, and  I wanted all students to speak.  I passed out little paper cutouts of the outline of a man and told students he … Continue reading →

Posted in Classroom activities, Speaking, Story activities | 2 Comments

Phone message retells

Posted on September 13, 2013 by bryankandel

Here’s another way I’ve used Google Voice to evaluate speaking.  I’ll briefly detail the four days from presentation of vocabulary to student retells. We were using the unit, “un accidente de autobus”.  Vocabulary and text here. Day 1: Presentation of … Continue reading →

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blind re-tells and textivate

Posted on February 28, 2013 by bryankandel

I used blind re-tells in class today in levels 2 and 3 and was very pleased with the results.  In both classes, we started stories yesterday and finished them today.  In level 2, we were working with El chico perezoso buscó … Continue reading →

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