A repost from 2012:
I’m doing this story by Jim Tripp this week. It originally appeared here last June but here it is at a more appropriate time of year. As I was underlining the variables, I noticed what a work of art this story is in its simplicity. Anyone who wants to craft a script is invited to notice how the same ultra simple and therefore elegant lines are repeated in three variations in the three locations – if you see that, you will get a major feature of why simple scripts like this bring the highest level of student involvement – because the students can understand it. The best stories are not stories at all but repetitions of one line in three locations*. This story also is a thematic unit workhorse – it allows you to get as many reps as you want of weather expressions, of clothing and of body expressions. This is the work of a master craftsman right here:
Brrr!
is cold
gives him
puts it on
Bobby is cold. Bobby says to Kendra, “I’m cold!” Kendra gives him a stocking cap. Bobby puts it on his foot.
Bobby is still cold. He says to Kendra, “I’m cold!” Kendra gives him a shirt. Bobby puts it on his nose.
Bobby is still cold. He says to Kendra again, “I’m cold!” Kendra gives him a pair of sunglasses. Bobby puts them on his bellybutton. He isn’t cold anymore.
*if you enjoy seeing the “deer-in-the-headlights” look on your students’ faces in stories, just use a story that has different basic information in the different locations. Sure to confuse. Remember, we are teaching target structures, three structures, and we are not teaching the other stuff. The other stuff they ostensibly already know. If there is something new (possibly still and anymore above) in the story script, then you can Point and Pause to them, but a story shouldn’t be any more complex than this. The structures may be considerably more complex depending on your target grammar, but we always shelter vocabulary and not grammar (i.e. correctly spoken language) in comprehension based instruction.
Related:
https://benslavic.com/blog/brrr-1/