Beniko Mason is a strong proponent of simply telling kids stories in the TL. Tina Hargaden, who spends a lot of time talking shop with Beniko these days, in a comment here yesterday, gives us an excellent description of story listening. This is brand new stuff and belongs as a part of, as Russ Albright described, the “Post TPRS” world. I will of course make a new category for Story Listening:
Tina shares:
Story Listening as Beniko demonstrated it to me is an enjoyable, painless way to provide CI using pre-written stories and tales. Sounds simple, right? It is. It is strange to me that this feels new…when it is, in reality, as old as humankind.
You basically find an interesting story. I have experimented with traditional legends and tales from Québec, Haïti, and Mexico, as well as with stories the kids wrote in partnerships in class.
Then you tell the story in simple and comprehensible language, using basic good CI teaching skills like going slow, drawing things in the story to illustrate, writing L1 and L2 if needed, sometimes stopping to provide explication in L1. That is it. My kids have really enjoyed the stories they have listened to. Especially my French 2 class, who are sometimes harder to get enthused about cresting together. It is a cozy feeling that reminds me of Story Hour with Mrs. Buford at the Middle Georgia Regional Library. I made some videos of my classes.
Haitian tale:
Part One
Part Two
Mexican legend:
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