Wants To Be – Part 1

This is a significant post from Chris in that he attacks full on the concept of starting stories as a beginner. What is important is that the story he wrote came from his own knowledge of his class, is based on what vocabulary they knew, what their own interests as a class were, etc. It’s pretty neat and we can learn from this about how canned stories may not be as good as the kind of thing he did, as he describes below:
Ben,
I just want to tell you what just happened in my Spanish I class. After reviewing some older structures and the newer structures from yesterday, I decided to do a class story, let them create a story as a class.  I’ve been dreading having to do this because most of the students in this class are serious, not-very-playful, “smart” students.  So I haven’t been looking forward to doing the whole storyasking thing…I’ve instead been opting to write my own stories or use prepublished stories and circle those stories and have them read those.  But even the way I’ve been doing things hasn’t been as successful as I wanted so today I decided to “bite the bullet” and do some storyasking after creating a Matava-esque script using the structures we did yesterday.  I decided to do this because I figured it’s not personal enough because I’m not letting them create stories, I’m forcing my own teacher-created stories on them.  So I went for it. I had already planned out ideas to fill the blanks in, like Anne’s scripts are set up, because I figured I wouldn’t get many answers from the students…..I WAS WRONG!!!  We have shortened periods today so I only got a few sentences in and then the bell rang but it was very successful and I can’t wait to continue tomorrow! Our character is Queen Latifah and the first things she wants to be is a Lumberjack!  I think storyasking is going to be more successful in this class than I had planned.  Here’s the script I made in case you’re wondering:

Wants to Be

wants to be
goes to

There is a boy.  His name is Juan.  Juan wants to be a babysitter.  So he goes to The University of Babysitters.   He goes to a babysitter class.  But, there is a problem.  Juan is not very smart.  Juan has an F in the babysitter class.  Now, he doesn’t want to be a babysitter.
Juan wants to be a shepherd.  He goes to the University of Shepherds.  Juan goes to a shepherd class.  The shepherd class is very easy, but Juan is not very smart.  Juan has an F in the shepherd class.  Juan doesn’t want an F. Now, he doesn’t want to be a shepherd.
Now, Juan wants to be an engineer.  Juan goes to the University of Engineers.  Juan goes to an Engineering class.  The engineering class is super difficult.  Juan has an A in the class.  Now, Juan is a very famous engineer.  Juan has a lot of money and a lot of girls.