This document summarizes a classroom activity where students in 1st and 2nd ESO wrote short stories. For the 1st ESO students, the stories focused on a theme of the city and showed creativity. For 2nd ESO, most students only summarized myths from their textbook rather than writing original stories. While grammar and vocabulary use was generally good, the 2nd ESO stories lacked creativity. Overall, the activity was more successful for stimulating creative writing and language use among the 1st ESO students.

1. Storytelling in the Classroom

2. “Storytelling increases attention span, makes
for a higher level of cooperation, and a more
positive attitude towards learning, reading, or
any other subject.” - Mike Lockett

3. The activity
In this activity, according to the grade level of the
students (1st ESO and 2nd ESO), each student
will prepare a story of appropriate length to their
respective capabilities, ideally of half-a-page to
one page. Each short story will feature a central
character and have a clear beginning, middle, and
end. At the discretion of the instructor, more
characters or a longer plot may be judged to be
appropriate, but these will serve as the basic
requirements.

4. Purpose
 Having my MFA in Dramatic Writing, I thought storytelling would
be an interesting and innovative topic which would engage the
students. While Writing activities are featured in the textbooks, I
have noticed that they tend to focus on more practical
applications, such as an essay or email. Because storytelling as
an idea is a universal conceit, what better way to practice new
vocabulary and concepts than by allowing students a degree of
creative freedom? Within this activity, level-appropriate
grammar structures and sentence formation will be practiced,
along with a heavy focus on Unit vocabulary. I have discussed
with one professor how to adapt this activity to her Bachillerato-
level students, which may entail allowing them to perform short
theatrical types scenes with one another in pairs.

5. Materials
 No materials are required except a pencil and
paper and the imaginations of the students,
making this a simple and easily reproducible
activity

6. Timetable
 This lesson will be divided into two sessions- the first
session will be a brainstorming activity, where students
will be presented with appropriate topics relevant to
their Units of study and given extra vocabulary to help
them in the telling of their stories
 The second session will be the presentations of these
stories before the class. Depending on time and the
decision of the teachers, students may use props or
costumes when reading their creations

7. Evaluation
The activity will be evaluated as follows:
As an auxiliar, while the students are reading their stories, I will be
monitoring for correct grammar and pronunciation. I will ask the
students questions following their story to clarify any points I may
not have understood, i.e. “Why did this character do this?” or “What
does the antagonist look like?” according to the appropriateness of
the student’s level.
It will be at the discretion of the teacher to evaluate their formal
effectiveness and assign a final grade in accordance with the
aforementioned sections of focus (grammar, vocabulary, and
sentence structure). This will be adjudicated based on the work as
written, not as performed.

8. Feedback
 The students will be given feedback along with the formal
evaluation in an informal manner following the readings by
myself and the teacher. I aim to make a point of
complimenting both the positives (i.e. “You used the
present continuous very well”, “I liked your description of
the character’s best friend), and critiquing- albeit gently-
the negatives (i.e. “I was confused how the character
arrived at the train station”, “Why did she go there last?”). I
will also comment of the effectiveness of the story
structure (i.e. “I liked the use of the setting”, “The ending
was very surprising”), though communication of ideas is
ultimately tantamount to the effectiveness of this formula
where the exercise is concerned.

9. 16/12- Brainstorming, 2 ESO
 This exercise went very well, I’m glad to say. We had to modify the
initial activity due to a lack of time, but were able to more effectively
arrange it to fit the theming of Unit 4, which is about myths and
legends. (Honestly, though, could you ask for a better topic where
storytelling is concerned?!) Instead of telling a wholly original
narrative, students will be summarizing one of three myths found in
the book: that of Queen Boodica, Merlin, or Robin Hood. While I was
hoping for original material, I contend with the teacher that this
provides a clearer focus for the students and may be more suitable to
their skill level. I outlined the requirements on the board, and the
teacher suggested I provide further ideas for how to expand the initial
narratives- other characters or scenarios, more details of the setting,
etc. The students had plenty of questions and seemed enthusiastic,
and I think having the framework of the myths in the text will allow
them a good foundation on which to build their own stories.

12. 16/12- Brainstorming, 1 ESO
 Again, this activity was slightly modified from my initial idea. Instead
of three topics using the first three Units, students will now be
focusing on Unit 4, which deals with the city. At this low level, an
effective use of the past simple is to be commended, but as the
teacher was discussing with me after I had given the presentation, the
students’ creativity is not to be underestimated: One girl is writing a
Harry Potter themed setting, another was asking to write in space,
and a third features trans-dimensional beings as I noted when helping
him with vocabulary. This is already a big win in my book, because
the students are interested in using language creatively. This activity
required more explanation and was a bit more difficult conceptually
for me initially since these stories do not require a central conflict (as
they are the experience of the characters’ time in the city), but we
established the basic requirements and started the students working
on their Outlines and in many cases free writing. I have high hopes
for this class.

14. 13/1- Presentations, 2 ESO
 Today proved to be the opposite of my initial hopes and expectations. I was
aware that a smaller amount of students might participate in the activity,
given that the assignment is a degree more challenging than their usual
coursework, but I did not anticipate less than half the class doing the
assignment. Of those who participated, one student provided a cursory
synopsis of the material written in the book, almost verbatim, and the others
provided relatively simple stories. On the whole, their use of grammar and
complete sentences was commendable, yet only one student went above
and beyond to provide new material, in the forms of Robin Hood’s
companions. None of the students elected to retell the legend of Queen
Boodica, leaving me to summarize. I struggled to think of pertinent questions
to ask the students regarding their stories, and more so not to repeat what I
had already asked given the dearth of new material. I introduced important
terms and phrases on the board, and we discussed some of the concepts of
the myths (i.e. Britain before and during Arthur’s rule). I can at least hope
that the students who did the assignment received the benefit of grammatical
and structural practice.

16. 13/1- Presentations, 1 ESO
 Far and away a much more rewarding experience than 2 ESO. Most of the
students did the assignment, turning in one or two thoughtful, well-written
paragraphs; at least two of them had a full page of text. New vocabulary was
the order of the day here- “impatient”, “destroyed”, “unforgettable”, and “last
but not least”. This coming from a non-bilingual program! Now, some or
many of these students may have used a translator or a dictionary to
discover these words, but they nonetheless had reason to want to
communicate in English and found and used the vocabulary correctly
regardless! As I stated in my Brainstorming reflection, there was a great
degree of creativity, one of the stories featured a character with superpowers
and an ancient legend, another a magic mountain with talking animals.
Vocabulary was used effectively to describe different locations and modes of
traveling, though grammar was spotty outside of the present tense; past
tense continues to be something that needs to be monitored for improvement
but at least mistakes can be clarified actively with an activity like this one. As
with 2 ESO, pronunciation required careful monitoring, but the effort at
communication and the degree of performance here remains commendable.

18. Conclusions
 Though I will not have the opportunity given time constraints to incorporate
the Bachillerato activity into this presentation (I still plan to try it with them), I
think this exercise shows both promise and concern taken as a whole.
Ultimately, I will side with the case of 1 ESO, as I believe that allowing the
students greater creative liberty instead of summarizing existing material
yielded far superior results. Some of the fault may be my own, for I didn’t
anticipate how to respond to students’ stories that dealt with myths, and I
think a lack of extensive knowledge on these legends made it difficult for
those who did the assignment to extend their stories beyond the existing
text. On a purely structural level, the students did formally well, using new
vocabulary and complete sentences, though 1 ESO struggled, however
predictably, with grammar. I would definitely have the students read at a
slower rate next time, as while I think between myself and the teacher we
caught the most glaring examples of incorrect pronunciation, it was
sometimes hard to tell with how quickly students were reading. On the
whole, putting my creative biases aside in terms of actual content, I would do
this activity again, perhaps providing a greater focus on descriptive
vocabulary and grammar to try and encourage the students to write at a
higher level and give them more practice with new words and formal
structures.