Warm up activities

Activities while reading

Activities or tasks after reading

 The length makes it possible to treat them in a couple
of sessions.
If they are longer than the teacher would wish them
to be, they can easily be broken up into sections and
treated over a series of sessions.
In the ESL classroom learners find short stories more
manageable than whole novels and feel they are
progressing when they can say they have read a
complete work.
Students get that feeling of achievement at having
completed a full work.
There is a wide range to choose from to suit learners
individuals tastes and interests.
 Crime Narrative Poem
Fable
Detective Folklore
Dramatic
Fairy tale
Historical fiction
Magical realism Fantasy
Legend
Horror Humour
 Picture book
Science fiction
Mystery

Western
Tall tale suspense

Realistic fiction
Myths
 Illustrations

Using questions to prompt

Speaking
 The questions may be of different types:

Literal
Evaluate
Justify

Inference
Deductive
Speaking
 The Cliff hanger point

What happens next?

Speaking Listening
Writing
 The Theme

Finding out more

Speaking Reading
Writing
 Describing a setting
Students have to write under the headings the corresponding
words they will use to describe their story setting. Verbs
Adjectives

Picture of setting

Adverbs
Sometimes it is necessary to break up the reading of a
longer text with halfway activities.

The teacher can come up with questions after reading a

couple of pages. It has to be a logical point in the story
where questions can be posed to get students thinking.
Students fill out the questionnaire in pairs or individually.
The rest of the story can be read in class or finished off
at home with the traditional type of comprehension
questions.
 Learners read a page or two of a short story.
The teacher should have chosen some words
previously and prepared their definitions. There
should be enough words and definitions for all the
students in the class.
The strips are cut in half and put in a box or bag.
Students pick one piece and then read out words and
definitions. They have to move around the classroom
to match up the pairs.
One pair will ask another pair if they can guess the
meaning of their word. Learners can always refer to
their text handout regarding the context of the word.
 All students read the beginning of a story up to a
point and then divide into sections.
Texts can also be broken up into extract parts with
students in groups assigned different sections. In
pairs or individually they read their sections and then
come together to retell their sections and put
together the story.
The end of the story could be left out for learners to
come up with.
The different versions can be read out and this will
lead to discussion.
 A creative activity in the sense that learners are free
to invent autobiographical details.
Bring objects to class or pick words from a story and
ask students to come up with the autobiography of
the object or character.
Students have to imagine themselves as the object
and describe its life backwards towards its
beginnings.
Leaf
Stone
The wolf
etc
Starting with a proverb from any culture students have
to build a story around it which embodies the concept
Examples:
One finger cannot lift a pebble. (Iranian)
When elephants battle, the ants perish. (Cambodian
If you chase two hares, you will not catch either. (Russian)
Eggs must not quarrel with stones. (Jamaican)
Better bread with water than cake with trouble. (Russian)
It is better to turn back than to get lost. (Russian)
Handsome words don't butter cabbage. (German)
Talk does not cook rice. (Chinese)
After the rain, there is no need for an umbrella. (Bulgaria)