Storytelling for Language Acquisition

Patricia Rich

The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! —H. D. Thoreau

This unit is developed around a Turkish folktale. It is written for first year Spanish students, but the materials can easily be adapted for any level and any language. There are also lesson materials here, developed around an Iranian legend, for another unit for second year Spanish students.

The purpose of this curriculum unit is twofold. First, it seeks to foster new language acquisition through reading and storytelling. For years I have appreciated the versatility of Blaine Ray’s method of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS)1 in my German and Spanish classrooms, and in keeping with the TPRS method, I will be writing a Spanish curriculum unit tangential to Ray’s approach. Students who have been learning with TPRS will be comfortable with these assignments, and students new to TPRS will enjoy the creative freedom and the satisfying results of their own storytelling.

Second, this unit provides an adventure into Asian literature. As such, it yields a delightfully hybrid product: eastern stories in a western language. An intentional departure from Eurocentric instruction, the curriculum unit does not have the prerequisite that students arrive in class already familiar with Anglo-Saxon stories and legends, to the chagrin of those unacquainted. On the contrary, these assignments will affirm an underrepresented few, and tantalize the curious.

Problem Statement

Admirably, the School District of Philadelphia requires two credits of world language for graduation, but students typically begin language study much later than is developmentally optimal. Ideally, second language study begins in elementary school, once literacy skills in the first language are well established, and it is most successful with a sequential foreign language curriculum in elementary school, sequential FLES.2 As sequential FLES programs compete with other disciplines for budget dollars and instructional time, they are not the norm. In fact, elementary world language programs have been on the decline for decades. Secondary language programs, also on the decline, are often begun in earnest in middle school, the level one textbook in a series being written for eighth or ninth grade students.3

1 https://www.tprsbooks.com/tprs-workshops-improve-learning-abilities-second-language-students/ 2 See Gladys Lipton’s Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs. 3http://cervantesobservatorio.fas.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/002_informes_nr_spteaching.pdf

Where I teach, the problem is compounded. While it is widely accepted that foreign language study is best begun in elementary school, and secondary texts are written for early adolescents, our students are not rostered for Spanish until tenth grade. Before that, humanities is the priority, perhaps out of an urgency to raise English literacy levels as soon as possible. Only ten percent of our students have proficient scores on the English Language Arts/Literature Keystone Examination.4 With little descriptive command of English grammar and syntax, many of our students have no frame of reference, and scant prior knowledge with which to engage a conventional textbook approach to language learning. As it happens, there is insufficient funding for Spanish textbooks. And since the budget also does not provide for enough teaching staff, course levels 1 and 2 have been collapsed from a full year to one semester each.

Content Objectives

Still the expectations are high. I teach in an innovative high school in the School District of Philadelphia’s Innovation Network. Here teachers design their own project-based units of instruction. Units of study are posted on Google Classroom. Coursework is mainly project based and assessment is on competency. In language class, students are asked to demonstrate proficiency by producing spoken and written presentations in Spanish. Course content defers to skill acquisition. And with a contextual reading and storytelling method, language teachers can create effective curriculum units based on a wide range of literature and topics.

Given our budget constraints and the language acquisition readiness of my students, the most workable instructional approach is through reading and storytelling. As it turns out, this most pragmatic option nevertheless proves to be most effective in the short term. Secondary students who learn a language with a contextual reading and storytelling approach have a good foundation with which to begin post-secondary language class down the road with a traditional text book.

Language teachers make a distinction between language learning and language acquisition.5 The traditional language pedagogy methods such as grammar-translation result in the learning of language content in a long preamble to language skill acquisition. It makes sense that the use of vocabulary lists and flash cards, studying parts of a sentence, and memorizing endings will prioritize the ability to recall words and manipulate their forms. Ironically, the vocabulary list, often crammed, is stashed in short-term memory and soon forgotten, and grammar instruction without foundation is a losing battle as well. But when language teachers can relax their loyalty to content and grammar rules, then authentic language acquisition can be the priority. The same is true in other

4 https://dashboards.philasd.org/extensions/philadelphia/index.html#/keystone 5 Krashen and Terrell, 1995.

skill-based disciplines. In mathematics, for example, the ability to count or memorize multiplication tables is not the same as numeracy.

Memorization is not the enemy, however. On the contrary, the ability to recall vocabulary is the nuts and bolts of language expression. But it does make a difference how the words are acquired. Once the new vocabulary is introduced as a set of lexical items, the storytelling method seeks immediately to replicate the language acquisition process of our first language, and fix the words in context with a functional-notional approach. The key is to radically shorten the time spent on introducing vocabulary and jump right into weaving narrative. As a result, the short-term memorization of discrete words is bypassed, and students will own the new language for keeps.

Teaching Strategies

Two outcomes are expected from each storytelling unit: to be able to retell a simple story in Spanish, and then to create an original variation of that story, in Spanish, with a minimum (three recommended) of additional vocabulary words. Through chunking, scaffolding, and personalizing, students will experience volumes of comprehensible input in the new language. Students will use a simple method to tell what they see and what they know, then break from the exemplar to create an original variation. Authentic language skill will be fostered through Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA). Repeating and recombining the vocabulary in context and through item substitution will multiply the volume of comprehensible input. In conference with individual students, as the speaking and writing presentations are nearing completion, the counseling-learning method is employed to undergird language acquisition with confidence and resilience. Formative activities employ props, realia, and gestures, and the culminating activity will result in short stories, skits, puppet shows, videos, re-enactments, or other demonstrations.

Once students have acquired a vocabulary of a hundred words or so, they have a sense of how much they can already say, and of the new vocabulary they will need to tell the story in front of them, or indeed whatever new story they wish. Having completed even one or two stories from Blaine Ray’s Look I Can Talk!, a student can list the old words (in Spanish) to recycle for a new story in the target language, plus the words (in English) that must be learned from scratch.

A vocabulary list is provided below for each of two sample stories. Three new words per day are introduced for the first week of the unit. It is normal to want to enrich the story with additional words, but resist the temptation. Cognates, opposites, and new forms of old words are good choices for additional vocabulary, if necessary, as they are easily internalized. Ideally there will be fifteen to a maximum of twenty new words necessary to tell the new story. When preparing a new unit vocabulary list, determine the words needed to tell the new story, keeping in mind the vocabulary that students know

from previous lessons. Use a KWL chart to organize old and new vocabulary. Decide in advance the words to be taught with Total Physical Response (TPR) hand signals or gestures. Cognates can be introduced and employed with few repetitions and will therefore not need hand signals. The word for any item or picture of an item that you have in the classroom likewise will not need a hand signal.

For the TPR activities, choose gestures that will communicate clearly to everyone in the room, and use them consistently throughout the unit. Use your own, or have the students come up with ones that make sense to them. Make sure there is no double entendre, and watch out for gestures that have an off-color meaning in another culture.6 When planning, consider American Sign Language gestures, but make sure to choose a hand signal that is most intuitive. Also, be careful not to make a secondary goal of learning sign language. Remember that TPR is a means to instill the target language which bypasses the entire task of translation. Translation may be used briefly as a check for understanding, and otherwise only sparingly as an art separate from language acquisition.

Prepare the room by setting the scene for the story. Have students create as many of the props as possible. With tape, make a path on the floor on which to act out the story, and affix scenery to the wall using butcher paper. To designate the blocking for a story re-tell, fasten landmarks to the floor with clear contact paper for every spot the action of the story takes place. For the rabbit story, mark the location of the rock, the duck’s home, etc. Crumple a length of butcher paper into a ball to make the large rock.

A storyboard is provided to accompany the rabbit story. Feel free to use it, or create your own. Each new story should have a storyboard to track the action of the narrative. It should be clear, sequential, and free of text. It doesn’t have to be beautiful; stick figures are fine. Rough drawings and startling story plots actually motivate students to create their own story variations. Draw or find a storyboard of six to eight panels. Print out a copy for each student. If possible, make a poster-sized enlargement of it and post it at the front of the class. (I actually pull it off the wall and carry it around the room as I tell the story, pointing to each detail as I go.) Alternatively, project the storyboard on the wall.

Classroom Activities The first story below is adapted from “The Rabbit and the Wolf” in Barbara K. Walker’s A Treasury of Turkish Folktales for Children. As the curator of the Turkish Oral Archive housed at Texas Tech University, Walker had at her disposal thousands of tales recorded during her research in Turkey. In the collection there are numerous short stories, riddles,

6 For the meanings of some gestures in other cultures, see Conaway, Wayne A. and Terri Morrison. Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries.

as well as stories several pages long that may be adapted for use in the Spanish language classroom. In the adaptation below, the entire story is kept in the present tense and limited mainly to vocabulary familiar to Spanish students in the first semester of study. It could be simplified further in order to accommodate individual students, or enriched for heritage speakers. In fact, heritage speakers may want to flesh out the story further themselves as they demonstrate their writing proficiency.

Day 1: Having chosen the first three words to introduce, prepare short PQA questions with which to practice. You will need dry erase boards and markers, storyboards, and KWL charts. The KWL charts may be either printed on the back of the storyboard, or ready online.

Hand out a storyboard paper to each student. Ask them what they see. “¿Qué ven ustedes?” Write the individual Spanish words in a list on the board. These will be mainly old vocabulary words that will be recycled into the new story. Next, ask them what they know. “¿Qué saben ustedes?” or “¿Qué sabemos?” This question should elicit short sentences, for example, “Hay un animal.” Write these down in another list.

Using pictures or signals (TPR), teach the three new words, perhaps conejo, lobo, and roca. Write them on the board or on chart paper, and keep them in a place where they will not be erased for at least two weeks. Heritage speakers may want to suggest piedra. It’s fine to have a conversation in English about the word field surrounding each.

Check for understanding. Each student should be able to identify each item out loud in Spanish. With a brisk pace, but no too fast, build up to three words in a row, then change the order of the three. Add gato and perro to the mix. Next give students two minutes to quiz their partners. Time the activity.

Then at a slower pace, and using dry erase boards, ask students draw what you say. Check for understanding, and clarify in English as needed. Let students show each other their work. Start simple, and build in complexity. Dibuja un conejo y dos rocas. Dibuja una roca grande y una pequeña. Dibuja un lobo encima de una roca. Mix in old vocabulary. Dibuja un lobo al lado de una casa. Get silly. Dibuja un conejo con tres orejas. You will know immediately whether they have understood. Finally, take a volunteer or two to tell the class what to draw. By the end of this activity, most students should know most words. It will be clear who needs more practice.

Refocus the class on the storyboard. Have them write all the words they might use to describe the pictures in the first column of the KWL chart. These are words they already know in Spanish. For students who are lagging, refer to the lists on the board. Then take another look at the storyboard and brainstorm for new vocabulary still needed

to string the story together. These words go in the second column in English. (The third column is for their own story variation later on.) This KWL chart is not yet a comprehensive vocabulary list, but it will help students organize their story material and demonstrate their effort. A comprehensive vocabulary list may be provided at the end of the first week for students who need that security. That may be all of them.

Lastly, put materials aside and spend at least five minutes using personalized questions and answers (PQA). Ask a question; wait a beat; and call on a strong student. “¿Tienes un gato/perro?” Repeat the question and call on more students, including those who struggled with the dry erase board activity. Using item substitution, switch up the questions. “¿Tienes un conejo?” “¿Tienes un lobo?” “¿Tienes una mascota?” “¿Qué clase de animal tienes en casa?” “¿Cómo se llama tu lobo?”

The Spanish sentences given for the above activities will be too elementary for some classes, and you will know best the range of abilities in your own classes. Prepare phrases to suit your needs in advance on index cards. Write the PQA questions on chart paper and post them on the back wall of the classroom.

Day 2: You will need the same materials as Day 1. You have prepared PQA questions and the phrases for the dry erase board activity. The activities will follow the same sequence as yesterday.

Review yesterday’s words with TPR. Immediately refer to the storyboard, and see how much the class as a whole can describe of the first two panels. Ask, “¿Qué ven ustedes?” and “¿Qué sabemos?” Take student input and begin to tell a simple story: Hay un conejo. Camina por la selva. Oye un lobo…

Note that the story that students tell will always be simpler than the story in the box below. The story in the box is material for reading comprehension, not a model for speaking proficiency. The difference is that speaking proficiency is always a step below reading comprehension. Explain to the students that this is the case for every person at every level of every subject. We all comprehend more than we can express. For this reason, a new language learner will never be expected to tell the story at the level of the story in the box. The new language learner’s goal is to express complete thoughts in good beginner Spanish, and every student’s story will be a little different from the next. If the student does replicate that story in the box, the submission is either copied or memorized, and as such it would be ungradable.

Having chosen the next three vocabulary words, perhaps ayúdame, morir, and espalda, introduce them with TPR or pictures. Write them on the board under yesterday’s words. Remember that for chunking to be helpful, it is best to avoid adding additional words. Today, however, it might make sense to teach muere along with morir, and ayuda along with ayúdame. Check for comprehension and briefly clarify in English when

necessary. Mix in yesterday’s words. Add words from previous units. Have students turn and talk, quizzing each other for two minutes. Then take a volunteer or two to quiz the class. Use the dry erase boards as before. El conejo tiene una roca en la espalda. El lobo tiene una roca enorme en la cabeza. Build in complexity. Use students’ ideas to add an element of unpredictability. The more unpredictable the phrases are, the more confident and authentic the acquisition is. Check for comprehension, and take note of the students who do not understand every word.

Set aside all materials, and with the whole class, use the PQA questions that you have prepared. Keep the momentum going with strong students, but loop in the slower students again and again, until they are confident and pleased with their learning.

Refer back to the storyboard, and start telling the story again. Take suggestions. Hay un conejo blanco. Un día camina por la selva. Oye un lobo, per no ve al lobo. Ask the PQA questions that you have posted for yourself on the back wall. Students may or may not notice these, but it doesn’t matter. They are for you. “¿De qué color es el conejo?” “Cómo se llama?” “¿Adónde va el conejo?” “¿Qué piensa el conejo?” Complete a little more of the story and foreshadow the ending.

Begin the story one last time. Enlist student volunteers. Then have students work in pairs to tell the first two thirds of the story so that every student has had a chance to speak. Finally, with the class, complete a little more of the story and foreshadow the ending.

Day 3: Having chosen three new words, add them to the list on the board. Having prepared the PQA questions, scaffold the lesson as before. Review the first six words with TPR. Immediately turn to the storyboard and tell as much of the story as can be told as of now. Take student input. Name the characters after students in the room. Switch the characters around. Come up with synonymous expressions. Hay un lobo que camina por la selva. Se llama Quamir. Quamir oye una voz fuerte, pero no sabe que pasa. De repente ataca al lobo un conejo. Le tira una roca grande en la espalda.

Teach the three new words. Scaffold learning with TPR, turn and talk, and employ listening comprehension activities. Increase the time spent with students speaking and leading. Students will read the first two paragraphs of the story in the box. When possible, read aloud.7 Do the true/false questions 1-5, and the fill-ins 1-5, following the story.

7 Jim Trelease makes the case for reading aloud to students of all ages in The Read Aloud Handbook.

Begin the story again. Start with a student volunteer. Then have students work in pairs to tell the first two thirds of the story so that every student has had a chance to speak.

Day 4: Having chosen three new words, add them to the list on the board. Having prepared the PQA questions, scaffold the lesson as before. Then do exercises A and B, 6-10 following the story in the box.

On the board or on chart paper write out the story as a class, using only student input. Incorporate as much detail as possible. Set a goal of 150, 200, or 250 words, and meet the goal.

Online, create a unit in Quizlet for Day 5. Enter all of the Spanish words and their definitions, plus any words that you added along the way, plus any old words that just need extra practice. Quizlet will remix the vocabulary into a quiz, flashcards, and games. The quiz can be retaken, and it is a different version every time. Students may take a screen shot of their highest quiz grade for a sense of their conventional grade. Day 5: Finish the week with the last three words and scaffold the lesson as before. Finish the exercises following the story in the box. Have students practice online using your Quizlet unit. Hand out the vocabulary list, and maybe use it as a self quiz. Students who were absent at all will be glad to have it as a resource.

As early as Day 5, and before Day 10, pass out loose-leaf paper and have students write the entire story in their own words. Depending on what they are accustomed to, give them sentence starters for each section or not; let them use notes or not; have them work in pairs or not; grade it or not. The purpose is practice writing a full narrative in one sitting. Day 6 and following: Have students sign up for five minute time slots to tell you the basic story. Provide the rubric. Have them practice with a partner using the rubric informally. This is a speaking assessment.

Begin working on student presentations of an original variation on the basic story. They will start with a storyboard to lay out the arc of the narrative. They will shape the story by introducing characters, setting the scene, describing the conflict, and coming to a solution/conclusion. Students will decide how to demonstrate the story—as a skit, a puppet show, a stop-motion video—and will write a script or a narration of 250 words. This is a writing assessment.

Depending on the calendar, this unit can be completed in ten to fifteen days. Direct instruction takes a week, maybe two, but I normally plan to complete one story every three weeks, taking into consideration holidays, field trips, assemblies, fire drills,

and snow days. The extra week allows plenty of time for class presentations and individual conferences.

The speaking proficiency assessment can take place any time after Day 5. Individual students come up and tell the basic story from a blank (no notes) storyboard, while the rest of the class works on the writing assessment or practices speaking. For practice, each student has a copy of the rubric below, and partners will give each other a practice “grade.” There is no time limit for the speaking proficiency assessment, but a student generally needs at least five minutes. The teacher becomes the “sympathetic interlocutor” who nods with encouragement. When the narrative breaks down, however, employ a counseling-learning tactic and ask, “What do you want to say?” If the student responds in English, give her or him the hand signal used to learn the word. That usually brings the Spanish word to mind, and the student resumes with no penalty.

The writing proficiency assessment is the written script or narrative of the student’s own original variation on the basic story. Remarkably, beginning students are able to write a full page narrative in good quality beginner Spanish. The writing skills of native speakers and heritage speakers will vary. At my school we assess growth rather than proficiency, so that students of all abilities are working at their growth edge. With all students, insist on thorough proof-reading and some form of peer editing. If students submit their writing using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, use track changes and margin notes to point out errors. The first time I teach a storytelling unit I sit next to each student and work through the margin notes until the writing piece is perfect. There’s nothing wrong with perfect. Whenever the narrative breaks down, just as in the speaking assessment, I ask, “What do you want to say?” After three or four storytelling units, I notice a marked improvement in student writing and less need for revision. I intend for their Spanish work to support their English literacy as well.

I have simplified my speaking and writing proficiency rubrics in order to make the assessment expectations clear to students, and with the intention to encourage and uplift them in their language study. I want students to produce consistently excellent work. In the past I have allowed students to repeat a speaking proficiency assessment once, upon request. The writing grade is an assessment of the second (final) draft of their original story. In both cases, the revision process is a valuable step in language acquisition, and warrants time and care. For the writing rubric, I put the proofreading checklist on the back. Again, grammar is not directly taught, and therefore is not a priority in my beginning language assessments. As a necessary foundation for basic Spanish syntax, I do teach that adjectives usually follow nouns, and that we negate a sentence by putting no before the verb. For the time being, I will gladly explain any other grammar points briefly as a question arises, either during a lesson, or during the counseling-learning process.

Following the assessment pages is a second set of lesson materials for the story of Zal and Simorgh from the Persian legend, the Shahnameh. The unit is suitable for second year students, as the story in the box is in the past tense. For storyboard pictures, use the simplified English version in Arsia Rozegar’s Shahnameh: The Story of Zal and the Simorgh, one of a series in The Shahnameh For Kids.8 Zal and the Simorgh is one portion of the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh, written and illustrated for children. Rozegar intentionally has developed a series of adventures from the Shahnameh to teach sequential storytelling and accurate Iranian culture. The book was first available in 2015 through Kickstarter. Other stories in the collection are The Bravery of Gordafarid, and The Mighty Rostam, all of them developed by Arsia Rozegar.

In a cross-curricular lesson, you could also devote time to study fantastic works of art on the abduction of Zal. In addition, a tantalizing cultural digression would be a study of traditional Iranian puppetry, the marionettes and shadow theater of Iran.

8 www.shahnamehforkids.com

El conejo y el lobo

¡!

El conejo y el lobo Hay un conejo listo, un lobo gris, y un pato gordo que viven en la selva. Un día

el conejo listo da un paseo por la selva y oye una voz en la distancia: “¡Ayúdame! ¡Ayúdame! ¡Por favor, ayúdame! ¡Voy a morir! ¡Ayúúúdame!” El conejo camina un poco más hacia la voz y ve un lobo gris debajo de una roca grande. Cuando el lobo gris ve al conejo, grita otra vez, “Por favor, Conejo, ¡ayúdame! Hay una roca grande en mi espalda, y yo no puedo mover.”

El conejo listo se acerca al lobo gris y ve que el lobo tiene un problema serio. Trabaja muy fuerte y por fin mueva la roca de la espalda del lobo. De repente salta el lobo y agarra el conejo en la boca. El conejo llora y llora. Pide compasión, pero el lobo insiste que lo va a comer. El conejo listo dice, “Lobo, una buena persona no mata a la persona que lo ayuda. No es justo. Pregunta al pato gordo. El pato gordo sabe todo. Es muy sabio.”

El lobo gris va con el conejo listo a visitar el pato gordo. El conejo listo explica que pasa, y el pato gordo le pregunta, “¿Dónde está la roca grande? Muéstrame la roca.” Los tres caminan a la roca. El pato dice, “No comprendo. Tengo que ver la roca en la espalda del lobo gris.” Entonces el lobo gris se acuesta, y el conejo listo mueva la roca encima de la espalda del lobo. “¿Qué piensas?” le pregunta el lobo grisal pato gordo. El pato gordo piensa un momento y le dice, “Pienso que no es justo matar a la persona que te ayuda. A ver si otra persona te ayuda ahora.” El pato gordo y el conejo listo dejan el lobo gris triste debajo de la roca grande, y continúan por la selva.

Ejercicios:

A. Decide si cada frase es cierto o falso.

1. _____ El conejo vive en la selva. 6. _____ Los dos visitan al pato. 2. _____ El conejo oye música. 7. _____ El pato no comprende. 3. _____ El lobo tiene una roca en la espalda. 8. _____ El lobo mueva la roca. 4. _____ El conejo grita al lobo. 9. _____ El pato mata el conejo. 5. _____ El lobo agarra al conejo. 10. _____ El lobo está triste.

B. Complete las frases.

1. El conejo listo da un ______________ . 6. El lobo quiere _______ el conejo. 2. El lobo cree que va a ______________. 7. El conejo ________ todo al pato. 3. El lobo gris está ___________ de una roca. 8. ________ pone la roca en el lobo. 4. El lobo ___________ y agarra al conejo. 9. Nadie _________ al lobo. 5. El conejo ____________ y pide compasión. 10. El pato y el conejo siguen por la ____________.

C. Decide el orden correcto de estas frases.

_____ Los dos buscan a un pato sabio.

_____ El conejo y el pato salen del lobo.

_____ Un conejo listo da un paseo por el bosque.

_____ El conejo listo pone la roca en la espalda del lobo otra vez.

_____ Cuando oye una voz, el conejo continúa caminando a ver qué pasa.

_____ El pato quiere comprender la situación.

_____ El conejo dice que no es justo comer a la persona que lo ayuda.

_____ Encuentra un lobo gris que tiene un problema.

_____ El conejo ayuda al lobo, pero el lobo ataca al conejo.

_____ El problema es que tiene una roca grande en la espalda.

D. Escribe el cuento en tus propias palabras. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

El conejo y el lobo – Vocabulario Nombre________________ Fecha __________________

1. el conejo – 2. el lobo – 3. el pato – 4. la voz – 5. la roca –

6. vive – 7. oye – 8. grita – 9. mata – 12. sabe – 11. muestra – 12. muere –

13. justo –

14. un poco más – 15. otra vez –

16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

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Proofreading Checklist

Choose a legible font, like Arial or Times New Roman, in size 12 point.

Write your first and last name at the top left.

Under that write the date.

Center the title, which is in Spanish. Only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, plus any proper noun.

Left justify body of text.

Indent each paragraph.

Make sure every sentence has end punctuation.

If a sentence ends in a question mark or exclamation mark, it begins with that mark inverted.

Break up any run-on sentence.

Omit English words.

Check all spelling.

Check that punctuation is inside any quotation marks.

If you think a word needs an accent, look it up. In Microsoft Word or Google Docs, be sure to choose the correct character. Accents on vowels go up and to the right.

Re-read for continuity. Does the whole narrative make sense? Revise it as necessary.

After you thoroughly proofread your narrative, ask a classmate to proofread it thoroughly.

Zal y la Simorgh

Había una vez un rey llamado Sam. El rey tenía una esposa muy bella. Los dos tenían un bebé hermoso con pelo blanco. La madre le dio el nombre Zal que significa una persona muy vieja. El Rey Sam temó que el niño era de un demonio, y dejó el niño cerca de una montaña para que los animales del bosque lo coman. El bebé lloró y lloró.

Pero en la montaña vivía la Simorgh, un ave mujer muy especial y legendaria. La Simorgh vio al bebé solo y sin nadie para protegerlo, y lo llevó a un nido encima de la montaña. La familia de la Simorgh era muy cariñosa con Zal, y Zal llegó a ser un buen hombre.

Para proteger a Zal, la Simorgh le regaló una pluma del ala. Con la pluma Simorgh podía encontrar a Zal. Pero a pesar de todo eso, Zal no estaba contento. Sabía que no conocía a su propia familia. Ni siquiera sabía su propia lengua humana.

Zal se casó con Rudabeh, una sacerdotisa y bisnieta de un rey culebra. Era de piel blanquísima y tenía muchos años más que Zal. Con el paso del tiempo Rudebeh estuvo lista para la llegada de su primer bebé, pero hubo un gran problema y el bebé tardó en llegar. Zal estaba preocupado y llamó a la Simorgh con la pluma de su ala. La Simorgh le dio a Rudabeh una poción herbaria para calmarla. El bebé llegó a través de una cesárea, y después la Simorgh le dio a Rudebeh una segunda poción para sanarla. Lo curioso es que el bebé era como un niño león.

Ejercicios: A. Decide si cada frase es cierto o falso.

1. ____ El rey se llama Sam. 6. ____ A Zal le gusta la vida nueva. 2. ____ La reina es hermosa. 7. ____ Rudabeh es una serpiente. 3. ____ El nombre del bebé quiere decir anciano. 8. ____ Rudabeh es mayor que Zal. 4. ____ Sam es un diablo. 9. ____ Zal necesita medicina. 5. ____ La Simorgh es bien simpática. 10. ____ Rudabeh da luz a un león.

B. Complete las frases.

1. La ________ del rey es bonita. 7. Zal y Rudabeh se _____________. 2. Sam cree que Zal es ____________. 8. Rudabeh tiene su ________ bebé. 3. Hay animales en el/la ______________. 9. La Simorgh ____ __________ a 4. El bebé está _______________. Rudabeh una droga. 5. La Simorgh trae al bebé a su ____________. 10. Rudabeh trae su hijo al mundo a 6. La Simorgh le da a Zal ____ ____________. __________ de una cesárea.

C. Decide el orden correcto de estas frases.

_____ La Simorgh, un ave mujer supernatural, coge el bebé y lo lleva a casa.

_____ El Rey Sam y su reina tienen un bebé con pelo blanco.

_____ La Simorgh ayuda a Rudabeh y nace un bebé como un bebe león.

_____ Sam tiene miedo del niño.

_____ El rey deja el niño cerca de una montana.

_____ Cuando Rudabeh da luz a su primer bebé tiene problemas.

_____ Zal se casa con Rudabeh, una anciana mística.

_____ La familia de la Simorgh trata el bebé con cariño.

_____ El bebé se llama Zal.

_____ El niño llega a ser un hombre bueno.

D. Escribe el cuento en tus propias palabras. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ .

Zal y la Simorgh – Vocabulario Nombre________________ Fecha __________________

1. el rey – 2. el pelo – 3. el ave – 4. el nido – 5. el sacerdote – 6. la pluma – 7. el ala –

8. temer – 9. proteger – 10. casarse – 11. pasar tiempo – 13. tardar –

14. ni siquiera – 15. a través de –

16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Resources

1. Bibliography for teachers

Booker, C. The seven basic plots: Why we tell stories. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Here is a good rationale and resource for story formulas.

Cummins, James. The Role of Primary Language Development in Promoting Educational Success for Language Minority Students. Evaluation, Dissemination, and Assessment Center. California State University, 1981. The author makes a case for affirming the language and literature of minority students.

Fleischman, Michael and Roy. “Intentional Context in Situated Natural Language Learning.” Cognitive Machines. The Media Laboratory. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dec. 2005. This is another good resource for effective language acquisition pedagogy through contextual learning.

Gray, Ronald. “Grammar Correction in ESL/EFL Writing Classes May Not Be Effective.” The International TESL Journal, 2000. The author explains why insistence on correct grammar is not a good use of class time, how it impairs language acquisition, especially for the teaching of writing. He stresses that the important thing is to foster the activity of writing to convey meaning. Huang, X., & van Naerssen, M. (1987). “Learning strategies for oral communication.” Applied Linguistics, 8(3), 287-307. This is a collection of methods and tips for teaching speaking proficiency.

Jensen, Eric. Brain-based Learning: The New Science of Teaching and Training. San Diego: The Brain Store, 2000. This book provides a good background for understanding brain cognition as skill is acquired.

Krashen, Stephen. “Teaching Grammar: Why Bother?” California English Journal, 3(3): 8 1998. Krashen raises staunchly held beliefs on the teaching of English grammar and sets most of them aside.

Krashen, Stephen D. The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing, 2004. Although this curriculum unit mainly deals with speaking and writing proficiency,

reading is an important source of comprehensible input. And Krashen is one of the great forerunners of current language acquisition pedagogy who writes on his original research.

Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. University of Southern California, 2002. This book is a persuasive discussion of language acquisition pedagogy.

Krashen, Stephen D. and Tracy D. Terrell. The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall Europe, 1995. Here is a thorough run-down on language acquisition pedagogy intended to mimic first language acquisition. There are several editions of this book.

Lipton, Gladys Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs. Lincolnwood, Il.: National Textbook Co., 2010. Lipton is a FLES guru. To appreciate sequential FLES, check out this book. Also see Lipton’s website: http://www.gladys-c-lipton.org/why_fles.html

Morrison, Terri and Wayne A. Conaway. Kiss, Bow, Or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries. Avon, Ma.: Adams Media, 2006. This book has extensive information you might use when teaching on cross- cultural topics. Ray, Blaine. Look I Can Talk! Sky Oaks Productions. This is Blaine Ray’s TPRS student text/workbook that is available in several languages. His units are skeletal but versatile.

Trelease, Jim. Read Aloud Handook. New York: Penguin Books, 2013. Reading is crucial for getting the volumes of comprehensible input needed for language acquisition. Reading aloud is beneficial for all ages, and Jim Trelease tells the why and how. This is a classic. Trelease doesn’t use the term PQA, but he details how to analyze a text and formulate the meta-conversation. Truscott, John. “The Case Against Grammar Correction in L2 Writing Classes.” Language Learning 46:2, June 1996, pp. 327-369. National Tsing Hua University This article is yet another case study on why it is not helpful to enforce grammar rules strictly in beginning language acquisition.

Sharma, Bal Krishna. “Mother Tongue Use in English Classroom.” Journal of NELTA, Vol. 11 No. 1-2, December, 2006. Here is another study affirming the practice of limiting use of the first language in the new language classroom. Of particular interest are the exceptions.

“How to Tell Stories Across Cultures.” Intermission Magazine. June 29, 2016. www.intermissionmagazine.ca/festivals/summerworks/tell-stories-across-cultures/ This article highlights elements to keep in mind when telling stories from another culture. Wilkinson, Joyce. The symbolic dramatic play: Literacy connection: whole brain, whole body, whole learning. Needham Heights, Mass.: Ginn, 1993. This is an argument for teaching language in context with ideas for teaching.

Zak, P. J. “Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling.” Harvard Business Review. November, 2014. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves- good-storytelling Here is a more recent article on storytelling, brain science, and what ingredients go into a good story formula. 2. Reading list for students

Ehlert, L. Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale/Cucú: una leyenda mexicana. New York, NY: Harcourt, 1997. A colleague of mine has inspired me to build a library of trade books in Spanish for SSR, for reading aloud, and for material for storytelling. I especially want folktales and legends like this one for my classroom.

Rozegar, Arsia. Shahnameh: The Story of Zal and the Simorgh. Shahnamehforkids.com, 2015. This book is valuable for its authenticity as a classic Iranian legend developed for children. It is the source for “Zal y la Simorgh” this curriculum unit.

Walker, Barbara K. A Treasury of Turkish Folktales for Children. Linnet Books, 1988. “The Rabbit and the Wolf” on page 15 of the Walker treasury is the source for the story adaptation above in this curriculum unit. There are several other stories and riddles in the book that you could adapt for classroom use.

3. List of materials for classroom use

Vinyl floor marking tape or masking tape Clear contact paper Butcher paper A class set of Spanish dictionaries or access to an online dictionary A class set of dry erase boards or laminated card stock A class set of dry erase markers Chart paper Egg timer, stop watch, or timer on your phone

Puppet theater and puppets Digital media tools such as Google Slides and Google Docs Craft supplies for paper dolls or sock puppets

Appendix

Listed below is a selection of standards for secondary world language instruction from the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System (SAS). This curriculum unit meets the following standards, among others, of the SAS developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.9 Standard 12.1.1.S2.C Comprehend simple spoken and written sentences using an expanded vocabulary in dialogs and short essays. Standard - 12.1.1.S3.D Develop and use simple, compound and complex sentence and question structures to communicate and comprehend. Face-to-face initiated conversations Simple survival tasks A simple letter Main ideas of culturally authentic materials Compositions

Performance Indicator - 12.3.1 The Role of CULTURE in World Language Acquisition (PERFORMANCE INDICATORS)

Standard - 12.3.1.S4.D Use the target language to synthesize topics and events from other subject areas.

Civics and Government (e.g., current political issues) Humanities (e.g., art) English (e.g., literature, history of language) Environment & Ecology (e.g., national parks, global warming) Economics (e.g., global economy)

Standard - 12.1.1.S4.F Demonstrate mastery of certain target language skills by connecting influences of target language in another subject area. Dramatization (e.g., Flamenco Dance) 9 https://www.pdesas.org/Standard/View#

Essay or story Poem or song (e.g., classical artists) Projects (e.g., arts, crafts, videos, dioramas)

Standard - 12.5.S4.C Assess available opportunities at the global level to continue involvement with the target culture for lifelong learning and personal enjoyment.