As language teachers we are always looking for fun and engaging ways to boost proficiency! Incorporating spanish stories has been the most successful tool I’ve used in my own classroom. One short reading passage or story can give us a week’s worth of content that is engaging and memorable! And, you can use these stories even if you are following a traditional text book!
How to use Spanish stories when you have a traditional textbook
Does you text book require you to teach a long list of ER and IR verbs in Spanish? You can put them in a story! Capitalize on student interest and find a way to write a story that fits your grammar or vocabulary unit. This story provides tons of repetition of Spanish ER and IR verbs in context, using a TV show they are all binge-watching on Netflix.
Here’s another example to demonstrate the Spanish structure of ir + a + infinitive:
This story provides multiple repetitions of the grammar structure in context and opportunities for students to share their opinions on the reading. The picture book also aids reading comprehension for struggling readers. You get to teach the required Spanish grammar, as well as reading comprehension in Spanish while providing comprehensible input!
To teach reflexive verbs in Spanish, use this story about Tarzan learning to bathe in order to impress Jane. Again, you are providing comprehensible input through storytelling while meeting the expectations of your language department.
Introduce vocabulary first
Before you start reading in Spanish with students, it’s important to introduce students to vocabulary in a variety of ways. Act out verbs, drew pictures, come up with word clues, play Quizlet and a variety of other games. Students should be familiar with the vocabulary before you begin reading the Spanish story. The goal with reading is always to make it comprehensible. We don’t want students to shut down.
When teaching vocabulary, make sure your Spanish stories are action packed! This makes it more fun for students to act them out. Here’s an example:
Narrate for your students as they act out each Spanish story. I highly recommend keeping some costumes or puppets on hand for these storytelling activities! You can get some great deals the day after Halloween!
Sometimes we will act out the story in Spanish two or three times, each time using new actors and changing some element of the story through audience participation. You can narrate the original story and stop when you get to a story element they can change. Depending on the class, you can let students call out their suggestions or pull names from a hat to make the decision. Changes may include the name of the characters, the setting, what kind of character (animal, human, etc.) and likes or dislikes. If you have a particularly strong class or a student who needs a challenge, step out and let that student narrate the final story in Spanish, which is the most fun of all!
Post reading activities
Retelling the story in Spanish
After students have finished acting out a story in Spanish, we often do activities to retell or modify the story. For example, provide a comic strip for students to use to retell the events of the story in Spanish.
Additionally, you could have students write an alternative ending.
Highlighting the story
Another strategy is to ask students to highlight the targeted words or grammar structures in the Spanish story. This forces students to read the story one more time for extra repetition. It also gives them something to focus on as they read. In this story, we focused on noun-adjective agreement, and we color coded our highlighting to illustrate the concept for visual learners as they read.
Put the story in order
Cut apart the Spanish story by sentences or paragraphs. Ask students to rearrange them in the correct order. This requires them to read the story again for even more input.
Illustrate the story
Instead of using a comic strip to retell the story in Spanish, ask students to create their own! Students can illustrate everything they remember from the story
Grammar stories in Spanish
Each Spanish story is different. Typically, if the Spanish story is illustrating a grammar concept, we read through it together slowly, stopping to ask questions and to check for understanding. These are harder to act out. Usually I will read it to them the first time to demonstrate accurate pronunciation. Then students re-read to their partner to practice their own fluency, and finally they re-read to each other in English to check for understanding. I demonstrate this step to them and show them how we don’t read every single word, but summarize the sentence how it would be said in English.
Get started with a free story today!
