Forums » Writing Workshop » Read Thread

Hey there, I already posted something in the Newbie section, but I guess this is the right place to place this request.

Background: I'm training to be a teacher and need to prepare lessons for my students. I really like 'choose your own story' stories and want to see if they also work in a classroom environment. This is why I tried (and am still trying) to write my very first story just to see what happens :).

The students are around 14-15 years old, they are learning English as a foreign language. I tried to keep the language rather simple because I am not sure about how good they are.

I would be really thankful if some of you took the time and take a look at my first attempt.

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/the-secret-of-the-mysterious-door

If your students are anything like American foreign language students taking Spanish or French (me), good luck! =P

When I'm studying my French I tend to do better when I read somehing interesting like a short story or poem as opposed to a article on the French theatre, so this sounds like a great idea.  (<- can we update these? They kinda bad, but are helpful . . .)

*edit:  After reading your story I'm pretty sure it'll work nicely for students, though I suggest you get rid of the 'what do you do? choice1, choice2' than having the links reiterate, it just doesn't look that good.  

Thanks. Luckily we are encouraged to do some experiments when in teacher training, so I can't really fail. :)

I still have the double choices because I may need to do a paper version of it, if I don't get the computers of the school. This way I can easily copy it all and cut it out. If I publish it here, I will get rid of the first options and find better names for the links.

Thanks for pointing it out, I was not entirely sure about how to handle the links. Had to rename every single one for about 3 times...

Its good. I would rate it 5.3 out of eight. Strangely, the language doesn't seem simplified at all..

Thanks.

That is actually my biggest fear. I'm still a little clumsy with language when it comes to writing stories and it is even harder to produce texts that suit language learners of a certain level. I will look over it again and try to find the one or other thing I can simplify.

Better than average story you have here. Not sure about the reading level vs. your students, but it's pretty straightforward language-wise.

It's worth publishing here, regardless of what you do with it in the classroom  :)

Thank you.

I still keep finding mistakes, so I will look over it some more times. Maybe the students will also find the one or other thing I could improve. I'm planning to publish it tomorrow afternoon.

Just for those who are interested:

I tried the story game in an English lesson. The students were 14-15 years old and in their 5th learner year. We sat in a circle and did the game with small sheets of paper. I numbered the different pages so they could read the story, choose the next step and I would give the next sheet to the next student.

They ran into a dead end 3 times and managed to reach the happy end just in time. I'd say that the lesson was a success. There were some words they did not understand, but I'll count that as the value of the story game as a learning aid :).

Thanks to to ones who wrote something here.

I published the story game on the site, so who hasn't already tried it out, have fun.