AGE: 14-18 years, High school (In China, class of 45 students)

LEVEL: Intermediate-Advanced

TIME: 20 minutes

LANGUAGE FOCUS: summarizing and concise language

SKILLS: speaking, listening, writing

MATERIALS: copies of 6 folk stories of your choice for reference, attached worksheet printed
for every student, timer

OVERVIEW SNAPSHOT: Students will do pair work writing their partner’s description of an
American folk tale in the worksheet attached

STUDENTS WILL: create oral storytelling skills by presenting it to others and learn about what
kinds of communication is necessary for story understanding

BEFORE CLASS: Students will have learned about vocabulary on describing stories, in terms of
beginning, middle and end. Will have talked about transitional phrases, and summarization skills.
For homework, the students will have had to read 6 short folk stories, and picking one to prepare
to bring to class and use their own words to orally present to others.

PROCEDURE (25 minutes):

•   Students will get together in pairs, Student A and Student B. Without saying the title of
their folk story, Student A will describe their story to their partner (Student B), using at
least 10 of the transitional/summarizing words/phrases. Student A is not able to show
their summaries to Student B. Student B will jot down notes on the story based on what
they are being told, but cannot confirm what Student A says and Student A cannot repeat
themselves. (5 minutes)
•   Using at least 10 of the transitional/summarizing words/phrases, the Student B will
present their summary of Student B’s folk story to the class, just like student A did. The
class will then try to guess the student’s folk story and the moral of the folk story. (5
minutes)
•   Finally, students will present folk stories that they have in their own culture. They will
orally summarize the plot lines in their favorite folk story within their own culture and
present them to me. I will guess, with the help of their peers, what the moral of the story
is. (10 minutes)

*Teaching Tip: Remind students they cannot say the character’s name or the story title*
 Name:

Main Character(s):

Introduction:

Rising Action:

Climax:

Moral of the story:

My
guess is:

Name:

Main Character(s):

Introduction:

Rising Action:

Climax:

Moral of the story:

My
guess is: