Looking for an engaging speaking activity for your ESL class? This storytelling task is a great way to get your students working together in a creative, fun way. It’s limited only by the extent of their imagination! Materials are available for download at the end of this post.
I recently did this activity with one of my private students, a very clever 11-year old boy of upper-intermediate level. With his high level of English and sharp intelligence, he can be easily bored if the activities are not engaging enough. On the flipside, he has a wonderful and extensive imagination, which is an absolute goldmine. Although he’d started the lesson stretched out and groaning on the sofa (he’d competed in a biathlon at school that day in the sweltering Barcelona heat), he finished the lesson animated and engaged, enthralled by tales of mutant plants, alien invasions, and nuclear explosions.
A snapshot of some of the storytelling components co-created with my student.
How do you run this ESL storytelling activity?
This activity is based on the classic ‘characters, places, problems, solutions’ storytelling task. It’s an easy and effective way to help students form the foundations of their story plots, and build from there. The key variation is that I have replaced ‘solution’ with ‘object’. Rather than limiting students to presenting a solution to the problem, this task allows for an outcome that worsens the problem. While happy endings make you feel warm and cosy inside, why limit your students? Additionally, there’s often more entertainment and hilarity to be had when things go unexpectedly.
Which students is A Series of Epic Stories best suited to?
As storytelling requires at least a basic knowledge of past simple, the minimum level is A2. Beyond A2, it’s suitable for students of all levels, as you can adapt the activity according to whichever grammar or vocabulary points you’re teaching. For example, for higher levels, you could obligate your students to use more advanced narrative tenses (such as past perfect continuous), or even future tenses. You could adapt the activity to pose the question ‘What will happen in the future?’, or ‘How will the world end?’. Naturally, you need to take into account your students’ ages and what may be appropriate for them (and adapt accordingly). In its current, unadapted state, A Series of Epic Stories is probably best suited to students between the ages of 11 – 17, though this activity can absolutely work for groups of imaginative adults, too.
This activity presents great opportunities for co-creation amongst students.
How long does this ESL storytelling activity take?
Although I reserve between 20-25 minutes for this activity, the beauty of it is that it can be stretched out over the course of an entire one-hour class if you so desire. The endless variations of characters, places, problems, and objects means endless possibilities for stories, and the complexities you add can make it all the more entertaining. For instance, you could stretch out the activity for higher-level students by encouraging them to create a small skit out of their story (reserving 15-20 minutes at the end of the class for all the groups to participate in a ‘theatre’). Students could be encouraged to choose more than one problem, place, character, and object to make it more challenging, or invent additional supporting characters. You could also have a follow-up writing task (in which the students write their stories instead of acting them out, or speaking). With the extra challenges mentioned in the activity itself, there really are no limitations for how useful this can be in a one-hour class, and beyond.
Pre-teaching vocabulary
Before running this task, determine whether your class will have the vocabulary needed. There are some specific words that even C1 students may not know the meaning of, such as ‘marshmallow’. If needed, create image flashcards to print off (or digitise alongside the character, place, problem, object components) and run a picture/word matching task in small groups.
As a follow-up, do a taboo-style task in which students take one story component from a downward-facing pile. They then need to explain to their group members what it is without saying the word (which group members must guess). For example ‘A small red fruit which is often used in salad’. Alternatively, you could do the same thing with the ‘Yes/No’ question game, in which group members must ask questions which only have an answer of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to guess. For example; Is it a place? Is it a character? Is this character from outer space?
For the full storytelling experience, you can also pre-teach narrative phrases such as ‘Once upon a time….’, ‘Suddenly there was…’ and ‘The end!’
How can this activity be adapted?
Past and future tenses practise
As mentioned above, this activity can be adapted in a myriad of ways. The main benefit is the opportunity for students to practise past tenses, but it can also be used to practise future tenses if needed. Think of themes such as ‘How will the world end?’, or ‘Predict what will happen 100 years from now’.
A theatre
You could encourage your students to use their chosen components to form the basis of a skit. Make sure you monitor the groups closely if you do this, to ensure you can provide guidance to any groups which may feel a little rudderless or uninspired. You could make the students take a few characters instead of just one, or any of the other components. You could practise reported speech by encouraging the audience to listen carefully and record any spoken lines in the play. After, they could report back on what was said (with points given for correctly reported speech).
Writing
To practise writing, you could simply turn this into a written activity instead of a spoken one. Students who aren’t as creative as others may feel a little intimidated to invent their own stories from scratch, so providing base characters, places, and problems can be very helpful (as well as consistent monitoring and checking in). You can also use the opportunity to teach classic narrative devices such as ‘Once upon a time…’, ‘Suddenly, there was ….’, and ‘They lived happily ever after’. For a more collaborative writing activity, combine it with another classic storytelling ESL activity, ‘Folded stories, getting the whole class involved (or groups).
An art project
This ESL storytelling task can also be adapted for students who love to draw, craft, and do other visually creative tasks. Students could co-create storyboards, comic strips, or play a variation of pictionary. Just make sure you have plenty of craft materials to work with! This can also be done online, from scratch or using templates (such as these Canva comic strip templates).
Art projects based on stories can help students retain vocabulary through the visual and hands-on elements of the activity. It also means students can take home something they’ve made at the end of the class to show off to their parents, siblings, or friends.
The Takeaway
This storytelling activity is endlessly adaptable for teens and adults of lower-intermediate to advanced levels. It’s fun, creative, and limited only by the extent of your students’ imaginations. I hope you love it as much as I do!
What was your experience with this task? If you have any thoughts, feedback, or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below!