Story Listening

I just made a quick story listening video for my students to use, and it seemed like the perfect moment to share it with all of you, too! Story listening is a great way to help introduce students to a text that you're about to read, but that the students haven't actually encountered yet. I learned this way of doing it from my colleague, Keith Toda.

So, you ask, how does Story Listening work? It's surprisingly simple. You tell a story in Latin (or another target language of choice). Do this very slowly. And while you do it, draw illustrations to go along with it. Stop to check for meaning with your students, take breaks, and repeat parts of the story as needed. 

It's a bit of work for you, but your students should do the work right along with you! I ask my students to get out their own paper and writing utensils and create their own versions of my drawings along with me. I usually collect the drawings when we're done (although I rarely grade them, shhh), and I often pass them back several days later when we are about to do a free write so that students have a visual reminder of the story events they're being asked to write about. 

The hardest part of Story Listening is probably getting over your own insecurities. As you'll see in the example video below, my drawings are terrible. My handwriting is questionable. I probably made mistakes I am not even aware of. But guess what? It doesn't matter! This is just a prep activity to help get your students ready to read later in the week! Also, this activity always gets a response. You might see it as my students roasting me for horrible art, but I just call it engagement. ;) 

If you want to see what story listening looks like, check out my video, linked below. I will probably do this live on the board in class tomorrow, but I like to make videos for students who were not in class, especially right now. This is part of the next chapter of my retelling of The Golden Ass. (I am trying to time Cupid and Psyche so it lines up with Valentine's Day!) Enjoy!