Week 61: Storytime at English

Every week, we teach English.  This last week, we had more students than usual, so we had to split into two classes.  That meant that I had to teach all by myself.  Uh oh!  In my group, I had three old ladies and a high school student.  

After introductions, I shared a grammar principle.  So far, so good.  Then we moved into storytime; but instead of just my telling the story, I thought we could all take turns adding sentences.  I think that's where I went wrong.  

I started us off: There was a boy living in Slovakia.  

Okay, now it's lady 1's turn.

Lady #1: I live in a village outside of Banská Bystrica.  

Oh.  The idea was to connect it with the last sentence.  Then ladies 1 and 2 started arguing about whether the first sentence even made sense in Slovak.  We moved on.

Lady 2: The boy had a sister.

All right, not bad.

Lady 3: His sister's name was Anna.

This is some story.  I asked the high school student to spice things up, maybe add a twist.  

Teenager: His sister died.

Holy cow!  Now we're getting somewhere.  

Me: So the boy went on an adventure to bring his sister back to life.  Nice, we've come full circle back to lady 1.  I wonder what she'll say?

Lady 1: I have a brother who lives in Australia.  Okay, so the boy goes to Australia to find a magic potion for his sister.

Lady 2: Anna goes to the meadow to pick flowers.  I asked her how that was possible, seeing as Anna's dead.  Her response: "It doesn't matter."  The teenager was almost dying from laughter.

Lady 3: The boy goes to town to meet a friend.  All right, teenager, bring it back for us.

Teenager: His friend helps him find a magic potion for Anna.  Thank you.  Well, time to wrap up the story.

Me: But they couldn't find Anna because she was busy picking flowers.