Interrupt My Story

This activity helps students with fluency and asking questions. Students try to interrupt the speaker’s story by asking for more information about the details of the speaker’s statements.

Preparation

Plan a simple story that you want to tell the students. It can be factual or made up.

Procedure When to Use It

• To warm the students up • To review some lexical content at the end of the day • To practice speaking • To practice question formation

Level

1. Tell the students that you are going to tell them a story. Their goal is to interrupt you as much as possible to ask you questions about what you said, and to get more information. 2. Begin telling the story. The first time around, you may have to prompt them to ask questions or demonstrate with just one student. 3. Students will interrupt you frequently and ask questions about the details in the story. Continue until you reach a good stopping place, usually after five or so minutes.

Skills

Practice

Materials

None

Preparation Time

5 minutes

Variations

1. Divide students into teams. The students who ask you the most questions win. (Note: The questions must be logical and relating to what you just said, not silly or random questions.) 2. Students can work in pairs or small groups. One student tells the story while the partner or teammates ask questions. 3. Instead of asking questions, have a student contribute an object verbally, so that the storyteller must incorporate the object into his/her story.

Activity Time

5–8 minutes

Example

Teacher: Yesterday, Student: What time was it? Teacher: 8:00. Yesterday, at 8:00, I was riding the subway to work when Student: Which subway line? Teacher: The red line. I was riding the red line to work when the train suddenly stopped and everyone crashed into each other. Student: Did anyone get hurt?