Told by Students

This summer, I finally tried an idea I had learned from my former colleagues at Cal State Long Beach. I used Discovering Fiction: Student Book 1 as the textbook for my level 5 students. We read and discussed all 14 short stories in the textbook. We did expansion activities by including other relevant stories and/or listening to or watching the stories in a multimedia format.

We also tried a "short story anthology" project whereby mostly paired students created their own fictional stories and then did a dramatic reading in the final days of summer school. I've found that given proper guidance and ample opportunity, our ESL students can create, write, and tell great stories, too.

Here's a sampling of the stories told by my summer students. Clicking on each link will open a PDF file.

• The University by Hasan & Aqeb
• Fate or Miracle by Martin & Rubi
• Sandy, the Dog by Javier & Karina
• The Moon Shine Dream by Jeffery & Herminio
• American Dream by Saul
• Do What You Believe by Alberto & Elias
• A Scary Day by Asuncion & Steven
• The Unexpected Night of That Man by Lucio & Hector
• A Terrible Loss by Francisca & Yenisley