Intro
This story was written for a class of 7 year old Spanish-speaking children who had just started their third year of bi-lingual English education. (Grade 3, España, Comunidad de Madrid).
It was motivated by a story in the class textbook entitled How the Leopard Got Its Spots which seemed to us poorly written and difficult to understand. Therefore this was written as an easier story which contained similar vocabulary and themes to the textbook story.
How it was used in class.
I started by introducing the story very briefly, then I read it aloud to the children, making sure they were paying attention, and using actions for key points in the story.
After asking if they had enjoyed and understood the story, photocopies were handed out and the children were told to read silently, underlining any words that they didn't understand and putting their hands up to ask if they had problems. For any frequently occurring misunderstandings we addressed the whole class.
After they had finished we addressed a series of question words at the class, focussing on 'Who', 'What', 'Where', Why'.
- “Who is the story about?”
- “What kind of animals are Sam and Lucy?”
- “What do Sam and Lucy do every morning?”
- “Why are the animals nervous?”
- “What do the animals do when Sam and Lucy are hunting?”
- “Why are Sam and Lucy unhappy?”
- etc.
