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El mejor invento del mundo: a PBL/TCI story

Published by SraSpanglish on

My first PBL + TPRS/TCI story went over pretty well, so I’m trying it again. We are working on coming up with inventions that could make daily activities better and then marketing them–in two languages–for their Public Speaking class. So I decided the story would be about THE best invention in the world: a homework robot. I had a hard time coming up with a plot, but romance always piques their interest, and of course there has to be a twist at the end.

Peaks and pitfalls
After my first attempt at reinforcing vocabulary as well as listening, reading, and interpersonal skills through focused storytelling, I’ve found that students are able to call up and use a lot more vocabulary on a daily basis. Not only that, but their listening comprehension and confidence have probably doubled. It may even have improved their speaking, as their Plan Verde presentations went off with nearly 100% target language usage, though this has not been the case in the past.

However, like Mme. Farabaugh, I learned that it’s not all instant success just because you tell a story. For starters, they got bored. After the first few repetitions, the story was not quite the hit it was at first. Sure, they would still giggle deviously when they talked about basura del sanitario and animales muertos, but first they would GROAN when they saw the slide with the questions on the board or I’d even SAY “mucha basura.“


So THIS time, I tried a little harder to make the story funny, relevant, and repetitive. I think I got more familiar review in too. Also, since it was story time, I made it story time: they sat on the floor at my feet, and a designee recorded variable answers on a poster with a marker for future reference (it was a lot easier, though, since several opted to celebrate Veteran’s Day even though the college doesn’t). Tomorrow, I’m going to add a surprise by using photos of the people they chose for characters (2nd period went with a country theme instead of a classmate theme) instead of just my regular preset. We’ll also only do the storyasking 3 times before reading and retelling to each other–and those will be spread out due to strange schedule thingies going on this week.
The original from
Schellibie’s DeviantArt
is much cuter
The story
As always, I’m looking for suggestions on how to improve as a novice TCIer. Once again, I used Sra. Bex’s advice, and I underlined details I’d leave up to kids and put the focus structures (HACE and QUIERE) in all caps.

[Luke] es un muchacho. No tiene novia, pero hay una chica muy cómica y bonita en su clase. La chica se llama [Carrie]. [Luke] QUIERE preguntar a [Carrie] <<¿QUIERES ser mi novia?>> pero no puede. 


La mamá de [Luke] dice que no puede tener novia si no HACE su tarea. La mamá de [Luke] dice –Si no tienes tiempo para tarea, no tienes tiempo para novia.

A [Luke]  no le gusta HACER tarea. HACER tarea no es divertido y toma mucho tiempo y energía. [Luke] QUIERE jugar en la computadora y cazar y no HACER la tarea. Pero [Luke] también QUIERE preguntar si [Carrie] QUIERE ser su novia. A  [Carrie] le gusta jugar en la computadora y cazar también y [Luke] QUIERE jugar en la computadora y cazar con ella.

[Luke] tiene una idea. él puede inventar un robot que HACE su tarea. Si hay un robot que HACE su tarea, [Luke] puede tener novia y también puede jugar en la computadora y cazar y no HACER la tarea. [Luke] QUIERE un robot muy organizado y rápido que no necesita mucha energía ni espacio. [Luke] trabaja treinta días para HACER su robot y el robot es perfecto.

¡El robot HACE su tarea y también cocina y cuida animales! La mamá de [Luke] está contenta. [Luke] invita a [Carrie] a su casa: –¿QUIERES ver mi robot? 

[Carrie] dice sí y va a la casa de [Luke]. El robot HACE su tarea, cocina una hamburguesa y cuida todos los animales. A [Carrie] le gusta el robot de [Luke] mucho.

[Luke] pregunta a [Carrie] — ¿QUIERES ser mi novia?

[Carrie] responde que no, pero [Carrie] pregunta –¿Tu robot tiene novia?


  1. ¿Quién es el muchacho?
  2. ¿Quién es la chica?
  3. ¿Por qué el muchacho no puede tener novia?
  4. ¿Qué necesita el muchacho HACER si QUIERE una novia?
  5. ¿Por qué no HACE su tarea?
  6. ¿Qué QUIERE el muchacho hacer?
  7. ¿Qué QUIERE el muchacho preguntar?
  8. ¿Qué QUIERE inventar el muchacho?
  9. ¿Qué tipo de robot QUIERE el muchacho?
  10. ¿Cuánto tiempo trabaja el muchacho?
  11. ¿Qué HACE el robot?
  12. ¿Qué HACE el muchacho cuando su mamá está contenta?
  13. ¿Qué pregunta el muchacho?
  14. ¿Cómo responde la chica?
Categories: affective filterinventionslistening

SraSpanglish

Laura Sexton is a passion-driven, project-based language educator in Gastonia, North Carolina. She loves sharing Ideas for integrating Project-Based Learning in the world language classroom, including example projects, lessons, assessment tips, driving questions, and reflection.

2 Comments

Shelly Hugghins · December 1, 2014 at 6:32 pm

What a fun story!! I loved the invention activities that you did for this unit as well. I have only done one storytelling unit this year, and my students are asking for more. Thank you for sharing your successes and lessons learned, and for inspiring me to move forward 🙂

Shelly Hugghins · December 1, 2014 at 5:43 pm

What a fun story!! I loved the invention activities that you did for this unit as well. I have only done one storytelling unit this year, and my students are asking for more. Thank you for sharing your successes and lessons learned, and for inspiring me to move forward 🙂

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