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ESL forum > Message board > Teaching short stories    

Teaching short stories



grimsim
France

Teaching short stories
 
Hello everyone,
Next week ,I will start teaching "A Diary of a Young Girl" and "Don �t look now", two wonderful around 50-page short stories to two classes.
Do you have any ideas or suggestions on how to teach short stories or novellas?
Have you ever had such an experience with your students?
Thanks

31 Oct 2010      





libertybelle
United States

Teaching novellas in English is pretty much the same as in your own language.
Either they can read aloud or silently.

Later, you can make a questionnaire and have them discuss the questions in pairs or in groups.
Then each group can share their answers with the rest of the class.
I usually add some grammar questions and vocabulary exercises too.

The questions could be:
What is the story about?
What is the point of the story - what is the author trying to tell you?
What methods are used to tell this story?
Does the author use flashbacks or does the story take place chronologically?
If there is symbolism - what are they and how are they used?
Who is telling the story? 
This is important if you work with mis-direction, the all-knowing narrator - or a first hand story.  For example - Harry Potter stories are written as if the reader is sitting on Harry �s shoulder and sees and hears what he sees and hears - which means that when he misunderstands something or understands something from the perspective of a 13 year old - that is how the reader also perceives the events around him.  JK Rowling is fantastic at using mis-direction.

You can also talk about the author and use different methods to analyze the text.

Good luck
L

31 Oct 2010