Using Short Paragraph Stories to Teach the Past Simple in English – Part 1

Whenever I have to teach the simple past tense in English, one activity I always use is speaking and writing practice using some short “stories” I made up. Writing them was much more difficult than I had originally imagined, since the use of regular verbs in a narrative is not really authentic language. Native speakers just don’t speak that way. But, to give my EFL students some practice in writing the forms of regular verbs in the past tense and especially in their pronunciation, I came up with some short ones using just this form. They are more difficult to read and pronounce than “normal”, but intensive practice seems to be quite useful. So I keep using them even though I know this speech pattern is not going to occur in natural English speech.

Since my students are all from a Spanish-speaking country in South America, Colombia, they usually have a problem pronouncing the verb ending -ed in its various forms. I had noticed the same propensity for pronunciation problems with -ed regular verb endings in other Spanish-speaking areas, so I prepared exercises to help with this early on. Students in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Panama, and Ecuador have benefited from these simple “stories.” I hope your EFL/ESL students will too.

TEFL students can read the paragraphs of the story aloud, focusing on the correct pronunciation of the final forms of the verbs. They can fill in the blank endings in the paragraph for practice by adding -ed or just -d as needed. They will also practice when to change “y” to an “i” before adding -ed. For example, Play becomes played, and stay becomes stopped, but try and cry becomes tried or cried. Stories can be shredded and rearranged, acted as a “spoof”, pantomimed, or a variety of writing exercises and comprehension activities can be added. As an added feature, I bold the verbs in the paragraphs.

I tried to create short paragraph stories that would also be of some interest. One is set in the Old West and is called “The Sheriff of Calico County.” The others take place during a visit to the zoo and during a bank robbery, respectively. They are titled “The Zoo” (169 words) and “The State Bank” (131 words). Titles a bit catchy, right? Just a little “writing license” was taken in creating these short paragraph stories. Hey, it worked for Shakespeare, right?

Here are two as examples for you to try.

The zoo

Last Wednesday we decided to visit the zoo. We arrived the next morning after breakfast, cashed in our passes and went inside. We walked towards the first exhibits. I looked at a giraffe looking back at me. I nervously walked to the next area. One of the lions looked at me as he lounged in the shade while the others napped. One of my friends first hit and then hit the tempered glass in front of the monkey cage. They howled and yelled at us as we rushed to another exhibit where we stopped and gaped at the feathery birds. After resting, we headed to the petting zoo where we petted shaggy sheep who just looked at us, but the goats snapped at each other and nibbled at our clothing when we got too close to their enclosed pen. Later, our weary group pushed their way through the crowded paths and out the turnstile gate. Our car rattled, jerked, and lurched as we dozed off during the leisurely drive home.

The State Bank

This morning at 8:33, someone robbed the State Bank downtown. The robber entered the bank and said that he wanted all the money from him. The thief smiled but he seemed very tired. The tellers seemed worried. The thief received the money he requested, asked to be excused, and then quickly left when the door swung. He ran down the street and screeched away in a damaged car that rattled, screeched and smoked. He seemed like he really needed the money. The police soon arrived. They ran and chased them down the street. Passers-by were searched and questioned, but the thief disappeared. The police failed to catch him. Investigators dropped the case and did nothing else. The money was never recovered and the thief was never identified, the incident report ended.

In the second part of this series of articles, I demonstrate the use of a similar style, but a much longer piece to practice the past simple of regular verbs. If you’re successful and want to try another one of my “stories” or two, email me for more. Better yet, try creating a pair of your own. Either way, I’m happy to share this with you and would love to hear how it worked out for you and your EFL/ESL learners. So feel free to let me know how well they worked (or didn’t) for you.

Good luck

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