Selection of stories for young learners

Prepared by:
Jeremy Hon
Christopher Lau
Doreen Ting Jia
Chzin

Question :
Choose a story/text

The story that we had chosen :

Jack and the Beanstalk

Question-Answering
Session
What

do you like about the story?

If you are a teacher, you found
this story, will you choose this
story? Why?
Which group of pupils do you
think this story is suitable for?

1.
Appropriate
Language
Level

4.
Language
Learning
Potential

Criteria
to select
short
stories

3. Visual

2. Content

Criteria 1 : Appropriate Language Level

Think!
Why

do you think we need to

choose appropriate language
level when selecting stories for
young learners?

Explanation
The language in the story needs
to be mostly known or
understood by the children.
2. Its quite alright for there to be
some new words these can
be introduced during the prereading or pre-telling part of the
lesson.
1.

3. Some (educational) story books

or readers come with information
about the vocabulary count and
the ability level the story was
written for.

Lets

presume that you are

looking at a story book with a
view to reading it aloud, or
maybe retelling the story. What
will you do?

Firstly
Flip

through the book and notice

the commas and full stops pay
attention to the types of
sentences. Are the sentences
mostly simple and/or
compound, or are there a lot of
complex sentences which can
be difficult to follow (and even
hard to read aloud).

Secondly..
Look

for the verbs what tense

are they?
(Present or past tense)
For example :
- Present Tense : walk, run
-Past Tense : threw, climbed,
knocked, visited

Finally
Look

at the nouns
Are there different nouns? Do you
have to explain the meanings of
words?
For example : cow, beans,
beanstalk, sky, coin, harp, axe

However..
If

the story has slightly difficult

language but its a really good
story you can tell it in slightly
simplified language rather than
reading it.

Criteria 2 : Content
What is content?
Somethingthatistobeexpressedt
hrough
somemedium
Simply means what the story
about(storyline, characters, culture
and moral values)

In KSSR syllabus
Content Themes:
World of Self
World of Knowledge
World of Stories

Considerations in Content
What

happened in the story? Tell

the order of the storys events.
What happened in the beginning,
the middle, and the end?
What was the main idea of the
story?

Refer back to the storybook that

given to every group
What
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

is the content of the story?

What is the main idea of the
story
What happened in the
beginning?
What happened in the middle?
What happened in the end?

Criteria 3:Visuals
3.1 Line

3.5
Composition

3.4
Textur
e

3.Visua
l
eleme
nts

3.2
Colour

3.3
Shape

3.1 Line
Defines

the objects within the

picture.
Gives different visual effect and
different mood.
Types of lines:
a) Heavy or light
b) Solid or broken
c) Wide or thin
d) Straight or curved

3.2 Colour
It

is observed for its hue,

lightness and saturation.
Cool colours (blue, green and
gray-violets)
Warm colours (red, oranges and
yellow)
It changes to reflect and signal
the shift occurring in the story.

3.3 Shape
Helps

to carry non-verbal
messages.
Negative space/blank space- to
highlight isolation or loneliness.

3.4 Texture
The

tactile surface characteristics

of pictured objects.
Types of textures
a) Rough or slick
b) Firm or spongy
c) Hard or soft

3.5 Composition
The

arrangement of the visual

elements within a picture
Relate one to the other and
combine to make the picture.
The effect is to extend and enrich
the meaning and mood of the
text.

Criteria4: Language Learning

pre-reading/telling
activity
Potential
Any welltold story
has
language
learning
potential.

depends on
how the
teacher uses it.

when selecting
a story the
teacher will be
thinking ahead
to what could
be learnt from
it

while reading/telling
visual aids for difficult
vocabulary or
concepts

pauses and
questions
post-reading
activities to clarify
and reinforce
learning
read/think through
the story and notice
the language

Teachers Need to Notice

The

prepositions

- are there lots of different prepositions, maybe

some repeated ones too, that could be paid
special attention to, along with actions or
gestures, to help reinforce this difficult learning.

The

adverbs of time and verb tenses

- could the sequence of the plot be used to teach

progress of time and how to express it?

Teacher Need to Look

for
1.

2.

the characters names, and the

use of pronouns
could careful use of intonation and
gestures along with the story telling/reading
help to make this concept clear?

the nouns
are there a lot of related vocabulary items,
such as animals, fruits, colours, family
members, or transport?

3. For numbers
- does this story have times, dates, money or
other numbers?

4. For predictable patterns

- Children love stories with predictable
patterns, and they are great for language
learning practice. These could be for example:
Familiar sequences, repeated phrases, rhyming
patterns, recurring patterns, or cumulative
patterns (Cox, 2008).

Activities can be carried out

through this story

Colouring, singing, dancing, jazz

chant, crossword puzzle

The END !!!