My Matava scripts

Three original stories:

Lots of beginning CI teachers use Matava scripts, and for a good reason. Anne Matava wrote two volumes of simple stories in English that lend themselves perfectly to the novice who is first learning how to “ask a story”. If you google “Matava scripts” you´ll find plenty of information on how to craft a story (including this masterful post by Martina Bex) and even this link to purchase them from Ben Slavic´s website.

My modest contribution is linked below, which you can download for free. If you are a Spanish teacher using the Matava scripts you´ll want some sort of reading that recycles the vocabulary to maximize acquisition of target structures. Here are a couple of readings that I made to loosely accompany the scripts. I wrote them for a level 2 class; even without the original Matava scripts they would make great stand-alone homework assignments or emergency substitute plans if you want your students to do more reading. Who doesn´t want more reading?

Update January 22, 2014: I updated this first story into a three day lesson with a movietalk, PQA, a class story and a tie in to a Beyoncé song. Click here to see the updated lesson

(A) One of my favorite stories that I have written accompanies the story “Try It On!” (page 13). It is about a smart boy who is known only for his stylish clothing. The story comes with many, many questions repeating target structures (mimicking a session of circling) and space for students to draw pictures (which I used the next day for retells under a document camera). The amount of new vocabulary structures presented is too much if you have just presented the Matava story, but just right if the students are further along. My new target structures were tenía puesto, como si fuera, and se dio cuenta. We were recycling se puso and se quitó. Finally I was able to work a piece of cultural knowledge into this reading as the hat that the boy wears is that of a Mexican charro.  Click here to download Try it on.

(B) This half-page story accompanies “The Baby Story” (page 9) and recycles the vocabulary closely. It also includes questions and space for drawings. I believe I used this in class after asking our own version, but it would work as a homework assignment too. Click here to download The baby story.

(C) My very first attempt at writing a story was supposed to accompany “An Important Test” (page 6), but as I look at this I see that I was mostly responding to the needs of my class and giving them lots of reinforcement of the phrases iba, se dijo and le dijo. It is a good enough story that it made my student Trenton a minor celebrity among my classes. I am leaving all of the files as word documents so that you can change them; you´ll definitely want to change the name of the student, teacher and city to make one of your students famous. It comes with questions and space for pictures. Click here to download Trenton wants to skip class.doc