Here is a list of 10-15 min stories I told my Novice students (French 1/2) using Story Listening supplementation. In this post, you will find story titles, original scripts and adapted scripts (when available and not copyrighted), read-aloud video, and a video of each story live from my classroom, using Story Listening supplementation. If a text is copyrighted, just google it and you will find the original book to purchase, synopsis, and more.
Stories are such an engaging way to provide rich language in context. I hope this post will encourage you to try one, two, or fifty stories!
Happy listening 🙂
PS1: As you will see in the videos, I can’t draw! Yet, my students and I enjoy Story Listening. Don’t let the fear of drawing get in your way.
PS2: the first 2 videos are a bit blurry unfortunately but the rest of them are crystal clear. Sorry about that.
PS3: If you have stories you want to share, please post the titles in the comments, I am always looking for good stories!!
1. La petite grenouille à grande bouche
Original script (old French joke) Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
2. La délicieuse purée adapted from The sweet porridge by the Grimm Brothers
Original script (Der süße Brei in German) Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
3. La soupe by Einrich Hoffman
Original script (Der Struwwelpeter in German) Adapted script
(Trigger warning: potential eating disorder)
Story Listening in my classroom
4. Les étoiles adapted from Star Money by the Grimm Brothers
Original script (Die Strentaler in German) Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
5. The wolf and the crane by Aesop
Original script Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
6. Merci petit ours adapted from Thank you Bear by Greg E. Foley
Copyrighted
Story about a little bear who finds a box for his friend the rat
Story Listening in my classroom
7. Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock Book by Eric Kimmel
While Anansi is a mythical West African character and therefore a lot of his stories are not copyrighted, this particular one is (but google the title to find out more).
Story about the mischievous Anansi who tries to trick other animals with a magic rock.
Story Listening in my classroom
8. The lion and the mouse by Aesop
Original script Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
9. La délicieuse lune adapted from Mooncake by Frank Asch
Copyrighted
Story about a bear who wants to eat the moon and builds a rocket.
Technical issue with camera, sorry!
10. La princesse en pyjama adapted from The paperbag princess by Robert Munsch
Copyrighted
Story about a fierce princess who rescues her prince from a dragon who had burnt all her clothes
Story listening in my classroom
11. King Midas (Greek myth)
original script adapted script
Read-aloud (some nudity)
Story listening in my classroom
(not my best delivery but I am committed to show the good and the not so good)
12. The angry giant adapted from Habia una vez una casa by Graciela Montes
Copyrighted
Story about a giant who is happy when the sun shines but angry when it rains and how one tiny bird will change his mood
Read-aloud (in Spanish)
Story listening in my classroom
13. Bernard et Claude adapted from Jasper and Joop by Olivia Dunrea
Copyrighted
Story about two ducks who are VERY different
Story listening in my classroom
14. Les filles de Mufaro adapted from Mufaro’s beautiful daughters by John Steptoe
Copyrighted
Tale from Zimbabwe about two daughters, one kind and the other selfish.
Story listening in my classroom
15. The boy who cried wolf by Aesop
story listening in my classroom
16. The golden key by the Grimm Brothers
original script adapted script
story listening in my classroom
17. Toujours le rat, adapted from Carla Tarini
story listening in my classroom
18. Roland, adapted from an opera by Lully
original script adapted script
story listening in my classroom
19. Le pyjama parfait adapted from “Pyjama Day” by Robert Munsch
Copyrighted (but google the title to find out more)
Story about a boy who buys the perfect pajamas.
Story Listening in my classroom
20. Le vent coquin adapted from El viento travieso by Lourdes Bradley and Martha Avilés
Copyrighted (but google the title to find out more)
Story about a mischievous wind who blows all kinds of things around. Really fun!
Story Listening in my classroom
21-26. It’s halloween week! Spooky stories a gogo 🙂
Here are my Halloween stories.
27. Old Sultan, adapted from The Grimm Brothers
Story Listening in my classroom
28. The Name Jar, adapted from Yangsook Choi
Copyrighted
Story about a Korean girl who goes to school in the US for the first time and is made fun of because of her name.
Story Listening in my classroom
29. La plus mignonne des petites souris by Etienne Morel
Copyrighted
Story about a daddy mouse who wants his daughter to marry the most powerful being in the world: the sun
Read-aloud (in French)
Story Listening in my classroom
30. The faerie Queene adapted from Edmund Spenser
Story Listening in my classroom
During the second semester, I am telling a 10-min story using Story Listening supplementation once or twice a week for my French 1 and French 2 students.
31. Le loup, adapted from Guy de Maupassant
Original script Adapted script
Story Listening in my classroom
32. La Dame Blanche, a legend from Quebec
My students enjoyed this legend, and it was interesting for them to see them the actual Chute Montmorency after the story
Story Listening in my classroom
33. Solange, adapted from Alexandre Dumas
Story Listening in my classroom
34. La Bourse, adapted from Honoré de Balzac
Original script Story Listening in my classroom
35. Le Bol, adapted from The Grimm Brothers
Original script Adapted script
Story listening in my classroom
(sorry my tripod broke so a student is holding the iPad, resulting in a bit of a wobbly video)
36. La soupe aux cailloux
Story listening in my classroom
37. Le lapin et le loup
Story listening in my classroom
Cecile, I am always so excited when I see you have a new post!! It is so inspiring 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing all your hard work! On top of preparing a story every day (!), to create the videos and post everything here takes a lot of time. I certainly appreciate it!
I have a confession to make: French and I have never gotten along very well 😉 But I am also inspired to watch your videos and learn!!
I wonder, could you also provide the English translation for the stories? I am always looking for titles that will work for my SL lessons in German. So that would be very helpful!
I teach younger students (1st – 4th grade), so I’m starting off with stories from children’s books. Yesterday I told The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Even the 4th-graders loved it. But I’m not sure how high school students would react 🙂 Another board book I love is Jingle-Jingle by Nicola Smee. Again, might be too childish for your group, but you never know!
Merci! Danke! Thank you!
Merci und Danke, Kate! I posted all the original scripts are in English if I can find them in English. So, at the time of this response, only “La petite grenouille”‘s original script is in French.
Also, I am working on a document called: “The first 100 stories in the Elementary classroom” with two other colleagues and the Stories First foundation. We should have something ready to share in October. I can see how your Elem students would have loved the hungry caterpillar, great idea! I will add it to our document.
Finally, Kathrin Schlechtman has a blog with Story Listening in German, which you will no doubt find helpful! It is called “We love Deutsch”.
Bis bald!
Oh, wonderful, Cecile! I was just looking at the titles in your list and hadn’t made it to the actual texts.
I can’t wait to see your list!
Another story I told to my 1st & 2nd graders is Jingle – Jingle by Nicola Smee. It has nice repetition and can be quite funny 😊
Kathrin and I have known each other for many years, and she is the one who told me about SL 😊 I know her blog, but I haven’t looked at it in a while. I’ll do that again – thank you for the reminder 😉
Merci mille fois Cécile pour être une source d’ inspiration parce que maintenant je suis motivée d’essayer “Story Listening” avec mes classes!!
Tiens-moi au courant!
My students loved the story listening! I gathered up the courage today to try it with “La petite grenouille” story !! I had a student stay after class and say “I really liked the story listening today! I hope we do more of that!” I was in shock because this is not a student who normally shows interest in class :).
I can’t thank you enough for sharing the videos as they are such a great help and guide!!
Merci mille fois 🙂
Love this! J’adore in fact
[…] covered! Here is my selection for my Novice students. I will deliver these stories in my “one story a day” routine using Story Listening […]
Thank you so much for filming, and for letting us share!
[…] tell a story in class using Story Listening supplementation. Then, we read the story together and I let them illustrate the […]
Merci Cécile! I am gathering the courage to start Story listening in my classes and I think this list and watching a few videos will help me get started!
Ohhhh this is so exciting, please let me know how it goes!
[…] to try Story Listening? Here are 40 Novice stories to get you started (complete with original script, adaptation, and an […]
Hello, thank you for all this fabulous information and the resources. Could you do this with a prepared PPT with images you have chosen that illustrate the story? A bit like MovieTalk?
Thank you,
Brenda Crosby
Dear Brenda, you can choose to tell the story with the support of a Power Point of course but I would just consider these factors:
1. Drawing slows you down and gives your students time to process the input you are providing.
2. Drawing creates community. My drawing is absolutely terrible, and students often giggle at them. I am making myself a bit vulnerable but they appreciate it.
3. PowerPoints take a huge amount of time to prepare and you are already using them for Movie Talks.
4. At the end of the story, you have the entire story on the board. You can then easily “review” the phrases you have written on the board with the students.
If you have not already done so, I warmly recommend you join Story Listening & Reading on FB!
Thank you,
[…] and Marks & Spencer). I am adding a third one from the US here because it is a wonderful story! Story Listening would be a wonderful way to tell this story, and then we watch the commercial […]
[…] to try Story Listening? Here are 40 Novice stories to get you started (complete with original script, adaptation, and an […]
[…] tell a story in class using Story Listening supplementation. Then, we read the story together and I let them illustrate the […]
[…] Story Listening: Use the whiteboard to tell an interesting story. […]
Bonjour Cecile! I was wondering if you happen to know why the Stories First website isn’t working anymore. I’d planned on using a bunch of these resources this January, but when I went to click on them, I can’t get a connection. Do you know if Stories First is no longer being supported? Thanks!
I wish I had an answer. We have been asking Dr. Mason and she told us to be patient…
[…] Here is my selection for my Novice students. I will deliver these stories in my “one story a day” routine using Story Listening […]