A selection of English ESL telling stories printables

This worksheet includes a picture that serves as the storystarter for students. I provided a number of ideas for the WHO?, WHAT? and WHERE? of the story. Also included is a short list of linguistic storytelling devices, such as phrases sequencing, cause and effect and contrast. Bless up, Kisdobos

The Story Cookbook (Story Creation)

First, Ss read the plot of the film "The Bourne Identity" (maybe you could even let them watch a bit or two). Then they have to answer a questionnaire, write a small paragraph trying to "fill in the gap" of the story and then design a questionnaire to help Bourne discover his identity and his old job. Fully editable and addable. Hope it's useful!

THE BOURNE IDENTITY

This worksheet practices changing from present simple or present continuous to past simple or past continuous. It is a great way to start a lesson or review previously learnt material. It is also useful for writing activities and is helpful for learners who are struggling to say or write what they did on the weekend. 

What did you do on the weekend? 

A writing exercise to set the imaginations of students free! Each student must randomly select an object, a theme and a character. Then, their task is simple. To write a short story involving each of the three cards (this results in some really funny and creative ideas!) This is an activity which has worked wonders with my students, both teens and adults, particularly ones that struggle to think creatively. I call it ´guided creativity´. Hope it proves useful! Enjoy! :)

Creative Writing – Story Cards #1

This is a worksheet for students to write a magazine article about a famous person from their country or culture. It was made for my Level 1 ESOL students in order for them to practise using the past tense to describe someone's life. It was also aimed at helping them to write magazine articles, which is a skill needed for their writing exams.

Write a magazine article about a famous person from your country.

The objective of this worksheet is to practice narrative tenses ( Past simple, past continuous and past perfect) You could use it for practicing writing or semi controlled speaking. It has one story about my last weekend and it contains an answer key. You can ask your students to write their own stories using emoji's then present to class

My Emoji Weekend Story

Sixth set in the series. I was browsing cliparts for half a day and I got a lot of inspiration from them. I hope youÂ´ll like the story prompts I invented for writing fables. They could also be used for acting out scenes in class, after groups have rehearsed their dialogs.

Writing Fables 6.

nice pictures of the elements of a short story that will help the students to easily learn them. these catchy colorful pictures will motivate the students to learn.

elements of a short story

A pain to prep, but it was so worth it.



First we studied the American tall tale about Paul Bunyan. They loved it! Then students worked together to complete the various activities. 



Each student should have a different 2nd page with a different prompt for the story writing. I gave students about a minute before making them pass the story to the next group member. Groups were about 3-4 Ss in each. Each person should be writing on a story at all times. 

They couldn't talk, but laughed the whole time. Wish I had recorded some of the stories they came up with :)  



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour class of adult intermediates. They loved it :) 

Conversation lesson on Stories and Storytelling

Tell the story of the bananas. Could be an oral exercise or a written one. Took the idea from Kisdobos, as my students love his worksheets - thanks a million for them by the way!

Story telling

Creative Writing – Story Cards #2

A fun worksheet for students to fill the blanks. Useful for drilling, learning to tell a story and conversational practice. Will give students ideas to expand on past perfect.

Past Perfect Tense Worksheet

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

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how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

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how to express agreement /disagreement in English

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how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

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how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

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how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

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how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

228 Telling stories English ESL worksheets pdf & doc