Unit 2 · Grammar for storytelling.

By the end Use the past simple correctly across a whole paragraph of their own story.

You need Their Thai draft from Lesson 10.

1. 8 min — Why it disappears. Thai marks time with a word, not by changing the verb. Once แล้ว or เมื่อวาน is in the sentence, the verb has already done its job. Say this out loud: the mistake is logical, not careless.
2. 12 min — Twenty verbs. Build a list on the board of the twenty verbs their stories actually need: go/went, see/saw, say/said, take/took, give/gave, come/came, run/ran, find/found, leave/left, buy/bought, tell/told, feel/felt, think/thought, hold/held, break/broke, fall/fell, eat/ate, sit/sat, stand/stood, know/knew. Not a textbook list. Their list.
3. 15 min — One paragraph. Students translate one paragraph of their Thai draft into English, using only past forms. Short sentences. No tenses beyond past simple.
4. 5 min — Read and catch. Pairs read aloud to each other and catch only one thing: a verb that stayed in the present.

To finish Homework: rewrite the same paragraph without looking at the Thai.

By the end Order events clearly using first, then, after that, finally.

You need Strips of paper with the parts of a short story, cut up.

1. 5 min — Scramble. Hand each group a story cut into six strips. They put it in order. No English production yet, just sequencing.
2. 8 min — Four words. Teach only four: first, then, after that, finally. Four is enough for five minutes on stage and more than four is clutter.
3. 10 min — Apply. Students insert the four words into their own paragraph, once each, in the right places.
4. 2 min — The warning. Say it plainly: if every sentence starts with 'then', the audience stops hearing any of them. Four sequencing words in five minutes is the ceiling.

To finish Homework: read your paragraph aloud and cross out every extra 'then'.

By the end Place a story in time using at least three time markers.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 7 min — Build the bank. Elicit and write: when I was nine, that summer, the year my brother left, one morning in the rainy season, the day before Songkran, two hours later.
2. 10 min — Anchor the opening. Every student writes a new first sentence that contains a time marker and nothing else new. 'When I was nine, my grandmother sold her gold.'
3. 10 min — Three more. They add two further markers inside the story so the audience always knows when they are.
4. 3 min — Check. Partner listens for one thing: at any moment, could you say roughly when this is happening?

To finish Homework: write your opening sentence five different ways, each with a different time marker.

By the end Describe a person so that a listener could pick them out of a crowd.

You need Nothing to prepare.

1. 5 min — The failure. Read a description made only of adjectives: 'My uncle was tall, kind and funny.' Ask the class to draw him. They cannot.
2. 10 min — Three concretes. Teach the rule of three: one thing about the body, one thing they always did, one thing they said. 'My uncle had a thumb he lost to a rice mill, he whistled through his teeth, and he called everybody younger than him little bird.'
3. 12 min — Write. Students describe the main person in their story using the rule of three. No adjectives allowed.
4. 3 min — Test. Read aloud in pairs; the listener says whether they can see the person.

To finish Homework: describe your mother in three sentences with no adjectives.

By the end Put an audience inside a place using sound, smell and one object.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 6 min — Close the eyes again. Describe a place aloud yourself, badly first (all sight), then well (sound and smell). Let them hear the difference rather than be told it.
2. 10 min — Three layers. Each student writes: one sound that place always had, one smell, one object you could touch. Three lines only.
3. 12 min — Fold in. They weave the three lines into their story where the place first appears. Not a paragraph of scenery — three details, spread out.
4. 2 min — Rule. A place gets three details and no more. A story is not a tour.

To finish Homework: describe the room you sleep in using only sound and smell.

By the end Use two lines of direct speech to carry a moment of the story.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 6 min — Why it works. Compare 'My mother told me I had to leave school' with 'My mother said, “Pack your bag. You are going to Bangkok.”' Ask which one they can hear.
2. 10 min — The mechanics. Teach only: said, asked, told me. Not exclaimed, muttered, retorted. Punctuation shown once on the board.
3. 12 min — Two lines only. Students insert exactly two lines of direct speech into their story, at the most important moment.
4. 7 min — Say it as the person. In pairs, they read their story's dialogue in the voice of the person who said it. This is where quiet students first get loud.

To finish Homework: write down one thing somebody in your family says often, word for word.

By the end Join ideas with because, so, but and although without breaking the sentence.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 8 min — Four connectors. Only four: because, so, but, although. Model each with a sentence from a student story.
2. 12 min — Join the short ones. Students find three pairs of short sentences in their draft and join them.
3. 7 min — Read for rhythm. Read aloud in pairs. If the joined sentence cannot be said in one breath, split it back apart.
4. 3 min — The balance. A story of only short sentences sounds like a list. A story of only long ones loses the audience. Aim for a mix you can hear.

To finish Homework: find the longest sentence in your story and break it into two.

By the end Replace weak verbs with precise ones drawn from a shared bank.

You need Whiteboard.

1. 8 min — Build the bank together. Ask for ten ways to move: walk, run, climb, crawl, drag, carry, push, ride, chase, follow. Ten ways to speak: shout, whisper, ask, answer, promise, lie, beg, joke, argue, pray.
2. 12 min — Hunt the weak ones. Students underline every 'go', 'get', 'do', 'have' and 'make' in their draft.
3. 8 min — Trade up. Replace at least six of them with a verb from the bank.
4. 2 min — Read the difference. One volunteer reads a before-and-after sentence.

To finish Homework: list ten verbs your own story needs that we did not put on the board.

By the end Break run-on sentences into clean short ones that can be spoken in a single breath.

You need Their draft, read aloud.

1. 6 min — The breath test. Teach the test: read aloud, and every time you need a breath, that is a full stop. Demonstrate on a deliberately terrible sentence of your own.
2. 15 min — Apply it. Students read their draft aloud, quietly, marking every place they breathe. Then they put a full stop at each mark.
3. 10 min — Reread. They read the corrected version aloud again. Most will find it shorter and easier.
4. 4 min — Name it. Written English lets a sentence run. Spoken English does not. On stage you are writing for a mouth, not an eye.

To finish Homework: read the whole story aloud once, marking breaths.

By the end Read the full story aloud from start to finish without stopping.

You need A quiet space. A timer.

1. 5 min — The rule. No stopping. Not for a mistake, not for a forgotten word, not for laughter. Stopping is the habit we are here to break.
2. 20 min — Read. In groups of three, each student reads their whole story aloud once while the other two listen and time it. No feedback yet.
3. 5 min — Numbers only. Each student writes down two numbers: how long it took, and how many times they wanted to stop but did not.

To finish Homework: read it aloud once more at home, to a wall if necessary.