The Un/Fortunately Story!! Introduction: Last Friday I was leaving home when the postman arrived and gave me a letter UNFORTUNATELY, the letter was written in a foreign language and the only thing I could understand was the word “urgent” written at the top FORTUNATELY, I remembered that one of my neighbours was a literature teacher who spoke languages So I went to speak to her UNFORTUNATELY, when I was walking towards her front door, I saw her driving away in her car FORTUNATELY, her husband was picking up the newspaper from the mailbox and told me she would be back in half an hour UNFORTUNATELY, when she came back she told me that the language was Russian but that she couldn’t translate the letter FORTUNATELY, while she was opening her front door she remembered that one of her colleagues at school spoke Russian UNFORTUNATELY, she couldn’t find the agenda where she had her colleague’s telephone number FORTUNATELY, while I was saying goodbye, her husband came up with the agenda and she phoned her colleague So, in the end I discovered I was going to inherit a big quantity of money!! The Un/Fortunately Story!! Introduction: My friends and I decided to have a party last Saturday night UNFORTUNATELY, when we were dancing and having fun, the lights went off and the music stopped FORTUNATELY, one of our friends was an electrician and he managed to solve the problem UNFORTUNATELY, while we were trying to solve the problem, some of our friends began to get bored and left the party FORTUNATELY, when the music starter playing again, everybody began to cheer up and have fun UNFORTUNATELY, while we were dancing, the neighbour next door came to complain about the noise we were making FORTUNATELY, with a little effort we could convince him to join us and have something to drink UNFORTUNATELY, while we were convincing him, the lights went off again and this time we couldn’t solve the problem FORTUNATELY, we had some candles and some board games So, in the end we enjoyed our evening laughing and playing games by candlelight!! Activity procedure: This is the first part of an activity I with my students to practise the simple past and past continuous tenses They love it and really have a good time creating their own stories in the second part of the activity (See “The Un/Fortunately-Story” Part2) This part consists of a story in the simple past which is divided into parts; the parts must be cut out and shuffled (you will need to prepare as many different sets of story-parts as the number of groups you will work with) If you have groups, the stories I’ve included here will do: The groups must put the parts in the correct order; each member of the group must memorize one sentence (or two if the groups are smaller than members) and, when they are ready, tell the story to the rest of the class If you have more than groups, you can make it more challenging giving the same story to more than one group Tell them that the ones which first put the story in order and memorize it, will be the ones who will tell it to the rest of the class Don’t forget to give the students the introductory sentence to their stories (you can write them on the board, or give them to the students as the first card of their stories) Introduction: Last Friday I was leaving home when the postman arrived and gave me a letter Introduction: My friends and I decided to have a party last Saturday night If your students are strong ones, they shouldn’t have to look at the cards when telling the story If you think they will feel more confident with the cards on their hands, allow them to keep them in case they forget their lines But usually they enjoy telling the story to their classmates after having memorized it!! Note: I’ve prepared two model-sheets of sentences each, because I usually have 16 students in a class But you can personalize them according to the number of your students Have fun!! The Un/Fortunately Story!! Introduction: UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, The Un/Fortunately Story!! Introduction: UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY, FORTUNATELY, Activity procedure: This is a group activity in which the students have to invent a story using the simple past and past continuous tenses As they have already worked with a first part of the Un/Fortunately-Story (See “The Un/Fortunately-Story” Part 1), by now it should be clear for them what they are expected to They should write a first introduction sentence to establish the situation Then they should continue the story till the end alternating “un/fortunately” situations (The pictures on the left represent only the “fortunately” & “unfortunately” situations; they don’t have to be related to the context of the story unless the students decide to so on their own will.) To make it more challenging for the students, they can cut it out into parts, memorize one part (or two, depending on the number of students they are in each group) and tell the story by heart to the rest of the class (as it has already been done with the story in “The Un/Fortunately-Story” Part 1) If your students are strong ones, they shouldn’t have to look at the cards when telling the story If you think they will feel more confident with the cards on their hands, allow them to keep them in case they forget their lines But usually they enjoy telling the story to their classmates after having memorized it!! Note: I’ve prepared two model-sheets of sentences each, because I usually have 16 students in a class But you can personalize them according to the number of your students Have fun!!