1. Language Experience Stories

2. What is a language experience story?
A way to target language
A way to practice targeted language
A hands-on activity
A way to get kids talking
A way to talk about past experiences
A way to practice auditory skills
A way to practice speech skills
A way to practice new vocabulary

3. A language experience activity should be interesting and motivating to the children

4. Language Experience
Teacher planned
Teacher directed

5. Choose activities That are hands-on
That will motivate children by holding their attention and being interesting

6. Teachers choose: Vocabulary and concepts to be taught
Language structures to target
In order to meet the needs of their students language levels.

7. Language experiences provide an opportunity for children to communicate for a variety of reasons:

8. Expressing wants and needs
Protesting/Rejecting
Asking for information
Transferring
Giving directions
Expressing opinions, feelings

9. Asking for help or permission
Predicting or speculating
Explaining a problem

10. How to do it
1. Choose the language
targets
vocabulary

11. Guidelines for choosing the activity…
1. Will doing the activity provide practice on the targeted language?
2. Is it interesting enough to get children to talk?
3. Is the task simple enough that the children can complete it with a minimum of adult help?

12. 4. Are the materials manageable:
5. Is it fun for the teacher as well as the children?
6. Is it designed so that several children of various levels of development can all participate?

13. 7. Will participating give the children a feeling of pride and sense of accomplishment?
8. Is the language applicable to other experiences at home or at school?

14. 9. Do the activity and the language relate to other everyday experiences of the children?
10. Is it related to some specific concepts or topics being worked on at other times?

15. 2. Plan the activity Think through the steps
Plan the language to teach/practice
Think of questions, comments or actions to use to get the children to produce the target language

16. 3. Assemble all materials
If you have not done this activity before, you may want to try it out.

17. 4. Conduct the activity best with smaller groups
group by language needs
20-30 min. and may be shorter for
younger students

18. 5. During the activity Introduce new vocabulary
Use language eliciting techniques and modeling/imitation- practice
Use questioning
Provide opportunities for the children to talk during the activity

19. 6. After the activity The language Experience story is written.
Revise planned language to meet the needs of the actual happenings

20. Do language experience everyday
It is fun, fun, fun…

21. Experience Story should go along with your unit of study.

22. Experience Chart Stories
These are your stories that you write from your experiences

23. Chart Stories
Children enjoy and look forward to using the chart because it is about them and a fun activity in which they took part.

24. Chart Stories
Provide a permanent record and can be used repeatedly for a variety of activities, including speech and auditory paractice as well as language instruction.

25. Why use chart stories? To develop and practice targeted language
To develop and practice speech skills in the context of connected language
To develop listening skills
To develop reading readiness and/or reading skills

26. How do we do it?
Think through the story – plan the story as you plan the activity to target specific language
Adjust the story as you write it with the students to fit the events that occured

27. Tips to decide what language to use:
Use language that is natural and appropriate for the situation
Use language that incorporates the structures selected as targets for the children
Use a variety of sentence types and syntactic elements
Use some old and new vocabulary
Use language that will transfer to “real life” situations
Use language that expresses attitudes and opinions

28. Chart Story Introduce the story Give it a title
Reveal the story sentence by sentence – add pictures
Read through the whole story
Have students identify sentences

29. Practicing the chart Chart practice is worth doing every day for
listening practice
practice producing sentences
producing the sentence without
the teacher saying it first

30. Things I like to do Experience book for each student
Class experience book
Keep all charts hanging in the classroom all year
Add additional poems, songs, and fingerplays to the books
Sharing time for experiences from home
Can also be in their own books.
Tie language to weekly story that ties to unit of study

31. Children learn through doing.
Experience stories and charts help build on the learning.