Plane anecdote with narrative tenses

Instructions

There are 15 strips, which can be reduced to 10 by removing those marked *, or increased to 20 by splitting longer sentences.

Cut up the strips.
Each student gets one strip.
Students sit or stand in a circle.
They then read and discuss their strips and agree on the order of the story.
They should find the first strip first.
Students who hold subsequent strips should then move and stand or sit to the left of the first student so that they are sitting in the same order as the story.

For this activity to work, note the following:
* They should use English only for all parts of the task.
* They should not show each other their strips. (There is a strong temptation to do this!)
* They should not split into smaller groups.
* Avoid giving 'key' strips to weak or quiet students.
* The ordering part can usually be done in 10 - 15 minutes.

The gap-fill activity can be done afterwards, allowing students to reflect on the use of tenses.