Robbed on a bus - anecdote

Instructions

There are 18 strips. These can be reduced to 12 by removing those marked*, or expanded to around 25 by cutting longer sentences.

EITHER give the strips to groups of 3-4 students and get them to arrange the story OR give one strip to each student and get them to arrange themselves in the correct order without showing their strips to each other.* (For groups of more or less than 14, longer strips can be cut in half or two strips can be doubled up and given to one student.)

*If this method is chosen, 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.


Paired dictation
Cut the second sheet in half vertically and give one half to each student.
The first student (left side) dictates his/her first paragraph to the other student.
The second student then continues the story by dictating his/her first paragraph and so on.
This activity could be further exploited by giving out the first three paragraphs first and getting students to predict the end of the story.
Or put students who have the same half of the story in pairs and get them to predict the missing parts. Then re-pair them to do the dictation activity.