Teaching with
Scenarios
An Integrated Strategy-based Approach to
Teaching Communication Skills
Heide Spruck Wrigley
Literacywork International
Adapted for TISESL
Tips and Strategies
Lesson Flow
Interactive
Teacher
Presentation
Preview
Story Map
Discussion
Think-PairShare
Comprehension Check
Retelling
Shared
Reading
Discussing
Options
Create
Dialogue and
Role Play
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Language
and
Vocabulary
Practice
Culture Notes
Lesson Flow
Preview the Scenario
Show students the cover picture and in a few
words summarize the story. Include the title, the
people, place, and problem in your summary.
Make the connection to students lives by saying
something like, “do you ever go to a clinic?” or
“do you know the (local) factory.” Give students
a minute to look at the front page and discuss
the key words with each other.
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Lesson Flow
Mini-Presentation with Pictures
Present the story to the students orally. Speak
slowly but naturally and use pauses between
sentences. Ask question as you go along to keep
the class engaged and to make sure they
understand. Use transition phrases such as, “Ok,
let’s see what happens next”. Repeat and
rephrase key information and act out the story
as you go along. Alternatively, play the audio CD
and ask students to fill out the Story Map.
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Lesson Flow
True/False Comprehension Check
When you have finished the story, make a set of
statements about the story and ask students to decide
if the statement is true or false. Use Think/Pair/ Share:
Students evaluate individually if a statement is True or
False and then share the answer with a partner or in a
small group. Ask the question again and have everyone
hold up their True or False Cards. Ask students to justify
their answer by providing evidence from the story.
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Lesson Flow
Story Map Discussion
Ask students to work in pairs to discuss the story
using the Story Map. They should talk about
what happened, who was involved, or why
someone felt a certain way. Encourage students
to talk about what happened and discourage
writing. After students finish, check answers.
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Lesson Flow
Retelling
Ask students to work in pairs or small groups to
retell the story using the pictures only (students
need not write). For variation, cut pictures up
and have students put them in the right order as
they tell the story. Ask a couple students to
present the story orally to the class (consider
enlarging and laminating a set of story cards for
this purpose).
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Lesson Flow
Shared Reading
Read the story aloud to the students while they
follow along, looking at the pictures (ask
beginners to follow with their fingers or a ruler).
Then ask students to work in pairs reading the
text without pictures to each other. Ask them to
underline the words they don’t understand and
have trouble with and discuss them. After
students finish explain problems.
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Lesson Flow
Discussing Options
Quickly review and highlight the problem in the story
involving students. Ask students for ideas on how the
problem could be solved and draw a chart on a flip
chart (use the Options Chart in the text as a model).
Ask students what the consequence of a particular
option would be. Use the Think-Aloud Strategy to
illustrate your thinking. Ask students to work
individually and then in pairs or groups to discuss
answers.
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Lesson Flow
Dialogue and Role Play
Ask the same pairs or groups to pick their best option
and create a dialog for the end of the story. Students
can finish the dialogue in their book or can create their
own. Encourage students to be creative. Ask a couple
of pairs of students to role play their dialogue in front
of the class. The other students evaluate how well they
did, using the rubric. Discuss with the class if the
problem was handled appropriately.
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Lesson Flow
Language and Vocabulary Practice
Highlight the key vocabulary from the scenario once
more and put students who share the same language in
pairs so they can discuss the vocabulary and complete
the match-up activity (model the activity first!). If there
is an odd person, work with that student. Ask students
to put words they want to remember in the Personal
Dictionary.
Explain and model the language activity and have
students complete the activities in pairs.
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Lesson Flow
Cultural Notes
Culture notes are designed to have students grapple
with key issues through thinking and discussion.
Introduce a few of the culture notes and ask students if
they agree or disagree with the statement. Probe for
why they agree or not. Then ask students to work in
pairs or small groups to tackle the rest of the questions.
Debrief with the students and highlight expectations of
the American workplace (see comments in notes).
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Making Language Come Alive
Instructional
Strategies
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Strategy
Scenarios for Problem Solving
Use Scenarios for problem solving.
Wrigley 2008
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Strategy
Scenarios for Socio-cultural Skills
Wrigley 2008
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Strategy
PowerPoint
Use PowerPoint (or
transparency) to set
context and illustrate
language.
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Strategy
True-False Cards
TRUE
FALSE
Use True-False cards to
check understanding.
Use Think-Pair-Share to
make it a meaningful
activity.
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Strategy
Evocative Pictures
Use compelling
visuals to
support
presentation
and foster
discussion.
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Strategy
Think-Pair-Share
Use Think-PairShare to build
engagement.
Students think
about the answer
individually first
then pair up and
share their
answers.
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Strategy
Click and Clunk
Click
Click
Clunk
Use Click and Clunk to
monitor reading
comprehension. As
students read with you,
they say “click” when
they understand a
word or phrase and
“clunk” when they
don’t.
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Strategy
Oral and Written Language
So you see, it’s
really quite easy
if you just listen
to me.
Thanks you
so much. I
was looking
for guidance.
Connect oral and
written language to
deepen language
learning. Have students
listen and retell before
they read the story
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Strategy
Cloze Tests
Use Cloze Tests and
Dictations to focus on
language.
Alex overslept and was ____ for work. He
____ his cell phone at home. He couldn’t
call his ____ to tell him he ___ late. Alex
was in ____.
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Strategy
Fix-up
Teach Fix-up strategies
to help students repair
miscommunication or
lack of understanding.
Fix up includes double
checking, admitting
fault and saying, “It
won’t happen again.”
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Strategy
Analyzing Options and Consequences
Ask students to outline a
problem and generate
options. Have them consider
the consequences of each
option. Use charts to help
them organize their ideas.
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Strategy
Role Plays
Oh, please
do.
I shouldn’t say
this, but…
Use Role Plays to foster
spontaneous
communication. Build
the Role Plays around
dialogues students
have created and
practiced. Discourage
memorization or
reading the dialogues.
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Strategy
Flash Cards
Gossip
Use Flashcards to build
vocabulary. Use large
picture cards in front of
the class to have
students generate
language and have
students practice with
smaller cards.
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Strategy
Conversation Cards
Talk about the
weather.
Talk about your
family.
To practice and extend
Role Plays make up
conversation cards that
act as prompts for
students.
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Strategy
Graphic Organizers
Use graphic organizer
such as Story Maps or
tables for options and
consequences to help
students organize their
ideas
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Strategy
Think Alouds
OK, so here’s how I
came up with the
answer.
Make thinking process
visible by articulating
your thoughts to
students. Explain how
you would solve a
scenario (“ok, here I am
a nurse. I have very
little time….”
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Strategy
Mini-Poems
Three Things I Like
About Home
Family events
Familiar places
Mother’s cooking
Use Mini-Poems to
promote writing.
Two Things I Don’t
Dusty roads
Cousin Robert
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Strategy
Sketches and Picture Stories
Use sketches to
illustrate scenarios.
Encourage students to
retell the story using
storyboards.
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Strategy
Chalk-Talks
Use Chalk-Talk to
extend the scenarios
and tell new stories.
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Strategy
Videos
Use videos to extend
scenarios and foster
listening
comprehension.
Modern Times is fun as
are various I Love Lucy
episodes. Consider the
English for All videos.
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Strategy
Songs
Use songs to extend
scenarios.
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Strategy
Computer and Web - Background
Use Computer & Web
to build background
knowledge.
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Strategy
Preview
Use preview to activate
background
knowledge.
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Strategy
Question Generating & Answering
Who is
Manny?
What is a
utility
knife?
Why is
Manny in
trouble?
Use question
generating & answering
to increase
comprehension.
Students make up
questions about a story
and a partner tries to
find the answer in the
story
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Strategy
Use Realia to Set the Context
Bring in items that help
iillustrate the story,
such as dolls, utility
knives, belts, switches
and other items to
make the scenarios
come alive
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Strategy
Mini-Projects
Use Mini-Projects to
reinforce language,
culture & work skills.
Have students work in
teams to create an ad
campaign for a new
product or write a
Public Service
Announcement
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