This story comes from Carol Gaab’s free article, “The First Two Weeks”, which is available on the free downloads page of Fluency Matters.
- (nunca) cierra – (never) closes
- abre la puerta – opens the door
- son las (ocho) – it’s (eight) o’clock
PRACTICE SENTENCES
- Ron abre la puerta de la escuela. Ron opens the door of the school.
- Jennifer nunca cierra la puerta del refrigerador. Jennifer never closes the door of the fridge.
- Son las ocho de la mañana cuando Miguel ve a su profesor de matemáticas. It’s 8am when Miguel sees his math teacher.
- Los estudiantes abren sus libros de español. The students open their Spanish books.
- Mi mamá me dice, «Cierra tus ojos, ¡tengo una sorpresa para ti!» My mom tells me, “Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you!”
QUESTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL RESPONSE
- ¿Los muchachos abren las puertas por las muchachas? Do boys open doors for girls?
- ¿Cierras la puerta cuando usas el baño? Do you close the door when you use the bathroom?
- ¿Cierras tus ojos en la clase de matemáticas? Do you close your eyes in math class?
- Son las 8:30 de la mañana y tú abres la puerta de la escuela. ¿Cuál es el problema? It’s 8:30am and you open the door of the school. What’s the problem (YOU’RE LATE!)
PERSONALIZED QUESTIONS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION
- En un día típico, ¿qué puertas abres? In a typical day, which doors do you open?
- Imagínate que son las cinco de la tarde. ¿Dónde estás? – Imagine that it’s 5pm. Where are you?
- ¿Qué quieres ver cuando abres tus ojos en tu cumpleaños? What do you want to see when you open your eyes on your birthday.
- ¿Hay una puerta en __ que nadie abra? (tu casa, la escuela, tu iglesia, etc.) Is there a door in __ that no one opens? (your house, the school, your church, etc.)
- ¿Cuándo cierras tus ojos? (en la clase de matemáticas, cuando estás cansado, cuando estás enojado, cuando duermes, etc.) When do you close your eyes? (Ideas: in math class, when you’re tired, when you’re mad, when you sleep, etc.)
- Tú estás __. ¿Qué hora es? (comiendo, leyendo, estudiando, cantando, duchándose, etc.) You are __. What time is it? (eating, reading, studying, singing, showering, etc.).
SCRIPT:
Son las siete. Teakia va a la escuela. Teakia grita, “¡Adiós, mamá!” y abre la puerta de la casa, pero ella no cierra la puerta. La mamá de Teakia grita, “¡Cierra la puerta!”, pero Teakia no cierra la puerta. Teakia nunca cierra la puerta. La mamá de Teakia cierra la puerta.
Son las ocho. Teakia camina a la escuela. Teakia abre la puerta de la escuela. Teakia no cierra la puerta. Teakia nunca cierra la puerta. La Señora Williams grita, “¡Cierra la puerta!”, pero Teakia no cierra la puerta. Teakia nunca cierra la puerta. La Señora Williams cierra la puerta.
Son las nueve y quince. Teakia va a la clase de Español. Teakia abre la puerta, pero Teakia no cierra la puerta. La Señora Bex grita, “¡Cierra la puerta!”, pero Teakia no cierra la puerta. Teakia nunca cierra la puerta. Señora Bex repite, “¡Cierra la puerta!”, y Teakia grita, “¡Nunca!”
La Señora Bex llama a su amiga. Su amiga camina a la escuela y cierra la puerta. Cierra la puerta con pegamento. Señora Bex y Teakia nunca abren la puerta. ¡Es imposible!
ENGLISH:
It’s seven o’clock. Teakia goes to school. Teakia yells, “Bye, mom!” and opens the door of her house, but she doesn’t close the door. Her mom yells, “Close the door!” but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Teakia’s mom closes the door.
It’s eight o’clock. Teakia walks to school. Teakia opens the door of the school, but she doesn’t close the door. Mrs. Williams yells, “Close the door!” but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Mrs. Williams closes the door.
It’s nine fifteen. Teakia goes to Spanish class. Teakia opens the door, but she doesn’t close the door. Mrs. Bex yells, “Close the door!”, but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Mrs. Bex repeats, “Close the door!” and Teakia shouts, “NEVER!”
Señora Bex calls her friend. Her friend walks to the school and closes the door. She closes the door with glue. Teakia and Señora Bex never open the door.
Get the curriculum!
This story is included in Unit 3 of the Somos 1 Curriculum for Novice Spanish. Complete lesson plans for teaching with this story are included in both the original unit and the Flex version of the unit.
All story scripts shared on http://www.comprehensibleclassroom.com are licensed under aCC-BY-SA-NC 3.0 license:
You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material under the following conditions: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
I was looking at your curriculum map and noticed that the La Universidad link takes you instead to the Cierra la puerta script. I tried it a few times and got the same result for “La universidad” and “languages and occupations vocab”. Not sure if they are supposed to be 2 separate links, but…
Fixing it now! Thanks for the heads up!
I have sent you an email regarding the Linda Ronstadt song. Would you kindly respond? Thanks in advance. S Balint
I have responded to all emails that I received regarding that song…could you re-send it? I will go back and check my SPAM folder to see if it ended up there. When did you send it?
Hi Martina,
Could you please explain to me how you use the practice sentences? Gracias antemano!
I give them to the students in Spanish and have them translate them to English. Usually, I project the sentence and have the kids write the translations down on whiteboards, then they all hold up their answers at the same time and we review the correct answer. I find that it is helpful for students to see the words in context before we begin discussion or storyasking.
The personalized questions in this mini unit include several structures and vocabulary that are not taught in the previous two units of your curriculum map (dice and camina o corre). Do you teach this on the spot or previously at some point? Also, you wrote about “vocabulary” introduction, but only specifically addressed the high frequency structures. Your curriculum map mentions thematic vocabulary. Do you spend separate days introducing these words? How do you approach the additional vocabulary necessary for students to comprehend these stories? Thanks so much for any advice! Your blog is very helpful; I really appreciate that you’ve included and shared so much! Thanks again!
Great questions! So whenever you are doing discussion, you can use structures that you have not studied as long as you provide translations for students; preferably, written translations on the board. This makes the structures “in-bounds”. Then, focus on the target structures when you are circling responses. For example, instead of repeating and circling the whole phrase “John wants to see a puppy dog when he opens his eyes on his birthday”, you would focus on “When John opens his eyes, he wants to see a puppy dog!” and then circle “When John[Mary][Bob] opens[closes] his eyes[hands][door]” instead of the end of the sentence that doesn’t contain the target structures. My curriculum map mentions thematic vocabulary, but that is meant for folks that are tied to a textbook with thematic units and are looking for stories that they can use within those units. I do not teach thematic vocabulary, although certain thematic groups naturally emerge in stories (ex: In “Las chicas no juegan al fútbol americano”, many sports come up even though students are not required to memorize a list of them). Any additional vocabulary is added to the board with translations, and I use Carol Gaab’s strategy of writing vocab in separate areas depending on its importance: Target structures at the top of the board, helpful but not necessary structures at the bottom left, and “challenge” structures at the bottom right. I also keep a running list of cognates in a separate color in its own section of the board, because as Terry Waltz always says, “A cognate isn’t a cognate unless you read it”.