Stories are a wonderful way of helping students learn and acquire language. This book is for teachers who want to use stories in class but need a place to start. Stories is packed full of fun activities using different genres: soap opera, urban myth and newspaper reporting as well as advice on using stories in the classroom.

Introduction; Activities;Section A: activities 1-14 Learning about text as narrative genre:1 Sorting and sequencing; 2 Musical orientation; 3 Complications and resolutions; 4 Choose your own adventure narrative; 5 Starting at the end; 6 Getting the point of a story; 7 Point of view; 8 Shaping facts to fit purpose; 9 Troubles talk; 10 Travel tales; 11 Tall stories; 12 In a nutshell; 13 Rumour as narrative; 14 Limericks.Section B: activities 15-28 Language learning through narrative lessons: 15 Text repair; 16 Read, ask and tell; 17 Again and again; 18 Recorded anecdotes; 19 Arguing a case; 20 Describing the circumstances of a past event; 21 Complaints in the context of a recount; 22 Perfect match; 23 Sound contrast; 24 Schwa map; 25 Milking a mystery; 26 Finish my sentences; 27 From short story to drama; 28 Rewriting song lyrics. Section C: activities 29-42 Building a 'storied' class: 29 Story-telling as a social act; 30 Every name has a story (1); 31 Every name has a story (2); 32 The landmarks of your life; 33 Your language biography; 34 Liar, liar, pants on fire; 35 That's incredible!; 37 Pet hates; 38 Culture bump; 39 Write my story; 40 Parables; 41 Mystery pebbles; 42 Here comes the bride. Story bank; References.