A perfect CI story has several critical features:

1. Based mostly on target language that your students already know and understand.
2. Only includes 2-3 unfamiliar words which become the target structures.
3. Incorporates repetitions of the target structures.
4. Has a quirky & unexpected ending.
5. Characters are ones your students recognise – either one they love e.g. SpongeBob, or ones they detest e.g. Elsa (Frozen).
6. Settings are well known places from their local area e.g. MacDonalds, Sydney Opera House, Horseshoe Bay. Don’t translate places; Proper names are the same regardless of the language.
7. Incorporates cognates. This will depend firstly on your target language, secondly on your story and importantly, thirdly on your student’s prior knowledge. e.g. durian is not a food that my students would recognise whereas stroberi (strawberry) is instantly recognisable.)
8. The story length is appropriate for the age of the students. This is critical for maintaining engagement during the student acting and to cater for their reading levels when reading the story.
9. Incorporates high frequency vocabulary.

The reasons these are critical for a great story is that it ensures our stories cater for:

• working memory capacity,
• student engagement &
• comprehension,
  all of which are essential for language acquisition.

To ignore any of the 8 features, will inevitably disadvantage your students. I’ve discovered it’s better to start too simple and then while co-creating with students, add any known language that students contribute and add it to the both the current version and the parallel story.

‘Scope And Sequence Stories’ page (link).

For examples of great stories, check out the list of stories by clicking on the link above. When looking at these or other people’s stories, adapt the language for your students. It is important you only use them exactly as they are if it suits your context. There is no single way to use CI as we all have unique students, unique school expectations and unique teaching styles. When sharing stories based on any of the stories listed, always credit the original author!

Note
I firstly apologise that the stories listed in the Scope And Sequence are mostly only available in Indonesian.  I am slowly translating them into English! If there is one that has potential and Google translate isn’t helping, please get in contact and I will happily translate that story for you!