First, I identify "helpful" words (words that will increase story comprehension, but there is no goal to master/learn these specific words - the goal is to comprehend the overall story) and do TPR with them before the story. I don't mind having a large list - some of these words are review and most of the words will be easily understood in context with the story, actions, drawing, and writing on the board to help. This just breaks down some of that process so that students can focus more on the story while it's being told.  I plan on doing TPR with these words a day before I actually tell the story (and they're high frequency, so I'll be using them anyway) and then reviewing right before the story to help prevent students getting mentally exhausted.  I really want them to focus on enjoying the story when I tell it.

Prior to telling the story, I briefly discuss the title, setting, main characters, and basic conflict to students in English.  This was an explicit recommendation from my ELA colleague.  Not only does it build anticipation for what the story is about, but it scaffolds the story for students who might have more difficulty with listening comprehension (in general, not just in their second language).  When students have a general idea of what they're listening for and what the story is generally about, I believe they're able to feel more confident (and therefore motivated) about understanding the story as well as hone in on important details without getting caught up on what they might be a little confused about.  Remember, we're mainly talking about those kids that really, really struggle with reading and listening comprehension here no matter what language it's in.

Some students will benefit from graphic organizers for various reasons.  This was another explicit recommendation from my ELA colleague.  Some students who struggle with listening comprehension will benefit from having a concrete item to keep track of what they're comprehending and how it fits together.  Other students simply feel better having it.  As long as it doesn't interfere with comprehending the story, why should I deny them this resource?  Of course, that means I need to be REALLY clear about what the graphic organizer is for and what I expect them to do because putting a paper in students' hands may lead them to treat the story like traditional school and focus on mastery rather than simply comprehending and enjoying the story.  Here is my STORY graphic organizer that I use, inspired by this one developed for fiction story texts in ELA.  I plan on telling students that comprehending and enjoying is the goal, so eventually I would like to help everyone get to the point that they don't need the graphic organizer.  However, it's there just in case you feel like you need it.  If you're understanding the story just fine, though, leave it alone.  I will probably show students the reaction questions (below) so they know how they're being "evaluated" - or rather, how they're evaluating me and the story.  I should note, too, that I plan on handing this out to everyone before the story in order to avoid calling attention to students who need it to help them follow the story.  (An added benefit of using this particular graphic organizer is that it was inspired by ELA fiction text structure organizers, so you can check off the "Connections" standard box for the day!).

Next, I tell the story!  For my novice and beginner stories, I divide my board up into squares that match the reading (below) and draw each scene in the square that corresponds with the reading.  Like Dr. Mason, I write the Spanish and English on the board, but erase the English immediately and just leave the Spanish.  Also like Dr. Mason, I elaborate and add details as needed to reinforce an illustrate the ideas - you will see this best by comparing the video of me telling the story to the reading afterward.  The basic idea is that you communicate the same idea a number of ways, giving students more opportunities to understand what is happening while also providing rich and varied input.  I draw my pictures (mine aren't very good, but they get the job done) and do a lot of acting with my body to illustrate what I am telling students.  One of my own adaptations is the idea of "recycling", from TPRS, where I retell the entire story up to the current moment at certain points (where those points are depend on the story and the class).  I may also ask for a thumbs up or down midway through to make sure I'm being comprehensible - sometimes I think I am but I'm not, so this gives me a chance to reset and salvage the story if needed.  As I get more confident in my SL skills, I may eliminate this check.

Immediately after the story, I have students write a reaction.  Their reaction is very open and could be any of the following - this year, I'm going to as for a one-paragraph response (5 sentences) and let my students choose which question(s) they want to respond to based on their experience: What was your favorite part of the story?  What is something you would change about the story?  What would you add to the story?  What is something that helped you understand the story?  What is something that made it hard to understand the story? (I may add/change this list over time).  This is a quick exit ticket and achieves a few things: First, it gives me a quick glimpse into how I did.  Thoughtful responses to the first three questions show me that students comprehended the story enough to evaluate it.  That's pretty high up there on Bloom's taxonomy and shows evidence of higher level thinking.  If students are answering these questions well, then we're doing great!  The last two questions explicitly give students the opportunity to tell me what I'm doing well or need to improve on.  If these are the questions that resonate with students, particularly if there's something that made it hard to understand the story, I know that I need to make some adjustments and even have some recommendations on what those adjustments should be.  Finally, I am going to ask students to rate the story itself on a scale of 1-5.  Was it one they enjoyed?  Should I tell more stories like this?  Should I use it for future students?  Assuming students understood the story, this will help me know which types of stories resonate with particular classes and assist me in choosing future stories.

Then, I'm going to let the story rest for a day.  A friend of mine is using the Waldorf method for homeschooling her children, which also uses story methods, and told me about how the method emphasizes incubation.  Tell a story, and then let it sit and process for a day or two.  From my own education and experience, this makes a lot of sense and has a lot of other benefits - by just telling the story, students can focus on enjoying it and not having to worry about what they're going to do with it later.  It also gives me a chance to repeat the story and show students what they did learn.  Finally, it ultimately gives me more time to work with a story since we're doing it in shorter chunks spread out over time.  My plan this year is to let the story rest and move on to something else after completing the above steps.  Then, a day or two later, I will put up our visual of the story (don't forget to take a picture of your board! This is a student job in my class) and retell it in a simple, straightforward way while pointing to the images students are already familiar with (I'm a big believer in using the same pictures for this particular retell, even if better ones are available.  It will help students recall the details better since they're associated with those particular images).  After retelling the story, I'll have students do a verbal retell in English (particularly helpful if a student was gone during the original story).  Then, we can move to reading the story.  I use a this format for reading so that students can connect what they're reading with the images we drew on the board.  It also allows me to use the boxes for a variety of activities - what do I want students to put in the boxes - drawings, text, or...?  Also, we can cut these apart and use them for ordering and matching activities.

At this point, I can do whatever activities I would typically do with a One Word Image, Super Mini Story, or a TPRS story.  Are we going to act it out? Read it?  How?  There are so many options here, and what we do will depend on the individual class and story.  But, now we've got a new resource!

Must teachers be 100% comprehensible? Is there room for noise? And, if so, what amount or type of noise is acceptable?

First, here are a few comments from this article, The Case for Non-Targeted Input (Krashen, 2013)

"For an item of grammar to be acquired, the language acquirer must be ready to acquire the item. It must, in other words, be at the acquirers' i+1, where i = aspects of grammar that were most recently acquired."

"An important corollary of the Comprehension Hypothesis is the "Net" Hypothesis: Given enough comprehensible input, i+1, all the vocabulary and structures the student is ready for, is automatically provided. In Krashen and Terrell (1983) this was referred to as the Net: "When someone talks to you in a language you have not yet completely acquired so that you understand what is said, the speaker "casts a net" of structure around your current level of competence, your "i". This net will include many instances of i+1, aspects of language you are ready to acquire" (p. 33)."

"Ray and Seely (2008) emphasize the importance of translation because they feel that students must understand every word of what is said in class and what they read. As noted earlier, this may indeed be very helpful at the very beginning, but the transparency requirement should give way to the requirement that students feel that they are understanding everything. If only the feeling of full comprehension is required, if input is allowed to contain some i+n, we are no longer restricted to translation as a means of making input comprehensible. We are free to use pictures and realia, as emphasized in Natural Approach (see also comments by Carol Gaab in Ray and Seely, p. 235), as well as other means of making input comprehensible that do not obviously provide a one-to-one mapping from form to meaning (e.g. background readings that provide a general context for a story). If, in fact, the input is truly compelling, it is likely that students will not even notice the "noise" or bits of incomprehensible and nontransparent elements in the input."

I believe there is a difference between "total translatability" and "total comprehensibility" (I dislike the word "transparency" because I think it is confusing and could apply to either case).

Total translatability - students have a one-to-one connection for each and every word. This limits what you can communicate to students as well as the intention of communicating it: the emphasis is on learning forms, not on understanding messages.

Total comprehensibility - I'm beginning to think that acceptable "noise" does not come in the form of incomprehensibility, but rather that the meaning of words that would be incomprehensible on their own are made clear through other methods. For instance, when Diane Neubauer told us the story about the Zodiac, there was a part where the rat jumped over the ox's head. Had she focused on us understanding the words in that part of the story, it would have been overwhelming as well as disrupted the flow of the story - we were right at the climax and focused on what was happening, so it would have been much less compelling (not to mention out of bounds) to sit and focus on the somewhat more-complex language involved in communicating that idea. However, we completely comprehended that very critical part and kept the "flow" of the language going thanks to her gestures. We learned plenty in the process - and she could still use that story for valuable input (as opposed to being "barred" from an otherwise comprehensible story because a key part would have been "out of bounds"). This still counts as noise, however, because I didn't make any connections with the actual target language and couldn't have told you what the words were, even just after hearing her say them.  And, frankly, I didn't care - I understood the message and wanted to hear the rest of the story!  They key is that the message was, in fact, 100% comprehensible even if it did include noise, which was important because it lowered my affective filter and kept me in "flow".  In other words, I didn't get stressed about trying to achieve a deeper level of comprehension than I was ready for nor was I stressed that there were details I was missing, because I felt confident that I had comprehended the entire message.

With regard to i+1 - there have been a few that say if everything is "100% comprehensible", then it is not providing the "+1". However, this position confuses what is acquired with what can be understood. It is important to understand that "i" is NOT what can be understood - it is what is already acquired, meaning that it can be used by the student. The "+1" is the language that is not yet acquired but can be understood (and therefore has the potential to be acquired). This area of "+1" is very broad and flexible as it contains all of the language that can be made comprehensible. For instance, novice students who have never been exposed to the target language before, have zero "i"; thus, the entire first lesson (or series of lessons) are all within the "+1" range. As students acquire "i" from the "+1" input, their ability to comprehend additional "+1" expands, although much of the language that was "+1" will remain "+1". This is why I agree with Krashen (2013) that non-targeted language is ideal for differentiation - students convert the "+1" into "i" at different rates according to the natural order, but as long as students are provided with a "Net" of language that includes "+1" for all students, all students will be able to continue acquiring the language they are ready for at their own pace .

With regard to noise, I don't think that "noise" can be acquired - the grammar and vocabulary from the language used MUST be made comprehensible before acquisition of that particular form can occur. In my above example with the Zodiac story, I had no chance of acquiring the structure for "jump over" because I never really even wrapped my head around the target language words in the first place.  However, that was not a bad thing - in fact, it enabled Diane to tell a compelling story while staying "in bounds" and keeping the affective filter low.  I believe that teachers need to skillfully judge and plan how they will tell a story knowing that the majority should be comprehensible at an level which students can acquire it, but be able to bridge these sections with tiny bits of comprehensible noise (if that makes sense) in order to make up for bits of language that might be beyond the "+1" level yet are still necessary to be compelling.

So, to answer my initial questions:
YES, teachers MUST be 100% comprehensible - meaning that students feel that they are comprehending everything.  Some misunderstandings will occur - that's fine.  That is part of language development and their understandings will become refined as they receive more input (also noted in Krashen, 2013).  This keeps the affective filter low as students become comfortable and confident about comprehending messages, forgetting to focus on individual words and whether they can translate them.
YES, there is room for noise, but it must be comprehensible noise that is strategically used only when necessary. In other words, the messages must remain comprehensible even if the language is not.  Moreover, teachers need to use their best judgement in order to maximize the amount of "+1" at a level that is possible for students to acquire.  Yet, they should not feel constrained to only providing input that is at the "+1" level - comprehensible noise can be used as a tool to help students access input opportunities that might be otherwise compelling and comprehensible for students.

Someone recently asked about how much time I plan my lessons, especially now that I'm working to differentiate for my classes. While it may look like a lot of work, my lesson planning is even easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Here's what I do:

Step 1: Select contexts and strategies for providing compelling CI
What will my stuents find compelling?  I use a variety of contexts for authentic and compelling input for my students.  I emphasize auditory input, with the "critical input" activities followed by reading what students heard.  Here are a few examples of contexts, although this is by no means exhaustive:

• Morning news and agenda - We talk about the date, the agenda, the weather, and calendar events (no reading)
• Comprehensible Comics - I show a comic and describe what is happening in each scene as well as make any dialogue comprehensible (followed by listening and reading OR listening and looking at the comic as well as a formative self-evaluation for student comprehension)
• Story Listening - If you're not familiar with this activity, please see my other more-comprehensive posts about what this entails (followed by reading, formative self-evaluation of comprehension, and "interaction" with the text using a menu of activities)
• Co-Creation - I use this to refer to the variety of methods from TPRS and Ben Slavic which involve creating a character, siuation, or story (often followed by write and discuss and reading)
• Personalized Questioning and Answering (PQA) - Essentially, using the target language to interview and talk about students.  Please research the particular skills and routines associated with this if you're not already familiar with them.  (not usually followed by reading)
• Structured Reading and Discussion - This refers to a variety of strategies used to read and re-read a text, including discussion and listening.  I recommend looking at Ben Slavic's Big CI Book.
• Free Reading - Students self-select reading materials based on level and interest.

I have a distict "flow" to my class, so this is a sort of "drag and drop" activity for me and takes only about 10-15 minutes to arrange into a weekly outline.  I might adjust it from there, but this is my "weekly planning".

Step 2: Select the language that will be used and how you will make it comprehensible
What will you talk about and how?  What do you need to do to "stay in bounds," or in other words ensure that students can comprehend what you are saying and not get overwhelemed or oversaturated?  This involves identifying:

• Words that students already know and can be readily and easily used
• Words that are familiar but not yet known - these require context or other cues for meaning
• New or tricky words - these will require the highest level of support
• "Noise" words - words you might use but that students don't need to necessarily know or even be aware of to understand the message.  These words do not go on the board nor are they intentionally repeated or used in a way that expects students to understand them (assuming you've made meaning clear another way).  For instance, you might "gloss" over a part of the story where you can make meaning clear through drawings or gestures, but where a focus on understanding the auditory input might push students beyond the i+1 level or oversaturate them.  This also provides differentiation for students who might already understand the "core" auditory input and be ready to acquire the "in between" or "extra" words.  After providing the input and assessment may wish to provide a list of these words to students who desire them.

For teachers new to the profession or new to CI, this might be the most difficult step as you get to know where the i+1 level is for your students, what language will work, and what language won't.  However, once you're comfortable with this, it's simply a matter of rehearsing in your head or writing down what you plan to say.  For me, this involves writing up a quick reading for things like Comprehensible Comics or Story Listening using the language I feel will be at the i+1 level, which can be planned ahead of time.  If I have multiple levels, I simply copy and paste and then revise/add/delete the language to match the proficiency level of my other classes.  For my students who I need differentiation (which I'm mainly just doing for Story Listening), I copy and paste the reading onto a new graphic organizer and then delete all but the key words they need to know and write the English translations.  Next, I copy and paste those words into a Quizlet flashcard set (the beauty is that these growing pains are only temporary and you can re-use these free resources next year).

When I get to class, I pick word cards that correspond with the story to guide me and to show to my students as I provide input (these are like my verb word wall, but in GIANT magnetic form with Spanish on one side and Spanish/English on the other).  For more organic activities, I just have an idea of what language I might use to facilitate the conversation and then adjust the conversation and make it comprehensible as appropriate during class.  This does require skill to think on-the-spot about what will be "in" and "out" of bounds, and what you will do with that language.  For this reason, I feel that Story Listening, Comprehensible Comics, and other pre-planned activities are easier for new CI teachers.

Step 3: Determine how you will check for comprehension
This can be done a variety of ways, although the teacher must be careful not to raise the affective filter and make students anxious or feel put-on-the-spot.  I use a variety of methods, and they differ based on the activity.

• Signals - Students are expected to signal me, either with a red card or a time-out sign, if I've confused them.  I make sure they know that it's the message that's important, not individual words.  However, if they get "lost", then it's time to signal me so that I can do my job better (my job is to make the language comprehensible for them).
• Questioning - This could be circling or another type of comprehension check.  I do not use extensive questioning during stories, if at all, because it disrupts the flow of the story (the exception is when I ask a "natural" question that fits with the telling of the story, such as those a kindergarten teacher might ask when reading out loud to her students).  However, during interactive activities such as PQA or even finding out what students think about the weather, I circle and compare responses as long as it is still compelling.
• Body Language and Authentic Responses - this is a much more subtle way to check comprehension and I encourage newer teachers to have a "back up" of some sort to get a second meansure.  However, body language and the ways students respond to information they understand can often communicate comprehension clearly, especially with smaller groups where the teacher is able to pay attention to the behaviors of all of the students.  TPR gestures can also communicate comprehension.
• Translation, summary, or other reaction to information - I use this at "checkpoint" moments in order to make sure everyone is at the same point.  For instance, at natural transition points in the story, I may ask for a volunteer to summarize what has happened so far.  This lets me know how I'm doing making information comprehensible AND it makes sure that everyone is up-to-speed to the current point and can continue comprehending.  I might also ask for a ticket-out the door which summarizes or responds to the story in some way (What was your favorite part?  Which part would you change, why, and how? etc.)  Finally, I usually only use translation when reading, in which case we might orally translate as a class.
• Formative Feedback - This is where I get most of my data.  Students simply indicate how much they understood.  They do this either through a single-digit score out of four points (4 = understood nearly everything, 3 = most, 2 = half, 1 = less than half) and/or by highlighting the text that they understand as I read it aloud to them.  I use this information to measure how well I did to make language comprehensible as well as to identify my struggling students.

For me, these are tied directly to my "comfort zone" and style, so there is little preparation beyond the initial student-training and communicating expectations to students.

Step 4: Determine whether a grade will be attached to an activity, why, and how
This is where each teacher will have to determine what fits with their philosophy, goals, and program.  I've changed my grading system three times this year alone, but I do feel that the most recent system might stick because it's easy and authentic.   I grade anything that is formative as a completion grade - these make up 50% of their overall grade.  Students are letting me know how well I am doing my job - it's my 50%, so as long as they let me know how I did, they get the grade.  The other 50% is based on their behaviors aligned with my expectations for them, since those behaviors will lead to acquisition.  Because I have pretty clear routines in my class and pre-made forms, this requires no extra preparation beyond printing copies of resources.
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That's it!  As long as I'm not trying anything new (or blogging about it!), it usually only takes me about 15-30 minutes to plan for all of my classes each day.  I take about 15 minutes to plan my weekly outline ahead of time.  Then, all that is left to do during the week is picking language to use and writing up the reading and any related materials.  Assuming I already have a story, comic, or other context in ind, this takes about another 15-30 minutes to create the resources and differentiate them by class level and student need.

To be completely honest, what takes much more time is finding stories and other contexts to talk about, especially for Story Listening.  Selecting the right context and/or story means becoming familiar with many stories and how they might be both compelling and comprehensible for your students.  However, this is becoming easier and easier as I build a bank of resources (such as this, this, or this, with more listed here) and listen to stories other teachers are telling.  One of my best stories was one I learned as a student of Chinese Story Listening!

Note to the reader:

• If you are unfamiliar with Story Listening, I recommend you visit the Story Listening page to get a general idea of what it it involves.
• The primary person responsible for developing this particular methodology as well as the research behind it is Dr. Beniko Mason, who teaches English to her Japanese students exclusively through Story Listening supported by Free Voluntary Reading.  I highly recommend reading this post, where Dr. Mason details Story Listening in her own words.  It is worth noting that Dr. Mason is successfully using this method to teach her students to listen, read, write, and speak a non-cognate language with a different form of writing.  Moreover, English is not a phonetic language, presenting additional challenges for reading and writing.
• Finally, there will be those who say that this is "nothing new".  Of course storytelling is not new.  We've been telling stories since the beginning of human history.  That in and of itself should be compelling enough information to consider using more stories in education.  We are wired for language and stories.  However, using it in an academic classroom with specific learning goals and timelines is a new concept, as are the specific techniques and behaviors that accompany Story Listening that Dr. Mason applied and researched extensively with a variety of students.  I am excited to see this research grow as more teachers with different circumstances and students test this method in their own classrooms.  Finally, using Story Listening is a new frontier for me as a teacher, as I imagine it will be for others.  I share my own insights on this, as with anything else, so that teachers who might wish to explore this frontier might be able to do so productively and meaningfully.

For the last three weeks, I've been trying out Story Listening for the first time in my classes.  I was struggling with the Story Asking as we would get stuck, I had trouble choosing details that kept everyone engaged, and many of my students were getting lost in the chaos or frustrated with the "flow" of the story.  My "low" kids weren't understanding what was happening.  My "high" kids wanted to keep moving.  And my "easily distracted" kids were off in their world.  I wouldn't say it was a hot mess, but it was close.  The kids were learning, but I didn't feel like we were going anywhere fast and I was frustrated and exhausted.  I'll readily admit that there are people more talented at "Asking a Story" than I am - but it just hasn't really ever "clicked" for me.  So, after a particularly rough first period, I decided I would let myself off the hook and simply tell a story to the next class.  I knew I had to pick something interesting, and the first thing that came to my mind was "La Llorona".  I found a quick summary of the story online to refresh my memory, printed it out, and "told" it.  Despite the minimal preparation, it was a hit!  I didn't do any drawing - I just put the words they needed help with on the board with the English translation.  After that, I pre-drew my pictures and vocabulary and told the story of "La Llorona" to my remaining classes with the pictures under the projector.  After each class, I asked the students to show me how they felt about the activity by holding up fingers.  A "3" meant they learned about the same, a "1" meant they learned a lot less, and a "5" meant they learned a lot more.  Even with my minimal understanding of Story Listening and almost no practice, every student in every class rated the activity as a "4" or a "5"!  I was sold!  I've made a number of adjustments since that first week and would like to share my "beginners guide" to getting started with Story Listening.

First, it's very important to understand exactly what Story Listening is and is not.  It is not simply storytelling.  Storytelling puts the emphasis on what the teacher is doing and will likely not meet the acquisition needs of students, whereas Story Listening is focused on the person who is listening to the story and responsive to what they need.  In order for story listening to be effective, the following conditions must be met:

• The story chosen must be compelling.  This is perhaps the most difficult part of Story Listening - accurately predicting which students will best engage students
• The story chosen must be at the appropriate level.  The content of the story must be easy to follow for the level of students you are telling (generally speaking, concrete, logical, and straightforward stories are easier to understand than abstract, nonsensical, and/or complex stories - silliness is perfectly fine, but it's usually easier to follow a logical train of thought and rationale for events).  You must also be able to tell the story with language at the i+1 level.
• The teacher must be skilled at measuring whether the story is compelling and comprehensible at all times and be able to adjust the story and their strategies for delivering it when needed in order to meet the first two conditions.

It is also helpful to understand the potential similarities and differences between Story Listening and other methods of CI Instruction.  NOTE: I use the word "potential" because CI instruction can take many forms.  Almost all language teachers agree that we must actually use the language for students to learn it.  In some cases, this takes the form of stating sentences that the students understand.  Most traditional classes use the language in order to give instructions, although this use is incidental to the "real" instruction (i.e. vocabulary, grammar, worksheets, comprehension questions, etc. taking place.)  For this particular list of similarities and differences, I'm going to narrow the list to items that differ between Story Listening and other methods that are grounded in the idea that the instruction itself should be through CI and focused on meaning and proficiency rather than skills and vocabulary.  Even here, however, we find a lot of variance in how teachers instruct and the strategies they use, and and almost strategy has the potential to be used similarly or differently than the strategies employed in Story Listening.

Potential Similarities

• The bottom line for using CI methods (which includes many different strategies for delivering CI) is that students learn through listening to and reading the language at a comprehensible level.  Story Listening addresses the "listening" aspect.
• CI strategies 
• Story Listening and other CI methods are intended to get students listening to, processing, negotiating meaning through interaction, and enjoying the language.
• CI methods must be compelling, meaning that students are so interested that they are intrinsically motivated to attend to meaning.
• Story Listening and other methods are student-centered as they respond to what students find interesting and what is comprehensible to them.

Potential Differences: (many of these items overlap, so I apologize for any repetition)

• Many CI methods ask for explicit, verbal feedback and interaction to measure student comprehension and/or master of the language being used. For example, teachers might "circle" a particular word until all students are able to respond accurately and confidently with little to no hesitation.  While this may be helpful to some teachers and students, this is only one form of student interaction and feedback for the teacher.  When doing Story Listening, teachers use primarily non-explicit forms of interaction and feedback to judge comprehension and interest, such as student body language, pre-established signals, and authentic reactions to the input (gasps, excitement, comments about the story, etc.).
• Many CI Methods attempt to get students engaged and make the information compelling by including student suggestions and ideas.  Story Listening gets students engaged and makes the information compelling by careful selection of a story based on its appeal to students.  Often, the best stories are those that have stood the test of time and transcended generations and even cultures, such as fairy tales and legends.  Once teachers know their students well, they may wish to find more modern stories or even write original stories that will interest their students.
• Students are not expected to master anything in particular.  They are only expected to listen and enjoy the story.  Moreover, the teacher does not "teach" the story.  The story is used just enough to be meaningful to students and instruction moves on before students lose interest in it.  Teachers may or may not choose to reinforce what students heard by reading the story.  However, these activities are viewed in the lens of providing additional compelling input and opportunities to negotiate meaning at a deeper level.  Thus, just telling the story is often "enough" and teachers should avoid over-working any particular story.
• Similarly, Story Listening is untargeted The stories told are not selected for any "content" value, such as vocabulary or grammatical patterns.  The teacher uses rich language at the appropriate level for students to understand what is happening.  The teacher may "target for meaning" (in other words, use the word just enough times to ensure that students understand what is happening), but does not continue to target anything more than needed to facilitate telling the story.
• Building upon these last two points, students are not held accountable for anything in Story Listening. There is no quiz and the teacher does not assess the students with comprehension questions (although the teacher might ask an occasional question "in the moment" in order to make sure students are ready to move on to the next piece of information).  Students are simply expected to listen with the intent to understand and signal to the teacher if they become confused.
• Questions are asked with different intent.  Some methods ask questions intended to check comprehension, get repetitions of a particular language chunk, or otherwise aimed at "teaching" students something.  With Story Listening, questions asked are intended purely to clarify meaning (What does ____ mean?) or simply because it is an interesting question.  There are no hidden motives - the teacher is simply communicating authentically with his or her students.  As with any communication, these honest questions and responses do indicate comprehension although that is not necessarily their intent.  
• Story Listening uses rich language.  Students are exposed to the grammar and vocabulary needed to tell the story at a comprehensible level.  As students are exposed to this wide variety of language, they acquire vocabulary and grammar at their own pace along the natural order of acquisition.  Thus, stories are inherently differentiated, as some students are focused on "understanding" a particular chunk of language while other students are acquiring the language at a deeper level that will eventually lead to mastery.
• Story Listening is predictable for the teacher.  The teacher knows what language will be used and can use if effectively.  Moreover, because I know what is going to happen with the story, I can pay more attention to whether or not students are actually comprehending the story and be responsive to their needs.  I imagine I am not the only teacher who has felt overwhelmed with simultaneously creating a story and ensuring that all students are comprehending the story (not to mention the other things teachers must attend to as they teach!).
• Story Listening gives students more structure.  Because students have clearly defined roles and know what will be happening, they are able to feel more secure in that role.  Although it may not be true for all students, many of my students appreciate knowing all they have to do is listen to the story and react naturally to it (including letting me know they are confused).  They don't feel pressure to speak up in order to get their ideas included in a story, to compete with other students, or to demonstrate that they comprehend.  Consequently, most of my students feel more secure with Story Listening and feel that they get more out of class with the richer language and increased "flow".
• "Flow", or when students are so absorbed in the experience and meaning of what is happening in class,  takes top priority in Story Listening.  There are fewer interruptions to the story by things like deciding on a detail, "targeting" a particular word or phrase, checking comprehension, extensive circling, etc.  Instead, the story flows at a pace that maintains interest.

Finally, I'd like to touch on a few differences in my personal preference for various strategies:

• I do not get tunnel vision - I can focus on my kids because I already know the story and can anticipate what my students need to make it compelling and comprehensible.
• Class is calmer and more secure for my students.
• I am able to provide better language, both in quantity and quality.
• My students enjoy these stories more.  They're happier, more interested, and have indicated that they feel they are learning more.  Consequently, almost all behavior issues and student frustrations have disappeared.
• It's just easier for me.  We each have our own styles, and with Story Listening my voice is better, I'm not tired, and I enjoy it more.

So, if you'd like to get started with Story Listening, here are a few tips from my personal experience:

• Read MANY stories - and sit on them a few days before you choose one to tell your class.   Be sure to consider a wide variety of stories your students might be interested in, including content, emotional affect, themes, etc.
• Know your story inside and out so that you can focus on telling it in an engaging manner and responding to your students with regard to how compelling and comprehensible your story is.
• Practice telling the story - and tell it out loud until you are comfortable.  What words will you use?  How will you make them comprehensible?  Especially for non-native teachers, are you comfortable using the language you want to tell the story with (yes, this is an opportunity for you to grow, too!)
• Draw live.  This slows you down and builds interest.  I'm a terrible artist.  My creativity lies in how to adequately illustrate a story with stick figures.  I think they like my drawings better because they are *so* bad, yet they get the point across.
• Plan your drawings.  You can do this mentally, but at least consider what images you will draw in order to make the meaning clear.  I recommend including key vocabulary with your drawings and connecting them to the images - you will also want to plan this.
• Get dramatic.  The kids LOVE to see adults do crazy things.  I yell, beg, sing, smack items, use gestures and facial expressions. Each story is a little more dramatic than the rest.  I love entertaining my kids.  Like with my drawings, I'm a terrible actress - but my kids give me credit for trying.  They know I'm giving them my best and putting it all on the line for them, so they really want to see me succeed and make me feel good, too.
• Get student feedback about what students like.  My students have started giving me "story requests" - today my students made me promise to write a story about the Chupacabra.
  
• This is just a personal preference, but I teach my students transition words with rejoiners.  For instance, I say "así que" in a certain way, often with a hand gesture (especially at the beginning) and my students are trained to respond "sooooo" in the same way that I said it in Spanish.  Other words include "but", "however", "therefore", "then", "before", "after", "although", etc.  Add one word at a time and train yourself to say the word the same way and use the gesture every time.  Practice it a few times and then use them in your stories!  This will give a little extra "flair" to your students' vocabularies, increase interaction, and help connect the ideas in the story.
• Most importantly, DON'T GIVE UP!  If a story fails, ask yourself why.  Was the story itself simply not compelling?  What about how you told it?  Was the language too difficult?  Was there anything that interrupted "flow" - both of the language and of the story?

Good luck with your Story Listening!  I would love to hear from more teachers trying this in their classrooms and will continue to post videos regularly of my own.

All credit for the following goes to Dr. Beniko Mason and was obtained via personal correspondence with Tina Hargaden (email).  Thank you, Dr. Mason, for sharing Story Listening along with your thoughts about it with us.

I have taught kindergarten children to senior adults with this story-listening way for over 25 years. It has worked with almost everyone.

I looked for stories at many different places, but I have found Grimm Brothers’ Household Tales the easiest to tell (copyright free, too). Storybooks did not have enough stories in one book and I did not want to spend the money to buy many books, and I did not want my students to buy textbooks. I looked for stories on line.

The Grimm Brothers’ tales deal with many different themes with variety of words. Besides, about 85 to 90% of the words used in the stories are within the high frequency words (2000 word families), but others are 3000, 4000, 5000, 10,000 word levels and some words are off-list words including academic words.

I adjust the words and structures according to the age and level of the students. I have told “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “The three Little Pigs” (these are not Grimm’s) to “The Tempest” and several other stories by Shakespeare. In between, I tell Grimm Brothers’ tales and other folk tales from the world including from Japan.

When I tell a story: I am usually standing in front of the students and draw pictures on the board. With my advanced students I just tell and do not draw pictures.

My high school students who stayed with me for six years since their elementary school years eventually just listened for over one hour without pictures. With these students after telling a story, I read the text out loud to them and they followed the text silently and reviewed the story by listening to me read the text. When they had questions they asked me afterwards. Some of these students began to get a perfect score in the English exam on the nation wide standardized tests towards the end of their high school years. I experienced several successful cases with junior and senior high school kids about ten years ago.

One girl (my niece) was failing in English in her junior high school, but she began to listen to stories and read during the summer of her 9th grade, and in the fall she was doing great at tests at her school and then she passed an entrance exam to one of the best high schools in Osaka in the spring of the following year, and in the first semester at her high school she ranked at 14th out of 340 students in the English section of the standardized exam.

Another case is that there was a high school male student who ranked at D in the English section of the standardized mock college entrance exam in May. He began to read and listen to stories in June. In October, after only four months, when he took the test again he ranked at A in the English section. He passed an entrance exam to one of the best private universities in Kyoto in the following spring.

Another female high school student recorded my storytelling lesson on her cell phone and listened to it every night before she went to bed. She scored a perfect score many times in the English section of the standardized tests when she was 12th grade. She passed an entrance exam to a National University.

In class I never talked about grammar. We never practiced writing. We paid attention to vocabulary a little, but it was not forced. The students came to my class to listen to a new story every Tuesday night for 90 minutes. I had 6 or 7 girls in one room and they all listened to a story every week. They listened 40 times a week and they did this for three years at least. That is why I say if they listen to at least 100 stories they can become pretty good. I have adult students (45 or older to all the way to 69 years old right now). Some of these people have been with me for four years. They listen 12 to 15 times per semester, so they must have heard at least 100 stories. I do not have to draw any pictures on the board any more.

With other regular unmotivated weak students who are absent from class 40% of the semester. 

Even with these kids, they prefer my class to other teachers’ classes where other teachers do intensive reading explaining grammar rules. I am always given every year the classes of the students who score the lowest at the placement test. I get the lowest 30 students. What happens is that about half of them score high on the next placement test and so they are moved up and I get those at the bottom. Some of them had been placed in the higher class a year before. Even these kids, who don’t come to school to attend my class, get better if they don’t go to sleep in class.

Special Effects: I do not bring in any costumes and puppets and candles and stuff like that. I do not think it is necessary. Once in a while it may be fun, but it is not necessary. If I did, that is a special treat.

Board: Even with kindergarten children, I write the words even when they cannot read them yet. Story-listening is the bridge to reading.

Using other senses: Speaking out loud, repeating, drawing pictures, acting out (role playing), singing and dancing… I am not sure about these activities. I feel that the class time may not be wisely spent if the goal was language acquisition.

Reasons are:
1) Theory predicts that listening (input) alone is sufficient.
2) Research shows that input alone is more efficient.
3) My class is offered only once a week for 90 minutes per semester. 
4) Japanese college students are passive learners.

Japanese students are mostly passive learners. The culture trains them to be that way. They are not supposed to be showy and stand out. Of course there are some exceptions, but mostly they are quiet. Quiet does not mean that they are listening or obedient, though… In my situation, class is the only place for Japanese students to get English input. I wish to supply them with rich input as much as possible. They will have time to output later or somewhere else to do it if they want to.

Theory, Research and Actual Class: I do not know if you agree with me, but I feel that it is sad that children (students) are required to spend a lot of useless, wasteful time in school. Out of a 50-minute lesson, there may be only 15 minutes of real learning time and the other is a waste (I am only talking about the classes in Japan.) But as a teacher we must fill that time doing something good for the kids. So, drawing about the story may be good if that helps them retrieve the language that they just acquired and also drawing may relax them.

In my class with kindergarten kids, I used to use flash cards. I give them a list of the words on a sheet of paper. We review the words on the list and have the children write a meaning of the English words in Japanese. The kids can take that home and then the mothers would know what they did in class and they may want to review the words with the children.

Like I said before, my high school students used to tape record the lesson so that they could listen to the story again at home. This way they could review the words with images in their head from the story. It is not like skill-building list memorization. Remembering the words with the images that they thought of while they were listening to the story is not the same as direct memorization. Imagination leads to memory and memory leads to learning (Stevic).

Your Own Children: I think it is different with your own children. Your children do not have other people who are watching them how they are performing. Your children have 100% trust in you. Your children enjoy interacting with you in their home. I think it is different.

Story listening for Kindergarten children: I will have a chance to teach kindergarten kids on the 22nd of this month. I will see how it goes with a story. I will let you know.

What to tell: I have always used stories from storybooks. I have always drawn pictures. It is faster to draw than find puppets or create puppets. I do not want teachers to spend unnecessary money or time for preparing visual aids.

Taking them to the library: Yes, I agree with you.

Classroom with less stuff on the wall: Yes, I agree with you on this point too.
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Teacher’s job: I believe that my job is to help them improve their English to the next level each semester. I think that when students become confident with themselves, when they develop higher self-esteem, many other problems disappear. I concentrate on my job of providing compelling comprehensible stories and leading them to interesting books. Also when they start reading good books the authors of the books talk to them directly and then they change to become a better person too. I am not the one who is changing them. They are doing it to themselves through experiencing the stories in story-listening and books.