Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Getafe

Collective Story-telling by Básico 1 students (2008-2009)

Teacher: One day we were in class and something very strange happened.

Tuesday Group, in class (kindly posted on the Writing Blog by Mayte):

One day we were in class and something very strange happened. The TV set turned on. In that moment somebody broke the door open. It was a woman with long black hair. She came into the classroom and she shouted at our teacher but our teacher didn't know her, so she freaked out. Our classmate Mon was sleeping and he woke up with the noise: "What's happening?," he said. Nobody answered because the strange woman walked to the TV set and turned it off. Then she said: "Shut up! Listen to me!" Everyone was shocked. We thought she was crazy.

Mayte continued this story at home in this way: – I'm a parapsychologist! and I am working on a strange event. Have you seen anything strange this evening? - asked the woman. – Yes, we have - we answered. – We have seen the TV set turn on. – And people are falling asleep in class today - said our teacher. – Well, we believe these events are caused because the school was built on the cementery - said the woman.

Julia continued the story at home in this way: Suddenly two men came into the classroom and they walked to the woman. Then they took her to a car waiting in the street and then they drove her to hospital. Was the strange woman going mad? Possibly, but… why did the TV set turn on? It was very strange. Who turned on the TV set? Why did the woman get angry like that? And why did the woman shout at our teacher? We are still thinking about all this!

Fernando (Monday Group) used the first sentence to write his own (very funny) story:

One day we were in our English class (Elementary) and something very strange happened. Suddenly the light turned off and people started to shout. But… Why did they shout? It was only 16:00 o'clock and it was a sunny day. They were bored and they were entertaining themselves in this way. But the strange thing about this was… that they spoke English perfectly well! The teacher couldn't believe it. She and her students were speaking English until 9 o'clock more or less, but as it was late, they couldn't see anyting because there wasn't any light. Then one student turned on the lights and suddenly everybody forgot how to speak English! The student turned off the lights and now they could speak English and French, so then they decided to leave the lights off.

Pilar Palomo (Monday Group)

One day we were in class and something very strange happened. People were very, very happy because Michelle did not appear and we could talk! (of course, in Spanish). Suddenly, Macarena, who is an English teacher and Michelle's friend, came to our class and told us that Michelle was ill. She had given some instructions to her. First, we had to turn on the computer and we had to do some exercises. Second, we had to send them by e-mail and then we could suggest something to cure her throat. Macarena went out and we turned on the computers and everybody began to speak in English. That was surprising!!! WE COULDN'T SPEAK SPANISH! Suddenly we heard the Michelle's laughter. She was outside the classroom and she was spying on us. Finally, she told us that there was a new English translator which made people speak English…. and she was testing it with us!