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Nasreddin Hodja
Stories to Read & Retell
66 traditional stories, compiled by: Raymond C. Clark

A teacher's suggestion

Maggie Mieske, who is now teaching at Qatar University, shared this great idea with us at TESOL 2010 Boston. I asked if we could share it on our website, which she encouraged.

A couple of years ago when Maggie was teaching in the States, she used Nasreddin Hodja as separate story cards with a class. (Students would take a page, read the story, put it down, and then retell the story, sharing it with another student.) She reports that her students, from a variety of cultures, became very enthusiastic, which gave her an idea.

She asked every student to choose five stories and work on them until they were comfortable telling them. Then she took her class to a nearby nursing home and paired her students with the residents. The students told their stories, asked their new friend if they had any stories to tell, and of course exchanged personal information. The residents loved it, and the students said it was the high point of their course. In fact, one student after graduating called the school to find out how he could contact the home and go back for a visit.

Last week Maggie posted this note on Pro Lingua's Facebook Wall:

" The conference was great and I loved the new story card books! I would like to send some photos of one of our nursing home visits (in the USA two years ago) to read aloud to residents. I'm hoping to set up something similar here in Qatar at local schools and made sure to promote the story cards/read and retell concept at our action research presentation last Saturday. I can't wait until next year! My students are excited to try out the new Chinese folktales now!"

If you would like to contact Maggie with questions, she gave me her email address for that purpose:
msmieske@qu.edu.qa

The Chinese folktales in the same story card format as the Hodja tales is The Dragons without Eyes. We also have Aesop's Fables and North American Indian Tales. And in a slightly different format but still perfect of use as story cards, we have Legends: 52 People Who Made a Difference. These are all available on this site.

If you are interested, I invite you to visit our Pro Lingua Facebook page. There is a link on our home page, or just click here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pro-Lingua-Associates-Educational-Materials/179556013580?v=wall

We love it when you share ideas.
Thanks, Andy Burrows. publisher