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    Stories Without End
    Stories Without End
    Stories Without End
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    Stories Without End

    By Taylor Sapp

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    About this ebook

    Creative, intriguing short stories to make students think and wonder what if. . . 

    Stories Without End engages students with literature through intriguing short stories that make them think and wonder. What if we could teleport anywhere in the world whenever we wanted to? Will robots ever replace human teachers? Why are some people optimists while others are pessimists? Where does our personality come from?

    Stories Without End engages students with creative writing as well. Because the stories have no end, students will have to write their own. With the variety of projects following each story, they'll also find themselves writing character sketches, drawing a scene from the story, interviewing people about the theme of the story, or keeping a dream journal. 

    And each story is supported with questions and vocabulary activities to introduce the story as well as discussion questions when students have finished reading.
     

    Praise for Stories Without End

    "All the English textbooks I've ever used had boring, but this is so unique." —Yurie S., ESL student

    "Well-thought-out approach to using fiction in an ESOL environment"—Andrew L., Professor MATESOL, Concordia University

    "This book is a wonderful jumping point for creative writing in the classroom. You could use this book for any age/grade and adapt the expectation of a creative response to suit" —Carmen M., Educator

    "Every classroom should own a copy of this book. Heck, All of us who journal or write for ourselves should won this book! I love the idea of story prompts." —Catherine H., Writer

    I loved the stories and ideas in this book, definitely will be found in our library for me or other teachers to use as a resource. I hope more editions like this come out for next year. —Diane K., School Librarian

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlphabet Publishing
    Release dateAug 23, 2018
    ISBN9781948492126
    Stories Without End
    Author

    Taylor Sapp

    Taylor Sapp has two passions which shape his books: writing and teaching. He has a BA in Creative Writing and Film from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and spent a few years toiling in the film and TV business. He also has an MA in Education/TESOL from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. He has several education books out with Alphabet Publishing as well as other literary works. He currently works in the education sector for Goodwill.

    Read more from Taylor Sapp

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      Book preview

      Stories Without End - Taylor Sapp

      Other Books by Alphabet Publishing

      Successful Group Work: 13 Activities to Teach Teamwork Skills by Patrice Palmer

      Classroom Community Builders: Activities for the First Day and Beyond by Walton Burns

      Keeping the Essence in Sight: From Practice and Observation to Reflection and Back Again by Sharon Hartle (forthcoming)

      50 Activities for the First Day of School by Walton Burns

      Integrated Skills Through Drama Series

      Her Own Worst Enemy: A serious comedy about choosing a career by Alice Savage

      Only the Best Intentions: A modern romance between a guy, a girl, and a game by Alice Savage

      Rising Water: A stormy drama about being out of control (forthcoming) by Alice Savage

      ––––––––

      We are a small, independent publishing company that specializes in resources for teachers in the area of English language learning. We believe that a good teacher is resourceful, with a well-stocked toolkit full of ways to elicit, explain, guide, review, encourage, and inspire. We help stock that teacher toolkit by providing teachers with practical, useful, and creative materials.

      Sign up for our mailing list on our website, www.alphabetpublishingbooks.com, for announcements about new books, and for discounts and giveaways you won’t find anywhere else.

      Early Praise for Stories Without End

      from educators

      I love the variety of topics and levels. The open-ended stories are especially fun and motivating.

      —Mina Gavell, ESL Instructor

      Taylor's well-thought-out approach to using fiction in an ESOL environment really stands out. Having all the elements for introducing, discussing, and branching out from the reading in a self-contained package is very useful.

      —Andrew Lawrence., Professor, MA TESOL Program, Concordia University

      I cannot wait to use Taylor's book with my students. His Stories Without End truly bring reading and writing together as a meaningful activity for lower- to intermediate-level learners in a way that few - if any - tasks do.

      —Verena Schäfers Sutherland, MATESOL, PCC Newberb/Linfield College

      The focus on engaging reading and writing materials is really what students need!

      —David Williams, English Professor, Dhofar University

      This book is a wonderful jumping point for creative writing in the classroom. You could use this book for any age/grade and adapt the expectation of a creative response to suit

      —Carmen M., Educator

      Every classroom should own a copy of this book. Heck, All of us who journal or write for ourselves should won this book! I love the idea of story prompts.

      —Catherine H., Writer

      I loved the stories and ideas in this book, definitely will be found in our library for me or other teachers to use as a resource. I hope more editions like this come out for next year.

      —Diane K., School Librarian

      from students

      What make it interesting is that we created the end of the stories by ourselves.

      —Rasheed A.

      I think it can give some thinking. I think these stories are easy to understand and it is good for students because if [the work] looks difficult, students think that they don't want to do it .... Key vocabularies also not too many, so students [will be motivated] to do this.

      —Honoka S.

      [These stories] improved my reading speed and our useful to extend reading skills.

      We can learn new words and develop creativity.

      C:\Users\Walton\OneDrive\0 Alphabet Publishing\2 Books\Stories Without End\Cover\StoriesWithoutEndRGB EBOOK.jpg

      Copyright 2018 by Taylor Sapp

      ISBN: 978-1-948492-12-6 (epub)

      978-1-948492-13-3 (kindle)

      978-1-948492-11-9 (paperback)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935996

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, introduced into, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

      Please consider leaving a review on the webpage where you bought this book.

      First Printing 2018

      Published by:

      Alphabet Publishing

      1204 Main Street #172

      Branford, Connecticut 06405 USA

      info@alphabetpublishingbooks.com

      www.alphabetpublishingbooks.com/

      All images from DepositPhoto and Adobestock except:

      Jack and the Beanstalk by Warwick Goble (Public Domain)

      Author’s photo by Taylor Sapp.

      Dedication

      Special thanks should be given to friends, family, teachers, and students who helped in the reading and testing of these stories!

      Abdulaziz Albatli

      Mona Alfayez

      Sima Mansour Almashaf

      Abdulelah Alsaed

      Hussam Aljumah

      Hanan Alrabiee

      Rasheed Alrabiee

      Ahmed Alrashed

      Turki Althaqib

      Juan Camilo Arieza-Lopez

      Cassie Chia-Chi Chang

      Wei Ling Chang

      Katrina Cui

      Ayumi Funakawa

      Mina Gavell

      Ryo Hatakeyama

      Noriki Honsako

      Seichiro Hori

      Suzuna Kiso

      Moeka Kudo

      Peter Lacey

      Andrew Lawrence

      Atsushi Nakamura

      Yui Okabe

      Honoka Sato

      Yurie Sato

      Rika Yasukawa

      My excellent publisher and editor, Walton Burns

      And of course my family, Aya, Quinn, Noah, Susan, Parker, James, and Leslie

      Table of Contents

      OTHER BOOKS BY ALPHABET PUBLISHING

      EARLY PRAISE AND REVIEWS

      DEDICATION

      HOW TO USE THIS COLLECTION

      CHOOSE A PATH

      FAMILY MATTERS

      THE LUNCH OF THE TWELVE

      THE GLASS IS HALF . . .

      PICK A PET

      GIFTED

      JOE AND HIS BEANS

      THE EYES HAVE IT

      A NICE BIKE IT IS!

      T-REX WINDOW

      THE LONG LINE

      ASSASSIN

      BAD DOG!

      THE CHASE

      THE SPOOKY HOUSE

      LUNCH BREAK

      SILVO

      THE TRAIN PUSHER

      I LOVE HORSE(S)

      WEATHER THE STORM

      DYSLEXIA

      THE LONG SLEEP

      THE LAST HUMAN TEACHER

      HOUSE HUSBANDS

      SUPPLEMENTS 1: SUMMARIES

      SUPPLEMENTS 2: ILLUSTRATIONS

      SUPPLEMENTS 3: WRITING

      SUPPLEMENTS 4: MEDIA

      SUPPLEMENTS 5: INTERVIEWS

      SUPPLEMENTS 6: LANGUAGE EXPANSION ACTIVITIES

      ANSWERS TO THE VOCABULARY QUESTIONS

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      How to Use this Collection

      This book is a collection of 24 open-ended stories on some creative and unexpected topics, each followed by a number of discussion activities and creative projects. One of the big challenges as an ESL teacher is to get students to engage with literature. That is why the stories in this collection venture a bit outside the box, with topics designed to get them thinking in new ways. The stories in this book will challenge the students’ assumptions about gender roles, relationships, the meaning of success, and even reality itself. Students will be driven to engage with the stories, whether they agree or disagree with some of the views in them.

      Reading truly is a two-way street. That is why this collection is focused on also involving students with the creative process. The activities and projects that follow each story are focused on getting students connecting to the stories through writing. And, as the title suggests, all the stories in this collection are left open-ended to help students engage directly with literature by writing their own ending. They will also come to understand the underlying purpose of creative writing: communication.

      Each story includes a Before You Read section that preteaches some vocabulary and presents discussion questions to get students thinking about the topic of the story. These can be done individually, as a class, or in small groups.

      The stories themselves come in two formats. Appropriately, the two levels of length and difficulty are also meant to help achieve slightly different learning goals:

      The 15 Short Takes are under 500 words and usually one page long. They tend to be more general and universal in nature. They are also completely open-ended and meant to spark debate and discussion. Many of the extension projects following these stories are intended to help students create their own flash fiction, a popular term nowadays for fiction that is extremely short in length, typically only a few hundred words or less.

      The 9 Mid–Length Stories are between 500 and 2000 words long and are meant to engage the students on a more literary level, giving them a bit more to sink their teeth into and generally with a more detailed plot progression. However, all stories are left open-ended to the extent that the main goal is still to engage students in their own content creation as well. As a result, they are also intended to be expanded upon.

      All stories are followed by After You Read discussion questions that help students think more deeply about the plot and themes of the story. They also allow the student to reflect on what they liked or didn’t like. Some of these questions ask about the ending of the story. Students can use this time to discuss a new ending but be sure not to preempt any writing task in the Projects section. Students may want to

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