It’s 3 am and I can’t sleep. Tossing and turning, my throat burns and my nose feels so swollen I’m sure it’s the size of my whole face.

I take some Tylenol and fall back to sleep - not one bit worried about calling out tomorrow.

I have to call out the next day too, yet once again zero stress. Lesson plans are covered.

On the third day, I drag my still-sick self back to work…but I don’t dread it. Today is taken care of with the low-energy required bingo game based on the sub plans my kids did while I was out.

I can get two more days out of these sub plans. What could be better?

What magical sub-plans did I use, you ask?

I wrote short story sets with enough content to last 3-5 days, reviewing high-frequency vocab and embedded grammar points like adjective agreement, conjugation in context, and possession with de. Written with lots of cognates, these lessons are good for levels 1 or 2.

What I love about these stories is that they are told from the point of view of the two main protagonists. The same story plot from two different perspectives! So fun and SO EFFECTIVE.

• Take the stories of Elisa and Jason. Elisa and Jason are dating, but there’s a secret—Jason has a crush on Elisa’s best friend Olivia—who also has a crush on Jason. Does Elisa know? Will she find out?

• Or the stories of Mateo and Lucía, who have super busy schedules this week and feel stressed out.

• Or the stories of Pilar and Tiago, who both take their driver’s road test when BAM, Tiago crashes into Pilar during the test and fails.

The CI-based activities and games that follow each reading give students tons of repetitions of the language, while I can take breaks at my desk and not be ‘on’ the whole time. Their brains acquire, while I get time to recover and heal.

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Wishing you all the best,

Catherine

Check out the EXTENDED VERSION of Elisa and Jason’s story, plus Mateo and Lucía and Pilar and Tiago’s stories - click the images below!