A Trip to Gator World – A Quirky News Story in Three Tenses
Today’s story, which appeared in the news about a year ago, is about a young girl who survived an alligator attack at a Florida beach.
I decided to try out something different for this story, and give you three tense options: Present tense, past tense, and mixed tense. That way, you can choose the option that works best for the level that you’re teaching, or for the grammar point that you happen to be covering.
If you’d like to use this for grammar practice with higher levels, I would suggest that you give them Option 1 or 2, and ask them to add in other tenses wherever they might be appropriate. You could give them Option 3 later, for comparison.
I’ve also included related conversation questions and a list of helpful vocabulary to pre-teach. Please make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page to print out the handout!
Option 1: Present Tense
A Trip to Gator World
Juliana is ten years old. She loves animals and amusement parks. One day, her parents take her to Florida. Juliana is very excited to go on on vacation!
On the first day, they go to Disney World. Juliana rides on roller coasters and eats cotton candy. On the second day, they go to Gator World. Juliana learns about alligators, crocodiles, and Florida wildlife. On the third day, they go to the beach. Juliana plays in the water, and her parents relax on the sand.
When Juliana is swimming, she sees an animal. It is a big animal. It is dark green, and it has sharp teeth and a long tail. It is an alligator! The alligator opens its mouth and bites Juliana’s leg.
Juliana doesn’t panic. She remembers something that she learned yesterday at Gator World. She puts her fingers into the alligator’s nose. The alligator cannot breathe. It opens its mouth for air. Juliana is free! She swims to the shore. Her parents take her to the hospital, and she gets stitches in her leg. Her leg hurts, but she is happy! She survived an alligator attack. She will never forget her trip to Florida.
Option 2: Past Tense
A Trip to Gator World
Juliana was ten years old. She loved animals and amusement parks. One day, her parents took her to Florida. Juliana was very excited to go on on vacation!
On the first day, they went to Disney World. Juliana rode on roller coasters and ate cotton candy. On the second day, they went to Gator World. Juliana learned about alligators, crocodiles, and Florida wildlife. On the third day, they went to the beach. Juliana played in the water, and her parents relaxed on the sand.
When Juliana was in the water, she saw an animal. It was a big animal. It was dark green, and it had sharp teeth and a long tail. It was an alligator! The alligator opened its mouth and bit Juliana’s leg.
Juliana didn’t panic. She remembered something that she learned yesterday at Gator World. She put her fingers into the alligator’s nose. The alligator could not breathe. It opened its mouth for air. Juliana was free! She swam to the shore. Her parents took her to the hospital, and she got stitches in her leg. Her leg hurt, but she was happy! She survived an alligator attack. She will never forget her trip to Florida.
Option 3: Mixed Tenses
A Trip to Gator World
When Juliana was ten years old, she loved animals and amusement parks. One day, her parents told her that they were going to take her to Florida on vacation. Juliana was very excited!
On the first day, they went to Disney World. Juliana rode on roller coasters and ate cotton candy. On the second day, they went to Gator World. Juliana learned about alligators, crocodiles, and Florida wildlife. On the third day, they went to the beach. Juliana played in the water while her parents relaxed on the sand.
When Juliana was swimming, she saw an animal. It was a big animal. It was dark green, and it had sharp teeth and a long tail. It was an alligator! The alligator opened its mouth and bit Juliana’s leg.
Juliana didn’t panic. She remembered something that she had learned yesterday at Gator World. She put her fingers into the alligator’s nose so that it could not breathe. When it opened its mouth for air, Juliana escaped. She quickly swam to the shore. Her parents took her to the hospital, and she got stitches in her leg. Her leg hurt, but she was happy! She had survived an alligator attack. She will never forget her trip to Florida.
Conversation Questions:
- What do you think about Juliana’s story?
- Have you ever gone to Florida?
- Where do you like to go on vacation?
- Do you like amusement parks? Why or why not? Do you like roller coasters?
- Do you like swimming at the beach? Why or why not?
- Have you ever seen an alligator? Do you know any cities or countries where you can see alligators?
- What should you do if you see an alligator?
- What wild animals live in your hometown? What wild animals live in the place where you are now?
Suggested Vocabulary:
- Amusement park
- Roller coaster
- Cotton candy
- Alligator / gator
- Wildlife
- Sand
- Sharp teeth
- Tail
- Bite
- Panic
- Nose
- Mouth
- Fingers
- Breathe
- Shore
- Get stitches
- Hurt
Verbs:
- Swim
- Bite
- Relax
- Panic
- Breathe
Handouts and Links:
You can print out a print out a printable handout of all three texts along with the conversation questions right here: A Trip to Gator World
Be sure to check out this page for ideas on how to incorporate this into your lesson: How to use the stories
Did you like this lesson plan? Have you tried it out? Would you like to see more like it in the future? Please let me know in the Comments section, or send me an email at ESLairplane@gmail.com. I’d really love to hear from you, since it helps me figure out what to post in the future.
