From Story to Play

By:  Karla Jannette Mendoza Cervantes
School: J John F. Kennedy The American School Of Queretaro

During one of my units, I wanted my students to move beyond simply reading and answering questions. While working with “La tortuga y el hombre” by Horacio Quiroga, I noticed that although students understood parts of the story, they were not fully engaged or connecting with it in a meaningful way. I wanted them to experience the story, not just complete it.

To change this, I adapted the board game Cranium using content from the reading. Students engaged with the story through a variety of challenges, including acting out scenes, drawing key words or moments, modeling parts of the story with clay, and responding to true or false questions. These activities allowed students with different language levels to participate actively, using Spanish in a more natural and less structured way, while also deepening their understanding of the text.

What started as a simple adaptation quickly became one of the most engaging experiences in the classroom. Students were collaborating, laughing, and using the language without even realizing it. Although brief, the attached video captures a moment of genuine engagement, where students were actively learning and interacting in Spanish.