ELT in Brazil

This article – and the texts that follow it – are the culmination of a month and a half of work of one of my groups. There are two learners in this class. They’re both boys and around 12 years old, and are studying English for no particular reason – mostly because their parents want them to. This is a task-based course focusing on topics they find interesting. In this unit of learning, we’ve decided to talk about fantasy stories and explored the Hero’s Journey as a story framework.

They read stories and identified the moments in the framework, designed a comic about a famous story, organized famous stories using the framework, and, as an end product for this unit, they had to write the sequel to a story they had read in class.

They wrote their stories using the Hero’s Journey as a framework, read each other’s stories for peer feedback, received feedback from me, proofread their work, designed the covers, chose pictures to accompany their stories, and recorded a short synopsis. What you find below is their work, unedited by me, but after having gone through the stages of process writing described above.

If possible, please leave them a comment on their stories. I’ll make sure to relay those to them.

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By Davi Olivieri

Tom smiled. He was still a farmer, but he was also brave. His friend, the fox, stayed with him in the village, and they were always safe.

In the past, Tom saved people in a village. The village was without water, and Tom saved people, because a Dragon was preventing the water in the river to get to the village, and with the fox’s help, they made the Dragon fly out with a Magic stone called Saphira. It´s a Mega Dragon (Saphira) Crystalized Heart.

30 long years have passed, and Tom had a son with Elara, Thaís, who is 23 years old, and Mr. Marcus created a machine to go to another world with magic for 15 minutes and come back. Thaís thinks about this, but she needs a key to use the machine, so she steals a hairpin from her mom.

Thaís asked Tom if she could go to the Fantasy World, then Tom said :

 – I don’t trust this nonsense.

–  you are cooked, now you are trapped in my world HAHAHA!

They need to get out of this Fantasy World. They try to find a way out. They see a big mountain and walk to get there. Thaís says:

 Let’s go, we have nothing to lose, and our parents would be so worried that Virus lived for hundreds of years trying to take everyone in his world.

 Marcela and Thaís climb the Mega Virus Mountain, because on top there was a super weapon, Sparkhy, a lightning old warrior sword that is so powerful. 

They climb the mountain, Marcela gets one of the swords, and gives the other one to Thaís. When they get out of the mountain, they go to a place called dragon castle. They see Zumba and Dumba, two dragons, one has fire powers, and the other has ice powers. The dragons were lost, and they wanted to go to the top of the castle. Thaís and Marcela help the dragons, but the dragons ask:

– We don’t have parents, do you wanna be our parents?

 Thaís and Marcela said:

 -Yes! Of course, we want you to be our children.

 Thaís gets Zumba, and Marcela Dumba, with these powers, they can fight Lucas, the Mega Virus.

After that, Marcela and Thaís go to Big Mountain because that Mountain was famous for having a sensei, Zenitsu. They ask if they can learn all of the forms of the lightning breath, (a lightning power that can kill Lucas). Zenitsu said yes. They have 2 years of training, they learn Total concentration,(a mode that help the breath to be stronger), learn the lightning breath and they were powerful with katanas.

 Thais and Marcela use the first form of the lightning breath: Thunderclap and Flash. But with luck Lucas dont die, but lost his feet. Thaís sees that he can´t move, and now Thaís gets her sword and cuts Lucas with  THE SEVENTH form of the lightning breath, Flaming Thunder God, causing Lucas to evaporate.

When they killed Lucas, they came back to the normal world. Elara and Tom were so happy to see Thaís. Marcela gave Thaís the other sword and said:

– This sword is for you. I love you, Thaís.

 Everyone cried at that moment, and Thaís was so grateful because Marcela gave her sword to her.

And now Thaís protects the world with her katanas, and has a good life with Tom, Elara, and Marcela. When another virus appeared, Thaís killed it with no difficulty. Then, after 4 years, Thaís had 2 sons, and they lived happily ever after.

Saving the fox

By Pedro Medeiros

Tom smiled. He was still a farmer, but he was also brave. His friend, Malaketh the fox, stayed with him in the village, and they were always safe.

Every week, the fox, named Malaketh, buys seeds to plant in Tom´s farm, but one day he goes to the market to buy the seeds and sees an old man being robbed by the dragon bandits.

He decided to help because it’s not the first time the Deathwing bandits have been stealing. He tried to help, but the bandits caught him and took him to the very big Deathwing castle in the mountains. They arrested him in a small cell.

Tom was very worried about Malaketh because he hadn’t returned to the farm. Tom went to the seed shop and asked about the fox. The seller said the fox was caught by the dragon bandits. Tom was very angry and decided to save Malaketh.

First, he went to the house of an old friend, Anduin, and asked him where the Deathwing castle is. The friend gave him a map on how to get into the castle and told him not to go because it’s very dangerous. Tom said Malaketh is trapped, and he had to help him. Andouin decides to give him a present because he saved the village in the past. Anduin gave Tom a very strong sword and a iron shield, Tom noticed that in the sword there was a small hole, Tom asked him what that hole was and Anduin said that in the past the sword had a small blue stone in the small hole and when the stone is on the sword, the sword became stronger being able to use a very strong spell that could defeat a dragon but if it’s the incorrect stone the sword would kill whoever is using the sword, Tom thanked and left to the farm.

A dragon bandit saw Tom with the legendary sword and ran to tell the dragon that Tom had the sword. Deathwing wasn’t worried, but he remembered a boy in the village had the small blue stone, and the blue stone and the sword together could defeat him. He was very worried and fortified the castle because he knew Tom would save Malaketh.

Tom, at the farm, went into his secret room and opened the safe-deposit box. He takes the small blue stone that Elara gave him and takes his bag with food because the hike was long. He went to sleep because it was night.

 When he woke up, he took his bag, the sword, and the shield. Now, he went to the castle. On the way, he got cornered by a goblin gang. He was shaking, but he took the sword and remembered that the sword was very powerful. When he took the sword, a list of the spells appeared. He used the first-named fire aspect, and the sword started to catch fire. He became more confident in defeating the goblin gang. He started fighting with the goblin gang, and when he killed one goblin, a second spell named “sharpness” appeared that could combine with the fire aspect and be stronger. The goblin gang was scared and ran away.

Tom continued his hike, and on the way, he trained his sword skills with other goblins and big animals, and finally, he arrived at the castle.

In front of the castle, there was an army waiting for him. The dragon thought he didn’t know how to use the sword, and put the small army. The army started to run in his way, 1,2,3,4… soldiers that Tom defeated with the sword. When he defeated the fifteenth soldier, the sword unlocked a powerful spell named Exori, the spell defeated the enemies who were 20 meters away with a fire explosion. While he was looking at the spell, the 20 soldiers that remained cornered him and jumped him. Tom knew that was the perfect time to use the new spell. He used the spell and had the explosion, and he defeated the 20 soldiers. Finally defeating the entire army, and went to the central room where the dragon was.

When he arrived, there were  2 strong monsters. The monsters attacked him. Tom used the shield to protect, and the shield almost broke from the attacks. Tom used the exori and almost killed the monsters. The monsters were very angry and attacked with full force. Tom tried to cancel the attack with the sword, but it didn’t work, and the monsters punched him. Tom got up and took the blue stone out of his bag, and told the stone to start shining, and the stone started to shine.

The shine was a person, and with a magic shine fireball ball he defeated the monsters. When the shining person defeated the monsters, he got back to the stone.

Now, Tom finally was face-to-face with Deathwing and asked the dragon to free Malaketh. The dragon said, if he wanted to save Malaketh, he had to defeat him. They started fighting, but Tom could not get close to the dragon. 

The dragon was laughing at him. Deathwing said that he thought Tom was stronger and launched a blast of fire. Tom almost died. Tom decided to try to use the blue stone in the sword. He took the stone and put it in the hole. The sword started to shine, and the dragon was scared. The sword transformed into a very strong, shining person. The shining person was named Star, healed Tom, and looked at the dragon. They started fighting, and the shining person defeated the dragon with a very strong shine attack. The shining person disappeared, and Tom looked at the spell list and saw a new spell named the shine star.

Tom went to Deathwing’s bedroom and found the cell key. Tom ran to the prison and started to search for Malaketh. He searched all prisons and didn’t find Malaketh. He saw a suspicious wall, he pushed the wall, and a secret room appeared. There was Malaketh. Tom opened the cell, and with Malaketh, they took the dragon’s treasure and went to the village. Now they are rich, but they decide to invest the treasure in protection for the village, like guards, walls, and an army.

Tom went to Anduin’s house and thanked him for the sword, and gave back the sword and the blue stone because he broke the shield. Anduin said that Tom can stay with the sword and the stone; he said it was a gift to him. Tom thanked, and with Malaketh, Tom returned to the farm. Now Deathwing is dead, they are safe, and they live happily ever after.