The lost gift

We used VR Frame to create a small Christmas-town mystery in which students explore different locations to find clues that help them predict how the story continues. Afterwards, using structured worksheets, they work collaboratively to write their own version of the ending. 

• Target Age: 6th grade

• Target Language Level (based on CEFR): A2

• Location: Inside the classroom 

Reception: 

• Reading instructions: Can understand simple, brief instructions provided that they are illustrated and not written in continuous text (p.64).

Production: 

• Sustained monologue, putting a case: Can present his/her opinion in simple terms, provided listeners are patient (p.72).

• Creative writing: Can write an introduction to a story or continue a story, provided he/she can consult a dictionary and references (e.g. tables of verb tenses in a course book) (p.76).

Interaction: 

• Informal discussion: Can exchange opinions and compare things and people using simple language (p.86).

Mediating: 

• Collaborating in a group: Can collaborate in simple, practical tasks, asking what others think, making suggestions and understanding responses, provided he/she can ask for repetition or reformulation from time to time (p.119).

• Students will be able to interpret different clues in English.

• Students will be able to predict the ending of a story based on given information.

• Students will be able to describe a character using the appropriate vocabulary.

• Students will be able to write the ending of a story with the given information and their own ideas.

• Students will be able to debate using their own ideas and thoughts during group work.

Before the app task cycle, the teacher will need to:

• Explain the structure of a story (1 hour).

• Prepare the story and the clues (45 minutes).

• Create an account on VR Frame (5 minutes). 

• Create the VR Frame (45 minutes).

• Prepare the handouts for the lesson (1hour).

• Share the link with students (5 minutes)

• Link to VR Frame

• Link to the specific VR Frame used: http://framevr.io/lostgift

• The beginning and ending of the story.

• Handouts.

• Equipment: laptops and printed worksheets.

PRE-TASK (1 session): During the pre-task, students activate their prior knowledge about storytelling while reviewing the basic parts of a story (beginning, plot, ending, characters, time connectors, time tenses, etc.). They also revise the worksheet they used to learn these story elements. First, the teacher reads the beginning of a mystery story to the class. Then, an envelope is shown, and it is explained that it contains the real ending of the story. Students are informed that, in the main task, they will work in groups to guess how the story continues and how it truly ends. Additionally, roles are assigned within each group to ensure equal participation, emphasizing that every student is needed to contribute to building their group’s version of the story.  The roles will rotate once the group has visited one clue, so that every member of the group can test the tool. 

Once the students are familiar with both the task and the vocabulary, the teacher will provide them with the account and explain the instructions on how to use VR Frame.

MAIN TASK (1 session): During the main task, students work in their groups to enter the virtual VR space in VR Frame, which is designed as a small Christmas town. Within this space, each group explores five different locations, where they find five distinct clues. Each clue provides different information: one describes a person; another gives hints about an object; one shows what happened between the characters; another explains the relationship between the characters; and another helps them think about the ending.

As students explore the VR space, they first use the worksheet with gaps of beginnings for the clues to record their observations and ideas about each clue. This helps them organize the basic events they notice and start building the story step by step.

Next, when they describe characters, feelings, and relationships, students use the worksheet with connectors and sentence starters. This guides them to write coherent sentences using appropriate vocabulary and connectors (e.g., “then,” “after that,” “because”) and to describe characters’ actions and emotions clearly.

Finally, during group discussions to decide how their story continues and to share hypotheses about the ending, students use the worksheet for discussion, which provides sentence starters and frames. This ensures all members participate and can contribute ideas, helping the group reach a consensus about their version of the story.

The teacher circulates among the groups, offering support with vocabulary, story elements, or technology, and encouraging discussion when needed. By the end of the task, each group should have a written continuation of the mystery story based on their interpretation of the clues. The expected outcome is that students collaborate effectively, use the target language to describe events, characters, and relationships, and produce a coherent version of how they think the story unfolds.

POST-TASK (1 session): During the post-task, students share and compare the different endings they created in their groups. Before presenting, each group receives a feedback worksheet designed to help them assess another group’s story. This worksheet guides them to check whether their classmates have included all the story elements they previously learned (beginning, plot, ending, characters, etc.) and whether they have used a range of connectors instead of repeating always the same ones.

After completing the checklist, each group reads aloud the story created by another group. This peer-reading stage promotes active listening, constructive feedback, and awareness of narrative structure. Students use their worksheets to give clear and supportive comments on the coherence of the story, the use of connectors, and the accuracy of the structure.

Once all groups have shared their versions and provided feedback, the teacher reveals the real ending of the mystery story. This final step allows students to compare their hypotheses with the original ending, reflect on the clues, and evaluate how successfully they achieved the learning objectives.

The post-task serves as an assessment opportunity to check understanding of story structure and use of language, and it results in a final collaborative output through the peer-evaluation process.

This session will be assessed with a formative assessment that includes peer and teacher assessment. On one hand, during the post-task, students will assess their classmates’ stories using a checklist with all the essential characteristics of a story and the appropriate vocabulary.

On the other hand, the teacher will check the students’ understanding of the task throughout the activity. At the end, once every group story is completed, they will assess it by looking at the structure of the story, the coherence, and the use of connectors and the descriptions included.