Fortunately Unfortunately
speakingfluencywarmersmall-groupnone prep5-10 min
Students co-build a story one sentence at a time, alternating Fortunately... and Unfortunately... openers. The structure forces dramatic swings; the fun is in the absurd collisions.
Procedure
- Groups of 4–6 sit in a circle.
- Student 1 begins: One morning, I was walking to school...
- Student 2: Unfortunately, I had forgotten my shoes.
- Student 3: Fortunately, a stranger offered me some new shoes.
- Student 4: Unfortunately, the shoes were on fire.
- Student 5: Fortunately, it was raining.
- Continue until the story reaches an absurd conclusion (or the teacher calls an end).
Why It Works
- Forced reversal: alternating good/bad requires narrative flexibility.
- High creativity, low threshold: one sentence at a time; everyone can contribute.
- Present/past narrative practice: the frame is usually narrative past, easy to extend.
- Laughter-rich: absurd swings are genuinely funny; language is produced in fun, not drill.
Grammar Hooks
| Target | Application |
|---|---|
| Past simple | Primary narrative tense |
| Past continuous | Background: Fortunately, it was raining. |
| Modals of possibility | Unfortunately, the shoes might have been poisonous. |
| Conditional | Fortunately, if I had jumped, I would have escaped. |
| Discourse markers | Students often add However, / But then, / At this point, naturally |
Variations
- Fortunately/Unfortunately paragraph: instead of spoken chain, each student writes their line on a shared doc. Final paragraph read aloud.
- Sad end + happy end: story must end either fortunately or unfortunately. Pre-announce the endpoint.
- Character arc: the same character appears across the story; track how the character's luck evolves.
- Subject-locked: the whole story is about a single protagonist (a cat / a lost tourist / an astronaut).
- Past perfect variant: every sentence must begin with Fortunately/Unfortunately, [subject] had.... Practises the past perfect.
Tips
- One sentence maximum per contribution. Ramblers derail the game.
- Encourage wild contributions — the more absurd, the better the language-in-use.
- Great for warm-up or when a lesson finishes early with 5 unexpected minutes.
- Can work at A1 (simple sentences) through to C1 (elaborate clauses).
Source
Charlip, R. (1964) Fortunately. Four Winds Press — original children's book. Adapted widely in ESL storytelling and improv-for-language.