I ran across this true story in the news a few days ago, and I knew I needed to share it with my students! It’s a cute, romantic, and funny story about a young man who asked a woman out on a date while they were both quarantined at home. The short version of the story is: A young man went out on his balcony and saw a young woman dancing on the roof of her building. He waved to her, and she waved back. Then he sent a drone to the roof of her building to give her his phone number. She texted him, and they eventually set up a date. On the date, they each ate dinner while sitting outside and talking on the phone (he ate on his balcony; she was on the roof of her building). The next day, he decided he wanted to make an even bigger romantic gesture, but he still wanted to keep to the rules of social distancing. So he showed up on her doorstep in a big plastic bubble!

Photo from Jeremy Cohen’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jermcohen/?hl=en

You can read the full version of the story online here.

I told the story to my students in our online class this morning, and they liked it a lot. A few of them had already heard the story on the news, but most of them hadn’t heard it yet and were surprised that it was really true!

I told the story in the style of Beniko Mason’s Story Listening method, where I told the story while drawing pictures and writing the words I knew might be new for my students.

Then, I showed my students some of the real photos from story (you can find them online in this article and this one), and I told my students to write one sentence about each picture. We talked about the sentences they wrote. Then, we read the text of the story together. You can click here to download the text I used. It’s in Microsoft Word, so you can edit it to make it easier or harder for your students.

It’s a fun story and also a good reminder to us that there are still good things happening in the world right now!

And if you want another love story to read with your students . . . the eBook version of my novel for English learners, My Fake Boyfriend, is now only $1 on Amazon. I hope that will make it a little easier for those who might want to read a novel with their students while doing distance learning or to offer to students as an option for reading independently. Read more about the book here.

Take care! I hope you all are staying healthy and are able to stay at home as much as possible!