These are the stories that I’ve used in my first semester 8th grade Spanish class (Level 1).
Wildebeest Movietalk: Hay, Dice, Ve. Martina Bex has this great Embedded Reading/Movietalk which is a perfect thing to start the year. This lesson you can download for free.
To go along with the video, I teach other common animals and we watch the video el 
Pollito Pio.
I then read them the book La vaca que dice Oink, (preview here) which we use to talk about the benefits of being bilingual. Through the story, it is totally comprehensible and gets in the rep of dice. You can also use this video as MovieTalk about a pez that says Gua Gua.
I also used the book “Oso pardo, oso pardo, que ves ahi”.
The next story was Va a Mexico that focuses on the strucures Va a, Tiene, y Está en. I use this story after students put together their class passport.
To go along with the structures of “va a” we listened to the video Continue reading
I’m sure by now you’ve heard about this song and video. If not, you’re gonna love it. Here’s how I recently used it in my class:
I use this technique to practice reading. It may involve a lot of re-reading, great for extra repetitions, but the students enjoy its game aspect. I call it Buzz Reading, but other names include Bell Reading. All you need is a traditional classroom bell or find a buzz maker sound on youtube.
My boot verbs include Se pone, tiene, quiere, va, and necesita. I can use these verbs to talk about boots. What are your boot verbs. Share them on twitter with #MyBootVerbs or leave them in the comments. Give us a sentence talking about boots.
What about Flip Flop verbs? 
proficiency with my students, my favorite phrase to encourage students on assessments or when they are writing is: “SCOOP IT UP!” 
Then I ask students to tell me what they understood. This time, they can tell me everything! I then ask them (in English) why they understood more the second time. I explain to them that I will be speaking to them in Spanish, BUT that it is my job to make it comprehensible to them. Their job is to be active listeners, because watching my gestures or visuals is important to their understanding. This helps them feel comfortable and not be so overwhelmed that I am just going to be rambling in Spanish.
Example: Your students are learning about command forms. So, you give them this little trick (on right) to remember the irregular forms for positive tú commands: Ven Di Sal Haz Ten Ve Pon Sé.
using the book and perhaps there were a few parts that I could have done a better job in making sure all students had full comprehension of the events in the chapter. One way to aid in comprehension is to make your own “movie” of the events of the book. You can also use this technique for ANY story you tell in class and we are going to tell you how. 
SpanishPlans.org 