I have noticed as my teaching career has progressed that the skill of storytelling is one that more and more students struggle with. Storytelling is happening significantly less often than in earlier times. For the Sudanese boys in the article, storytelling was central to their culture and that was something they could bring along with them after leaving their native country. It was their form of expression and of honor towards those that they loved or lost.
As I read this article I was struggling with how the act of storytelling related within my own classroom. Through the study performed with the Sudanese boys, their storytelling was used as their outlet in this strange new world. It was something familiar, comfortable, and could never be taken away from them. My students don’t come in and tell stories their older friends and family members have shared with them. In kindergarten and first grade my students are beginning readers and writers with little literacy knowledge when they come to me. After I thought more about the literacy instruction for my students I came to the realization that storytelling is a major component of literacy learning for these young students. These students are not like the older ones who can pick up a pencil and begin writing a story. When they are learning how to construct a story one thing they do is draw a picture to represent their story. Sometimes the picture is used heavily in the telling of the story or may not be referenced at all. Then they use that representation in their storytelling for the particular piece they are "writing." After they have completed the drawing they are able to dictate or “tell the story” to me and I can transcribe their story as a model for them.
Sharing stories are key to literacy learning. Each year my elementary school has a Young Author’s Day where the students were to write their own story which we then helped them publish into a hardback book. Part of this process was to have each child orally tell a story that we tape recorded to transcribe. Later the older students were able to write the story using their recording while I was able to type those stories that belonged to my more novice writers that they could use as a model. After weeks of preparation, on this day the students were able to share. And each child had their own, personalized, unique story that they cold tell to the world. As a culmination to our Young Author’s Day celebration, author Donna Washington came to visit our school. When the children got to visit with her, they saw first hand how one’s culture can shine as she gathered the children together during her storytelling.
Extremely basic though it seems, this article focused on the importance of including the stories our students want to tell in school. In my classroom, storytelling is a stepping stone to my students’ journey towards literacy that must be included.
Nikki Leggins
Comments (3)
We are in agreement that that has been a decline in storytelling in the classroom. Isn't it a shame? After reading your critique, I think I am going to steal some of your great ideas for my own classroom. Using illustrations as a springboard to story telling may work fantastically with my ESL students. I wish I would have thought of that sooner. I also really like your idea of publishing. I would love to have a book that contained stories from every student in my class. How cool! So I am thinking- every student could ask a parent or grandparent for a story thehy remember from their own childhood. The students could compile their stories complete with illustrations in a class anthology. I love it!
Posted by Carol Sherrill | June 17, 2010 9:51 PM
Posted on June 17, 2010 21:51
I love your idea of incorporating the oral storytelling into the writing along with tying in more opportunities for families to come together. And can you imagine how proud that child will be when they can present that story to others, including the family member who shared the story?
Posted by Nikki Leggins | June 17, 2010 10:21 PM
Posted on June 17, 2010 22:21
I agree that I think that their has been a decline in storytelling in the classroom. I think that comes from family dynamics. I do not think that families share stories, therefore students have lost the art of storytelling. I added storytelling in my classroom this past school year with mothers Day and Fathers Day stories and Also with Fairy Tales. This school year I had my students write a book about their mother and father as a gift. I started the process by modeling a story map for my kids and sharing an oral story about my mom as I drew the pictures for my story. After adding the pictures I had my students go to their seat and complete a story map of their own. I encouraged the students to share stories about their mom to match their pictures. I then went back to my story map and added print to my pictures to tell my story. We also did a writing with Fairy tales. As a class we talked about how fairy tales were stories that were shared aloud and someone wrote them down so that we could remember and read them. I had the student creat their own fairy tale character and setting and share their created fairy tale. Some of my students really loved the sharing and lit up when it was their turn to share their story.
Angie Somers
Posted by Angie Somers | June 18, 2010 10:26 PM
Posted on June 18, 2010 22:26