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How children respond to stories
Story-making by young learners
Where the 'magic' lies
Stories provide shared contexts for rich, natural language development from a very
young age, and throughout the primary years. The 'magic' lies in the way stories
potentially engage children's hearts and minds, as people and as thinkers, with
issues that are relevant, real and important to them.
Sources of stories
The stories we use in class may come from a variety of different sources. These
include authentic picture books from the English-speaking world, specially written
children's readers, course books, educational and other sites on the internet, or
English versions of local cultural tales and fables. The important thing is not so much
the source of the stories but the appeal and interest they have for the children
themselves.
Supporting children's understanding
Stories may frequently contain some language structures and vocabulary that are
beyond children's current level of productive competence. However, this does not
need to be a problem as long as we actively support children's understanding in the
way we read or tell the story, especially the first time. We can support children's
understanding of stories through:
the way we use our voice – varying our intonation, pitch, tone, speed and
volume to create interest and variety, and to express emotions such as delight,
anger, surprise, worry or fear. We can also use different voices to portray
different characters, for example, a deep voice for Father Bear and a high-
pitched voice for Baby Bear in the traditional Goldilocks story.
using facial expression – to enhance the way we express a range of emotions
such as the examples given above.
using mime and gesture - to demonstrate the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary
e.g. the way the giant 'strode' across the room, or pretending to show the tiger's
'sharp teeth' as if they are our own.
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eliciting and asking questions – to encourage prediction, to check
understanding of key moments in the story, and to personalise the story to the
children's own lives and world.
using pauses – to create suspense, to encourage participation, and to give
children thinking time in order to assimilate what the story is about.
using repetition – to reinforce key vocabulary and phrases, and to give children
opportunities to listen to the language of the story more than once.
pointing to illustrations – to help children associate sounds, words and
meanings, as well as make connections in the ways different elements in the
story relate to each other.
maintaining eye contact – to ensure that all the children stay actively involved
and focused as they listen to the story.
The storytelling process
The storytelling process refers to the way in which we can use a story as the basis of
a unit of work over several lessons, or weeks, in order to maximise children's learning
and enjoyment. There are five key features of the storytelling process which are as
follows:
1. It is cyclical
Children may come back to the story up to as many as three or four times during
the course of a story-based unit of work, although not necessarily in consecutive
lessons. In the lessons in which children do not work directly on the story, they
practise and extend their use of the language and vocabulary it contains. This
cyclical process allows children to naturally progress from an initial global
understanding of the story to using more of the language productively. It
culminates, for example, in children acting out the story or creating their own
parallel version.
2. Scaffolding is vital
Scaffolding refers to the way in which we support children's learning and lead
them to greater competence and independence. Children's initial responses to a
story are likely to be, at least partially, in their first language as they
spontaneously express their opinions, show empathy or dislike of the characters,
and relate what happens to their own experience. However, each time children
come back to the story, they are increasingly able to respond and participate in
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English. This is due to the cyclical process described above and the inbuilt
scaffolding that this provides. With each re-telling, children become more
confident and fluent in using the language the story contains.
3. It caters for diversity
The storytelling process allows for all children to participate successfully at the
level at which they are ready to do so. By the end of the storytelling process,
some children may only be producing key vocabulary or phrases from the story,
whereas others may know the whole story off by heart, and others may be ready
to invent their own. In either case, stories provide a context for learning which
allows all the children to participate fully and to fulfil their own individual potential
for learning.
4. Variety is essential
In order to keep children engaged, variety is essential in the way we re-tell the
story. As a rule of thumb, it is advisable never to tell a story in the same way
twice, and always to get the children to do something different (increasing the
level of challenge each time) in response. There are many techniques we can
use for doing this, such as getting children to hold up vocabulary cards when
they hear the words in the story, or move cut-out characters on their desks as
they speak, or act out the story with pencil or finger puppets. A wealth of ideas
which can be adapted to different stories can be found in the books and online
resources listed below.
5. There are opportunities for transfer
As part of the storytelling process, we need to provide frequent opportunities for
children to transfer the language they learn from stories to other personalised,
relevant and meaningful contexts. In terms of evaluation of the storytelling
process, it is this that ultimately provides us with feedback about the learning that
has taken place, and the level of competence and independence in using the
language which the children have achieved.
What can storytelling offer?
Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder
at the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others.
Storytelling is a unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and
appreciation for other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from
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different lands, races and religions.
Storytelling and intercultural understanding
There are a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural
understanding and communication. Stories can…
allow children to explore their own cultural roots
allow children to experience diverse cultures
enable children to empathise with unfamiliar people/places/situations
offer insights into different traditions and values
help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures
offer insights into universal life experiences
help children consider new ideas
reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the world
Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom
Stories…
Promote a feeling of well-being and relaxation
Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings
Encourage active participation
Increase verbal proficiency
Encourage use of imagination and creativity
Encourage cooperation between students
Enhance listening skills
Commonalities of cultures around the world
Stories reveal universal truths about the world. Through stories we see how very
different people share the same life experiences and how human nature can
transcend culture.
Performance techniques
Telling a story can captivate an audience; that is, with the right techniques and a little
practice.
Remembering and retelling the plot:
map the plot as a memory technique
use story skeletons to help you remember the key events
think of the plot as a film or a series of connected images
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tell yourself the story in your own words
create your own version of the story (adapt and improvise)
retell it numerous times until it feels like a story
Performance skills
Remember to...
vary the volume, pitch and tempo of your voice (enunciate clearly and
exaggerate expression)
use your face, body and gestures (let your body speak)
make your body and face respond to the tale
have a clear focus and maintain concentration
maintain engaging eye contact with the audience/ individual listeners
create a charismatic presence (make the audience believe in you)
use different, exaggerated character voices
use your space/ be dynamic
remember to pace yourself
always remember to regain your style as a narrator
use silence and pauses to add dramatic effect
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