The role of the teaching in early elementary grades is to encourage a love for literacy. This should be encouraged throughout the classroom and the throughout the school day. One way to motivate students is by storytelling. Storytelling is defined as, "conveying of events in words, and images, often by improvisation or embellishment." We should encourage students to story tell because it offers many benefits such as (source is www.edutopia.org):
It....
- Inspires purposeful talking, and not just about the story -- there are many games you can play.
- Raises the enthusiasm for reading texts to find stories, reread them, etc.
- Initiates writing because children will quickly want to write stories and tell them.
- Enhances the community in the room.
- Improves listening skills.
- Really engages the children who love the acting.
- Is enjoyed by children from kindergarten to the end of elementary school.
- Gives a motivating reason for English-language learners to speak and write English.
I remember when I was in first grade, my teacher gave me and a few other students a book that we would have to share to the class in a fun and creative way by storytelling it. We had the option of either acting it out with our bodies, writing a comic book about it, using puppets, or miming the story. It made me become really invested in the storyline and in the book. This is the activity that I looked forward to every week. To top it off, I believe that this help build my love for literacy. My point is that we, as educators, should foster the creativity of our students by incorporating activities such as these ones.
Although this is one way to offer storytelling, there are many ways to incorprate storytelling in the literary centers. First, I found this game at Target this past week called "Story Cubes" (yes they are at Target so I would just go buy them now) and they are possibly one of the best storytelling games that I have ever found! This simple game allows students to use their imagination and expand their critical thinking while being engaged! This is just one of the many storytelling tools!
Also, interactive storytelling from the teacher helps engage the students! Here is an example of an interactive telling of Pete the Cat- I Love My White Shoes! Incorporating music will also engage the students! Just watch below:
Storytelling can be used everyday in the classroom! If it is done right, it can really benefit the students!
I loved the resources you shared in this post! I agree that it's important to encourage children to story tell themselves and to make it fun for them to listen to story telling! I think children love being able to get engaged and interact with the content they're learning and story telling can help to bring this to life! I enjoyed reading the list of benefits you shared from the website. Overall great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! It is important to have children tell stories in order to encourage them to be creative and to express themselves. It also helps children who are not storytelling work on listening to their peers. Children love to be "dramatic" and tell stories and this is a perfect way to allow them to do so. Your resources that you shared were very helpful and beneficial to those reading your post. Like you said, if done right story telling can truly benefit students!
ReplyDeleteReally awesome post ! I really enjoyed the approach of storytelling made fun. Not all students seem to be as engaged and interested in stories as others and I always love finding new ways to get students engaged and excited about learning. I think the story cubes are a great idea that helps to turn reading into a more game like approach that all students can enjoy.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, and really great, interesting examples!! The way you listed the effects of storytelling was very purposeful and made reading and comprehending your post very easy. I also like that you let us know that storytelling is fun as well as educational.
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