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TELL ME A STORY |
Storytelling as a Tool for Literacy Development Tess Bayly is employed by the New Zealand Ministry of Education as a Resource Teacher For Literacy. She works in schools, providing itinerant, specialised literacy support for Year 0-8 students who are at risk of failing to learn to read and write, and for their teachers. She is both a teacher and a storyteller. Most parents are aware of the importance of reading to their young children and developing a love of books and stories. They understand that reading to their children can also help with the development of early literacy skills and a positive attitude towards reading (Ministry of Education 1996). While these messages seem to have made their way into community knowledge I believe the place and power of oral storytelling remains a little known, or recognised, force in the development of the skills of literacy. As an educator working with children who have immense difficulty with literacy acquisition I strongly support the reading of stories to children but I also recognise and employ the power of oral storytelling as a tool to assist my pupils with their literacy development. There are many mutual or shared benefits in the reading to and the telling. Both offer an opportunity to share quality time with children and to develop a love of books and story. They both help build knowledge of how stories work, and an understanding of the special language of story - such as "Once upon a time," or that in stories animals can talk. Both stimulate the imagination. Both offer opportunity to extend vocabulary and explore the sounds of language, it's rhyme and rhythm, assisting in the development of phonological awareness, that is the ability to hear and use the sounds in our language. They learn how our language operates. All of these are important parts of learning to read and write. The more a child understands about our language and how stories work the easier it is for them to become literate. What then are the additional benefits of storytelling for me as an educator? As children listen to a new story being told, one created maybe from their family adventures, a recalled event, or their fantasies they begin to see that all stories are created. They see that the stories have a predictable structure and that they are created by people, possibly even by the child. They experience new vocabulary, hear it used in differing situations within stories, and through repeated exposures and use are able to claim the new words for themselves. Reading is not only a perceptive task, not only a matter of deciphering letter symbols on a page and constructing words from them. It requires the reader to interact with the words and to construct meaning from them (Dole, Duffy, Roehler & Pearson, 1991). To be able to do this the reader must have some prior knowledge on which to base that interaction (Ministry of Education 1996). The words must create a link to something with which they can identify, something they can visualise, for them to gain comprehension. When working with those children who find literacy acquisition difficult I often tell them the story from the book they are to read before they attempt to read it. The telling allows them to develop a knowledge base, a form of prior experience, which can act as a scaffold to support them as they develop the intricate skills that enable them to read. In the telling, new concepts and vocabulary can be introduced. There is time for interaction and clarification, for the listener to become involved with the story. When they come to the task of lifting the words a from the page they have a mind set, a plan on which they can build, as they work on decoding and gaining meaning from the printed word. For the increasing number of children in New Zealand schools for whom English is an additional language having a mindset for the story enables them to experience new concepts and vocabulary in a range of ways prior to using them themselves. To be able to accurately anticipate a word when reading requires an understanding of our language and its syntax or structure and of story progression. I also encourage the parents of my students to tell both their own stories and those from the books to their children. Some parents are not competent readers themselves and telling the story allows them the freedom of bringing the story to life without the need to be word perfect. I often encourage bi-lingual parents of my pupils to tell the story to their child in the first language, to assist better understanding of a book they are required to read in their second language thus enabling them to make links with known concepts and vocabulary and gain increased understanding from the reading (Ministry of Education 1999). When a story is told it takes on another dimension, it becomes a living thing; more flexible once it is not tied to the page creating a more extensive interaction than is achieved when the story is read to the child. As much of the instruction in our schools is presented verbally the development of strong listening skills is essential. I find that many of the children who have difficulty learning to read have weak listening skills. The use of oral storytelling allows them to practise these skills as they engage with both the teller and the story. Without the page to focus upon and no picture support the listener is required to interact with the teller, visualise the characters, the settings, the action and create mental images as they follow, feel and think about the message received. They become more sensitised to the both spoken word and the story. Interaction techniques are also tools I find valuable. A chance to participate in the telling, maybe joining in with the repetitive phrase, the predictable line or the anticipation of an outcome, requires my students to use the story vocabulary and features. To take part in the telling requires an understanding, a mental processing of where the story has been and where the threads are leading the listener. The skills developed here are also an integral part of the reading process. When my pupils come to read a story that has been told to them, or that they have participated in, they approach the task with excitement and an expectation of success, despite their history of failure. Their reconstruction of the story becomes the focus, rather than the possibly daunting challenge of reading an unfamiliar text. Literacy is of course not only reading. It includes the skills of writing: the two go together (Ministry of Education 1992). I encourage my students to talk their subject through, to become the storyteller before attempting any writing. The telling helps them to see the way in which a story develops, the structure and the sequence. They learn the purpose and power of adjectives as they describe the settings and actions of the story. This bank of knowledge links the reading and writing processes and frequent opportunities to tell their stories will help build the linguistic skills required for both reading and writing. For a range of reasons, from shyness to second language development or speech impediments, some children are reluctant to speak. I find the use of puppets and oral storytelling allows the child to hide behind the identity of the puppet and participate in the telling. As the puppet assumes a life the child soon forgets their own visibility and will generally participate enthusiastically, thus finding a way for them to increase their language competence. Literacy requires language skills and language skills are developed through use. All children have a myriad of stories they could tell and having the encouragement and opportunity to tell their stories, be they fact or fiction, helps with this development. At times I scribe a child's story, from their telling, print it and use the story as an instructional text with them. Use of these personal texts has been the turning point for a number of children whose attitudes to reading had become negative through prolonged frustration and failure. The pride of ownership is immense and the background knowledge enables them to read at a more advanced level than would normally be the case. The student soon comes to realise they have many stories worth telling and a move to shared writing of their stories soon follows. Margaret Mooney, renowned NZ author and educator wrote, "The child is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lit" and I find oral storytelling is a powerful way of igniting that fire. I have yet to encounter a student who does not enjoy hearing a story or one whose journey into literacy cannot be eased by the power of storytelling. Australian author and educator Mem Fox (2001), tells us "Entertainment is the teacher" (p48) and what more universal entertainment is there than storytelling? References Dancing With the Pen (1992). Learning Media, Ministry of Education: Wellington. Dole, J., Duffy. G., Roehler, L. & Pearson,P. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: Research on Reading Comprehension Instruction. Review of Educational Research, 61, 239-264. Fox, M. (2001). Reading Magic. How your child can learn to read before school -and other read aloud miracles. Sydney: MacMillan. Mooney, M. (1996). Developing life-long readers. Learning Media: Wellington. Non-English- Speaking-Background Students. A Handbook For Teachers (1999). Learning Media, Ministry of Education, Wellington. The Learner as a Reader (1996). Learning Media, Ministry of Education, Wellington. |