How can storytelling be used in education

How can storytelling be used in education?

Storytelling

Storytelling in schools is a method that is a creative and dynamic approach to teaching. The idea is simple: by learning how to tell stories and making verbal presentations, children can develop good oral communication skills whilst mastering the language and ideas that they will need for subsequent writing. 

The storytelling method can be seen as: Effective,Engagingand Empowering.

The effect storytelling can have is that it raises standards in the classroom and narrows the attainment gap for Early Years, Primary and Secondary settings throughout the UK and beyond. Children will become engaged by storytelling, as people learn better when they are having fun. Stories can provide a fun and creative context for learning, which can engage all students. The method can also increase parent engagement in their child’s learning, which is a crucial determinant of success. The workshops are inclusive, interactive, and playful which promotes full engagement for teachers. Storytelling can be seen as empowering. It can empower teachers to take ownership of planning and delivering exciting and inspiring lessons. It can empower children to want to read more books at home and they will gain confidence by using their voice in an improvised way across a wide range of contexts. 

Why do children enjoy storytelling?

There are many reasons why children may enjoy story telling. One of the many reasons, is that they may look forward to learning the different stories and then telling them to friends/family members and even people that they don’t know. Children enjoy using actions whilst story telling so that if they forget a specific part of the story, they have the action to remind themselves what comes next. The actions give children a chance to express their personality whilst telling the story. Another reason, is that it allows the children to be creative as they can draw different images for their story map. 

Story Sacks

Another way we can tell stories is through story sacks. A story sack can be created from any large bag, or even pillowcase. An oral story, picture book or, wider general theme provides the focus of the bag; and a variety of related objects and suggested activities are included to entice exploration which stimulates the love for reading and the art of storytelling. Objects that can be found in a story sack include: soft toys, picture books, factual books, puppets, props, games, cards, audio, musical instruments, dressing up items and activity booklets. Once you have created, purchased or borrowed a story sack, you will want to prepare yourself to use it! At its most basic, here are five things to know before you go. 

1. Know your group, setting and timeframe. 
2. Know yourself: skills, strengths and weaknesses. 
3. Know your session structure. 

4. Know what is in the story sack and how you will use it. 
5. Know the story and how to tell it. 

Below I will list different ideas that could help teachers think about the basics of storytelling and reflect fully on how to make the most of the story sack and session

Think about the type of group you will be working with, the setting you will be in and the timeframe you have. 

If you explain clearly about what is needed and expected of the group and the practicalities of the situation, the better the experience will be for whom is concerned. You could possibly look at if you know your group well or not well at all? Is this going to be a one- time session or a regular committed one? What are the ages of the pupils that are going to attend and what level of ability are they at? Are there any special or specific needs that you should be aware of? How long is the session going to be, can you fit in all the tasks you want them to do? Are you going to base the activity indoors or outdoors? Will it be in a classroom, open public space, a quiet room? Who will be there to help and assist you?

Think about yourself as the storyteller, play to your skills and strengths. 

The more prepared you become and the better you know, the more your confidence will show. You will need to analyse your personal goals, any needs and expectations? Will you need to use chairs? What areas of your storytelling technique do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable about? How will you warm up your vocal chords, calm down your nerves, exercise flexibility but remain focussed? How will you create a welcoming, safe and fun environment? How will you play to your skills and strengths as a storyteller? How will you challenge yourself and develop beyond your comfort zone? Think about structuring your session and the elements, order and timing of activities. The structure of your session will obviously depend on the needs of the group, the time you have and the contents of your bag.  If you are making your own story bag, you get to choose everything in it and plan what activities you plan to do right from the start. Therefore, you are likely to be planning your session first and creating your bag around it. 

Lev Vygotsky (1978) believed that the interactions between a child and their parents took place in a specific way which ultimately led to intellectual development, Vygotsky’s theory of the ‘Zone of proximal development’ suggested that the social interactions that take place between those who hold more life experience with children who are naturally less experienced can in some way have an impact on a child’s development (Keenan et al., 2016). He believed that teachers and parents had a tendency to interact with children in the context of teaching tasks which worked to a standard that was optimal for stimulating a child’s development, (Keenan et al., 2016) this relates to when a teacher or a parents read stories to their child and demonstrates how critical social interactions can be to a child’s cognitive development. A study carried out by Soleimani and Akbari (2013) to test whether Storytelling has an effect on children’s vocabulary concluded that storytelling is a suitable method to increase vocabulary learning amongst children. They stated that the analysis of the data from the vocabulary tests that they carried out show evidence that the use of children’s stories to develop vocabulary amongst pre-school children was effective and perceived positively by the children (Soleimani and Akbari, 2013).

References:

Storytellingschools.com

Soleimani, H. & Akbari, M.  (2013) The Effect of Storytelling on Children’s Learning English 

How can teachers use technology effectively in the classroom

How can teachers use technology effectively in the classroom?

In today’s society technology is a massive part of students’ lives. Schools are slowly looking at technology as an opportunity to develop teaching methods and resonate with students on a technology level. Regardless of age, almost everyone owns a smartphone. At a time like this, learning to change our teaching methods by incorporating technology is the only way to bring light to the lives of our students. What are schools doing in order to bring about this change?

In the past, teachers would use a whiteboard, markers and chalk in lesson time, however things have slowly started to change and teachers are more likely to be making use of iPad’s, DVD players, projectors and eLearning system to display tutorial videos and short online sessions, displaying the fun element in learning too. Most schools now have a projector attached to their whiteboard and a TV, making it simpler to shift from a normal classroom to an interactive digital session. Students may find this a more interesting field as they might already be familiar with google and find it easy to use.

A great way to guide students is to refer them to the internet, if you know what sources are reliable. Older students spend most of their time on their mobile phones, laptops and ipads, this may imply that they are more likely to find it easier to do a piece of research, in comparison to going into the library to find the information in selected books. 

 An interesting site that teachers could be using to help and educate their younger pupils, in learning their times tables is Percy Parker. Percy Parker can be displayed on your computer, laptop, iPad, phone etc. Andrew Holdsworth, a pop record producer from the UK, has written some fun/happy songs, which are based on a groovy grandad (Percy Parker). Percy has a complete CD, which teaches all of the multiplication tables up to 12. The songs are extremely catchy and could be seen a successful way of educating the younger pupils.

A kindle is another form of technology that students could use to help educate themselves at home. Even though a kindle is a really good idea for reading the occasional book, it also serves other great purposes. It operates a portable tool that keeps all your notes, research, and books all in one place.  

Giving students online homework/ tasks or fun online tests now and again could possibly create a good learning environment for students. They can do the online assessments and quizzes at home, replacing general homework that they could possibly find excuses for. 

Students could become less focused when there is a one-way communication with the teacher standing in front of a whiteboard. The classroom can sometimes be noisy, resulting in students becoming demotivated, disinterested and not engaged in the topic that is being taught. Having online seminars could enable the students to participate and make comments on the seminar, helping them stay alert. It could be seen as quite difficult keeping students motivated and interested throughout the lesson. Teachers need to be able to keep the lesson as interesting as possible, which could be seen as a learning process that they will practice throughout the years. It is vital that students engage in lessons so they are motivated to then do work outside of the classroom.

Similar to how a teacher is well prepared for a classroom session, encouraging students to be prepared too, can drive students to become more excited and enthusiastic about taking up different classes. 

Online research is becoming more popular which is resulting in people finding exciting careers in things like market research. When teachers give students a difficult piece of research to find, it could be classed as challenging, furthermore, it could make the students feel like they have achieved something finding research that no other student could find. Giving them praise or appreciating their online findings may motivate students to make the best use of the digital resources they have. Students may also find the task encouraging, giving them a list of research to find for the next lesson is a good way to keep students looking forward to more lessons. 

Technology is rapidly improving as whiteboards, textbooks, classroom notebooks, chalk, textbooks, homework and markers are now things of the past. They are still used in classrooms today however, smartboards have been introduced. Teachers can drag and drop shapes onto the board, use online calculators and voice out the different text that they want to see on the board. Schools are offering to provide ipads, kindle-like tabs and free tablets for students to take notes in, collaborating teaching methodology with technology resulting in lively and interesting classroom sessions!

In college and university, students are made to use a site called moodle. Moodle is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which makes it easy for you to provide online support for your course.  Providing a central space on the web where students and staff can access a set of tools and resources anytime anywhere. Moodle provides a place where teachers can easily create web pages with information about their courses and provide links to word documents, slides, and other resources that their students will want to access.

References

Thejournal.com By Sara Friedman 04/15/19

Percyparker- teachingideas.co.uk