Storytelling Experience #1: Telling A Story With A Book
Throughout my whole life, I have been a reader. Reading
stories has always been special to me. I loved the exciting feeling that
reading gave me. It provided a moment to pause the business around me and
escape to a place of magic and adventure. I owe most of these opportunities to
my mother, who has been a school librarian my whole life. She had the belief
that reading literature to children is beneficial in building the foundation
for a life-long love for reading. Reading to children can build the foundation
for strength in reading comprehension, vocabulary, language, imagination,
communication and more! Storytelling uses language to develop all these critical
skills in young students (Cherry-Cruz, 2001). Because of my mother’s beliefs
and actions, I was able to become strong in all these skills and excel in my
reading journey. These beliefs have been instilled in me! Like my mother, I want
to encourage young students to grow by telling them stories, building their
love for reading, and sharing the magic that is literacy.
When thinking of what book to choose for this assignment, I
had to plan intentionally. As a second-grade teacher, I am challenged weekly,
if not daily, with the task of making learning engaging and relevant for my
young learners. I knew that I wanted to record myself reading to them for this assignment,
therefore that gave me the task of searching for a book that would allow them
to make a connection. I decided to make note of the conversations of excitement
within the walls of my classroom. I found the source of excitement for the week
to be our future trip to the school library.
Once I realized this, I remembered a new book I picked up
from a small bookshop in Charleston last year: The Lost Library by Jess McGeachin!
I remembered being drawn to it because of it’s depiction of a library being the
setting for excitement, adventure, and mystery. I felt my students would be
very excited about this book since we would be visiting our actual library the
following week. I also thought this book would be a great selection because of
the simplicity of the story. It is not extremely wordy, however provides just
enough vocabulary for enrichment. Each page has enough text to put the audience
on the edge of their seats, while also making it easy to understand. I knew
this book was going to be perfect for my second graders, and I could not wait to
read it to them!
As I started to research and practice for my storytelling
experience, I realized many things. I was very nervous about the introduction of
my story. The article, How to tell your brand story with animation by
Naomi Linford, explains the importance of determining what the core message is
that you want to share with your audience, and to think about what emotions you
want them to feel (2022). I started to outline and form what I wanted to convey
to my students to introduce the book. I knew I wanted them to know why we were
reading it, but I also wanted to build excitement. I decided to start with a
question, “when you think about adventure, where do you think the story might
take place?” This question allowed my students to realize that this book was
going to be exciting, while also giving me the ability to connect adventure to
the library. This fed into the existing excitement about our future trip to the
library which really hooked my students.
To practice reading the story, I used a few different
strategies. First, I internally read the book over and over, to ensure that I
really knew the story, characters, major problems, and solutions. I made notes
and used the idea of Choreographing which is marking the story of where to use
voice inflection, pace, and timing (Greene & Negro, 2010). This allowed me
to make mental notes of where I wanted to emphasize certain lines or moments in
the story. The notes really seemed to help once I started practicing reading
the story aloud. Once I became more confident in my abilities, I used my
husband as a practice audience so I could use my notes in a real-life situation.
He used my notes to ensure that I was following them and executing them
consistently. Although humorous at first, this was really beneficial in helping
me to feel confident to read in front of my students.
Telling the story to my class was so much fun! The presence
of a camera was daunting, however reading to my students is familiar to me, so having
them in front of me was much more relaxing. Because of the research, planning,
and practice I put in before my story-telling experience, I believe it turned
out to be very successful. I was very proud of the way introduced the story and
how I used my voice at certain moments to make it an engaging experience. I believe
that my student’s excitement about the library only grew even more, and I believe
I was able to learn a lot about who I am as a storyteller. Storytelling: Art
and Technique states, “One must have a keen enjoyment of one’s material and
a burning desire to share one’s enthusiasm with others” (Greene & Negro,
2010). Because of my experiences and beliefs, I have been able to grow a true
joy for reading and sharing stories. I will definitely use this experience to reflect
and grow my skills as a storyteller.
Current Reads:
References
Cherry-Cruse, T. (2001). Tell me a story: Enhancing
literacy through the techniques of
storytelling. The ASHA
Leader, 6(23), 4-5.
https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FTR1.06232001.4
Greene, E., & Negro, J. D. (2010). Storytelling:
Art and technique. Libraries Unlimited.
Linford, N. (2022). How to tell your brand story with
animation. Sparkol.
https://blog.sparkol.com/how-to-tell-your-brand-story-with-animation
ReplyDeleteHi Michaela!
I chose your blog because I am also a 2nd grade teacher and I could relate to a lot of what you wrote. Reading is a magical to me, so when you said that it provides an escape for you, I completely understood that feeling. I also loved that you shared how important it is to read to children in order to build literacy skills. I watched your story and I love how you explained in the blog why you connected it to the upcoming library trip. It is so great that you made visiting the library an exciting experience for your students. It is our job to find ways to teach our students to love reading like we do. It was clear to me that you had choreographed the text because you knew exactly where to change your voice. I liked your idea of practicing the story with your husband as an audience. You went an extra step and gave him the notes to make sure that you were following your plan which is a super smart approach. I loved listening to your story and reading your blog!
Cora Land
I was also a second grade teacher before going into the library as my school's librarian. I recognize what daunting task it is to make learning engaging and relevant for students that age. They still have some innocence, but they are also beginning to read for learning purposes instead of learning to read. They still enjoy a good read-aloud. I really enjoyed reading about the methods you used when practicing reading your story to get ready to share it with us. This is not a book I had ever heard of, so I really appreciated you sharing it with us. Not all students view the library as a place of excitement, adventure, and mystery, so I'd love to share it with the students in my school to convey this message. When you mentioned that your students would be starting library soon, I wondered if that meant library classes did not start the first few weeks of school. I'd love to hear how your school approaches special area at the beginning of the year. As a former classroom teacher, I know that special area time was the only break I got throughout the day. I enjoyed reading your blog on your first storytelling experience and look forward to reading more from you throughout this semester.
ReplyDelete~Erin