Storytelling with children
(handout)
Telling or reading aloud - what's better?
Reading aloud - advantages:
you don't have to learn the story;
you don't have to worry about making mistakes;
if you read the story, the children will always hear exactly the same text
encourages reading;
pictures in the book can help to understand
Reading aloud - disadvantages:
more difficult to understand than listening to sb telling a story;
Telling - advantages
more personal
it's usually easier to understand
encourages interactive communication;
adjust the language
easier to use the potential of your body
Telling - disadvantages
you must learn the story
language mistakes
Preparing children for a story:
Activities before the story
Helping the children to understand the story
1. Choosing key new words
2. Simplifying the language
Helping the children to make the words their own
1. Memory game
2. Picture - word matching
3. Bingo
4. Drawing
5. Personal picture dictionary
6. Word webs
Helping the children to focus on the subject and to begin to predict what the story might be about
1. Front cover
2. Topics from pictures
3. Discuss
4. Give a story summary
Helping the children to predict the gist of the story and set them a task to do
1. Muddled pictures
2. Predicting
3. Gapped story
4. Ten key words
Activities during the story
Let the children listen and enjoy the story
Helping the children to understand the story
1. Use pictures
2. Use body language
3. Use sound effects
4. Mix mother tongue and English
5. Translate key words as you tell the story
Encourage the children to predict what is coming next
1. Stopping and asking
Invite a personal response
1. How would you feel?
2. What can you add?
Enable the children to show their understanding and to participate
1. Miming
2. Sequencing sentence cards or pictures
3. Drawing and colouring
4. Labelling a picture
5. Phrases you like (or dislike)
/for more advanced language learners; children listen to the story several times; they note
down words/phrases they like/dislike in the story; they write a poem making use of them;
or they are asked to repeat the words orally/;
Participating orally
1. Chorusing
/children repeat some sentences, make sound effects, etc/
2. True or false
Activities after the story
Showing understanding through traditional exercises
1. Children's comprehension questions
2. Muddled sentences or words
Showing understanding and retelling
1. Gap filling
2. Find the mistakes
3. Describe and identify
/T or a child draws a picture from the story; children describe it and guess which part of the
story it illustrates/;
4. Retelling the story
5. Remove the pictures
6. Jump on the pictures
7. Throw the ball and continue the story
8. Mixing two stories
9. Picture of a character
Helping children to show understanding and express themselves
1. Evaluating the story
Did you enjoy the story? very much/a bit/not much/not at all Did you understand the story? most of it/a bit of it/not much of it/nothing Which was the best part? when ….. Which was the worst part? when ….. Which was the funny part? when ….. Which was an exciting part? when ….. |
2. Acting out
Helping children to show their understanding and to create something
1. Retelling with opposites
2. Adding information
3. Drawing pictures
4. Making a book
5. Designing a book cover
6. Writing letters
7. Writing a journal
8. Writing and performing a dialogue
9. Continuing the story
10 . Changing the ending
11. Interviewing the protagonist
12. Retelling the story
/The children retell the story from a particular character's point of view or set the story in a
different time/
13. Favourite characters
/Children bring from home pictures of their favourite story characters; they talk about the
character/
Bibliography:
Sarah Phillips, Drama with Children; OUP
Sarah Phillips, Young Learners; OUP
Vanessa Reilly & Sheila M. Ward, Very Young Learners; OUP
Andrew Wright, Storytelling with Children; OUP
Andrew Wright, Creating Stories with Children; OUP