Lecture
U06 Teaching through Stories
I. Basic Elements of Storytelling
A. Audience
1. Age Group: Common age groups include kindergarten,
lower elementary (G1 -3) and upper elementary (G4-6)
2. Situation and Setting: Storytelling program can be provided for teachers,
students, or parents.
3. English Fluency: Since your students are not fluent in English, you should
choose stories with simple patterns and easy vocabulary.
B. Purpose
1. It is important to adjust storytelling programs depending on a purpose.
2. An example of a purpose may be conducting academic oriented lessons as
they help enhance vocabulary or grammar skills.
a. Academic Objectives:
(1) Vocabulary by Subjects
(2) Action Words
(3) Countable Nouns vs. Uncountable Nouns
(4) Adjectives
3. Include a lot of fun activities and funny stories in your program to provide
entertainment.
4. Specific event such as open house, open seminar or open class may be one
your purposes of storytelling.
5. Plan a long term syllabus to conduct routine programs.
C. Content
1. Choosing right stories for the program is one of the most important aspects
of a successful storytelling program.
2. Type of Stories for Storytelling
a. Simple pattern stories that require repeating
(1) Eric Carle and Bill Martin
“Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?”
“Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear?”
(2) Linda Sue Park
“Bee-bim Bop”
b. Chain Stories
(1) Laura Joffe Numeroff
“If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”
c. Folk Tales
(1) African Folktales: Uwungelema
(2) Puetorican Folktales: Little Cockroach Martina
(3) German Folktales: The Three Wishes
(4) Japanese Folktales: The Rat’s Daughter
d. Creative Stories
(1) Create your own stories. You can combine storytelling with writing
activities and make a story with students.
e. Revised Versions
(1) Use revised versions of various stories to tell different perspectives.
D. Presentation
1. Voice Projection: Act out various characters.
2. Facial Expressions: Research shows that facial expressions or voices are more
important than the text in conveying the message of your story.
3. Body Language: For effective delivery, you need flexible and active body
language.
E. Props
1. Props can greatly add to the quality of your presentation.
2. Examples of Props
a. Flannel Board Stories
b. Flash Cards
c. Pens and Paints - Drawing
d. Photos
e. Puppets
f. Toys or Real Objects
II. Selecting Appropriate Stories for Students
A. Choose stories that are age and developmentally appropriate for your
students.
1. Find stories that include rhythm and repetition, especially for young audiences.
2. Choose uncomplicated folk and fairy tales for lower grade elementary
students.
3. Use more complex folk tales, legends and heroic exploits for upper level
elementary students.
4. Stories with real-life heroes and heroines are also popular for upper level
elementary students. Science fiction appeals to this group, as do sophisticated
fantasies like the Harry Potter series.
5. Award winning books are also good books to choose.
6. Encourage them to see books and stories as an essential part of everyday life,
something to treasure and enjoy and share with others.
B. Criteria for Choosing Stories
1. A story that you like to tell it well.
2. A story that you feel you can tell effectively
3. A story that will engage students
4. A story that students can understand well enough to enjoy
5. A story that offers students a rich experience of values, perceptions, and
behaviors
6. A story that helps you fulfill your language-teaching purpose
7. A story that provides a rich starting point for cross-curricular or topic work
8. A story that is a starting point for creative work and productive uses of
language in speaking or writing
9. A story that cultivates the bond between you and students
10. A story that is the right length or can be divided up into multiple stories
depending on the needs of your lesson plan
III. Importance of Using Storybooks to Teach English
A. Storytelling attracts children to reading books.
B. Storytelling allows teachers to adapt a story to fit their audience.
C. Stories are motivating and fun and can help students develop positive
attitudes towards foreign language and language learning.
D. Stories exercise the imagination.
E. Stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the
student’s real world.
F. Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience.
G. Students enjoy listening to stories over and over again.
H. Listening to stories allows teachers to introduce new language
concepts such as vocabulary and grammar.
IV. Effective and Practical Tips for Storytelling
A. General Tips for Storytellers
1. Leap and the net will appear.
a. Turn personal experiences into stories for your presentations.
2. Collect stories from a variety of sources.
3. Learn the characteristics of a good story.
4. Observe how professional presenters use stories.
5. Broaden your storytelling horizons.
B. Specific Tips to Make Storytelling More Effective
1. Paint images with sensory words.
2. Create suspense by starting out with an exciting sentence or a question.
3. Use concrete words.
4. Use words that sing.
5. Keep practicing your storytelling skills.
V. Popular Ways to Begin Storytelling
A. Begin with Greeting
1. It’s good to have your own mascot for your program and it could be any item
you choose.
2. Starting with an Opening Song
ex) ‘Open Shut Them’
3. Finger plays
Here are some sites you can learn various finger plays:
•
http://www.songsforteaching.com/fingerplays/index.htm
•
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-rhymes.htm
•
http://www.nncc.org/curriculum/fingerplay.html
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f2d7BW3CzI
B. Use Finger Plays
ex) ‘Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree’
1. When you do finger plays with students...
a. make actions simple
b. make activities interesting
c. remember that music is important for students
d. help students understand what they are singing about
VI. Lesson Plans
1. Set a specific goal considering structural, functional, lexical and phonological
aspects.
2. Provide practical activities to make the storytelling more exciting.
3. Elements of lesson plans:
• title
• student profile: age group and numbers of students
• objectives
• topics and themes
• language points
• materials
• procedures
VII. Key Lesson Points

The basic elements of storytelling

How to choose appropriate stories for your children

Why English teachers use storybooks in teaching English.

Tips on using storytelling effectively
More & More
U06 Teaching through Stories
I.
Storytelling Activities
A. Activities should be interactive.
B. Form discussions to engage students with comprehension questions.
C. Encourage students to promote participation.
II. Read Aloud
A. Read aloud is a simple activity that can be done in class.
B. It is essential to help students comprehend stories we tell them.
C. Engage students with questions before, during and after storytelling or read
aloud.
III. Importance of Discussions
A. Asking questions may help develop students’ oral skills.
B. Making connections between the story and students’ own lives is an important
part of learning.
C. When activating pre-knowledge, engage students with questions they can be
connected to, rather than something they are unfamiliar with.
D. Listening to other readers stimulates growth and understanding of vocabulary
and language patterns.
IV. Storytelling Using Props and Talents
A. Be free about performing in front of your students.
B. You can tell a story by singing and dancing.
C. Make movements that may go with a story.
D. Ask students to come up with their own movements or dances to stories.