The benefits of story telling

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”

– Robert McKee    (Mckee Story, 2015).

Humans have been telling stories since the beginning of time, even before written word of oral language was created in the form of cave drawings and over a warm fire as an attempt to shape our entire existence (Ferreira, 2015). Storytellers realised a long time ago that people like to hear stories that have a beginning, middle & end and we seem to find ourselves relating to characters who look like us and have similar backgrounds to us (Ferreira, 2015). Storytelling can be extremely beneficial in a primary school setting as it is in a child’s nature to fall in love with books and stories as they are being taught more about life, the world and themselves (Kumon, no date) as well as providing direct support towards reading and writing (Roney, 1989). Although storytelling is not required under the official curriculum, it is still used every day, in classrooms word wide. As a natural form of communication, storytelling sets a foundation for the development of literacy learning by strengthening a child’s capability of speaking from their imagination (Coskie et al., 2010). To be capable of telling a story, a child needs to first learn the story, whilst doing this they are building important skills such as reading skills and learning how to understand story elements and structure (Genishi & Dyson, 2009). 

Despite the fact that story telling doesn’t seem to be officially written in Donaldson’s curriculum for successful futures, it definitely relates to the area of expressive arts. Storytelling in the classroom promotes expressive language development: speech (oracy) and written composition as well as encouraging receptive language development such as reading and listening comprehension (Peck, 1989). Reading and storytelling in primary education promotes a child’s brain development and imagination (Raising Children, 2018). It teaches children the differences between real and make believe, sparks their imagination and encourages curiosity and is also an amazing way to teach children how to understand change or new/intimidating events that could happen in their lives such as coming to terms with losing a loved one and the emotions that come along with it (Raising Children, 2018). 

During placement whilst I was in college at my local primary school the teachers regularly read stories to the children, they would captivate them by putting effort into telling the stories rather than just reading a book start to finish. They would show enthusiasm in their voices by varying the volume and pitch as well as using hand, face and body gestures to suit the scene that was being set in the story. Something that really engaged the children in the stories being told was when the teachers would make use different voices for each of the characters in the stories and would take dramatic pauses to add suspense to the stories. I personally read to the children several times and found that telling them stories helped the children to relax after play time, encouraged their listening skills and encouraged them to take part in storytelling such as acting out the roles of the characters in the books. 

“The most powerful person in the world is the story teller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” 

–  Steve Jobs  (Harris, 2013). 

Likewise, during some of our seminars we put storytelling into practise by going into the forest and creating a story based on our surroundings. My group and I told a story about fairies and how they lived in the forest and gave a detailed explanation into the fairies home and the different features that it had. We also created a story about the life of tree’s and used different objects that we found in the forest to create a physical portrait to the rest of the class so they could understand what was going on in the story. In a primary school setting this would work well as it would engage the children and give them an opportunity to tell their own stories through nature. 

A good way that teacher’s in primary schools can bring storytelling to life for children is through story sacks. A story sack is a bag that contains a book as well as objects that are related to a story that is being told such as soft toys that represent characters in the story or props to demonstrate the setting of a scene that helps to bring the story to life (Sharp, 2005). Doing this provides a visual stimulus for children and allows them to seek an opportunity to be able to re-tell the story to others and is suitable to children of all abilities (Sharp, 2005). In addition, story sacks can also allow parents to take part in their child’s literacy learning and to contribute to the learning that teachers are trying to encourage within classrooms (Childs Play, no date). Using props to tell stories to children could present a variety of exciting opportunities when developing their listening skills as well as encouraging language skills, when physical interaction is involved in story telling it adds an element of fun for the children (Gov Uk, no date). 

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).

“Storytelling is the oldest form of education. People around the world have always told tales as a way of passing down their cultural beliefs, traditions, and history to future generations. Why? Stories are at the core of all that makes us human.” – Hamilton and Weiss (2005)

All in all, stories give children a sense of magic and wonder at the world, they are a great way to teach children life lessons, help them develop their own morals and show them the importance of respect for other races, cultures, genders and religions (British Council, no date). Storytelling provides young learners with a common ground that allows them to connect with other people and shapes their thoughts and feelings (British Council, no date).

References

British Council (no date) Storytelling – benefits and tips. Available at: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/storytelling-benefits-tips(accessed: 15th April, 2019).

Childs Play (no date)What is a Storysack? Available at: http://www.childs-play.com/teacher-zone/what_is_a_storyshack.html(accessed: 9th April, 2019). 

Coskie, T., Trudel, H., & Rosemary, V. (2010) Creating Community Through Storytelling. Available at: http://ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/TP/0221-oct2010/TP0221Creating.pdf(accessed: 24th March 2019). 

Ferreira, J (2015) Why is storytelling important? What would you say to inspire, provoke, or dissuade young storytellers? Available at: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-storytelling-important-What-would-you-say-to-inspire-provoke-or-dissuade-young-storytellers(Accessed: 14th March, 2019). 

Genishi, C., & Dyson, A. H. (2009). Children, language, and literacy: Diverse learners in diverse times. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gov UK (no date) Story Sacks and Chatter Boxes. Available at: https://resources.leicestershire.gov.uk/sites/resource/files/field/pdf/2017/1/17/storysacks_chatterboxes_parent_workshop.pdf(Accessed: 9th April, 2019). 

Harris, I. (2013) ‘Steve Jobs: “Who is the most powerful person in the world?”’ : The Gatehouse Blog. Available at: https://www.gatehouse.co.uk/steve-jobs-who-is-the-most-powerful-person-in-the-world/ (Accessed: 14^thMarch 2019).ham

Keenan, T. Evans, S. and Crowley, K. (2016) An introduction to child development. London: Sage. 3rd edition.

Kumon (no date) The benefits of storytelling. Available at: 

https://www.kumon.co.uk/blog/the-benefits-of-storytelling/(accessed: 14^thMarch, 2019).

Mckee, R. (2015) Is it possible to bring storytelling into marketing? Available at: https://mckeestory.com/is-it-possible-to-bring-storytelling-into-marketing/ (accessed: 14^thMarch, 2019). 

Peck, J. (1989) ‘Using storytelling to promote language and literacy development’, The Reading Teacher, Vol. 43, Iss 2. Available at: https://search.proquest.com/openview/1c25b2a4c60cf43901f0da9feef13065/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41358(Accessed: 14^thMarch, 2019).

Raising Children (2018) Reading and Storytelling with babies and children. Available at: https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/play-learning/literacy-reading-stories/reading-storytelling(Accessed: 8th April, 2019).

Roney, R. C. (1989) Back to the basics with storytelling. The Reading Teacher. P. 520-523. 

Sharp, L (2005) Learning Through Talk in the Early Years: Practical Activities for the Classroom. London: Sage. 

 Soleimani, H. & Akbari, M.  (2013) The Effect of Storytelling on Children’s Learning English Vocabulary: A Case in Iran. Department of Applied Linguistics, Payame Noor University, Iran. Available at: http://irjabs.com/files_site/paperlist/r_1407_130914152700.pdf(accessed: 12th April, 2019).