Story-Based Approach to Teaching Preschool English
byMargarita Kosior
[email protected]@margaritakosior
Before electricity there was storytelling
Is it true?
What is storytelling?
Preschool years (ages up to 5)• Time of personal, social and emotional development• Time of acquiring knowledge and beginning to
understand the world• Time when children become keen observers of the
world• Time when children learn to understand
others and express themselves effectively• Time when children build their vocabulary• Time when their environment becomes
larger and richerhttp://encompassnw.org/DownFiles/DL34/CC4_Ch1_exrpt.pdf
Let’s talk about…:• Benefits of storytelling
• Stories in the classroom – action plan
• Examples
Benefits of StorytellingMental
– Storytelling boosts thinking capacity
Benefits of StorytellingMental – cont’d
– Stories help children acquire and develop individual reading tastes, skills, and creativity
Benefits of StorytellingMental – cont’d
– Stories arouse curiosity and encourage children to ask questions
Benefits of Storytelling Social
• Increase children’s willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings
• Teaching about cultures, ways of solving everyday problems, about social interactions
• Teach children about themselves and about others• Can promote a positive attitude to
people from different lands, races
and religions• Develop empathy
Benefits of Storytelling Social
• Conveying values (bravery, respect, tolerance, teamwork, patience, generosity, fair play, forgiveness, peace, etc.)
Benefits of StorytellingSocial – cont’d
• The value of hard work– “The Three Little Pigs”
– “The Cicada and the Ant"
Benefits of StorytellingSocial – cont’d
• The value of determination, constancy/perseverance and modesty– "The Tortoise and the Hare"
Benefits of StorytellingSocial – cont’d
• The value of inner beauty– "Beauty and the Beast“
– "The Frog Prince"
Benefits of StorytellingSocial – cont’d
• The value of courage– "Jack and the Beanstalk"
Benefits of StorytellingEducational
• Active learning through stories
http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-passive-to-active-learners.html
Benefits of StorytellingEducational – cont’d
• Intrinsic motivation
• Active participation in the process of teaching/learning
• Effective internalization of language
• Support for thematic concepts and vocabulary of each theme
• Adds variety to your lesson
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: Before
Do your homework
Test – are you ready for a career in storytelling?
Test • IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a princess spend her
formative years locked in a tower growing her hair? • “Rapunzel”
• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a princess prick her finger on a spindle on her 16th birthday and
take a very long nap? • “Sleeping Beauty”
Test – cont’d• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a boy steal a giant’s harp
and a hen that lays golden eggs?• “Jack and the Beanstalk”
• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a princess accidentally drop her golden ball into a well, and accept
the help of an amphibian to retrieve it? • “The Frog Prince”
Test – cont’d• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a Russian witch with iron
teeth live in a house on chicken legs? • “Baba Yaga”
• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a boy outsmart a powerful magician pretending to be his
uncle, and summon a genie who makes
him rich?• “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”
Test – cont’d• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a miller’s idle boast lead
to his daughter being locked in a room at the local castle to spend the night with a spinning wheel?
• “Rumpelstiltskin”
• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a girl’s stepmother arrange to have her taken into the forest
and killed, just because
a talking mirror said the girl
was the fairest of them all? • “Snow White”
Test – cont’d• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does an enchanted fish give
an ungrateful woman a new house, which only makes her want more?
• “The Fisherman and His Wife”
• IN WHAT FAIRY TALE does a merchant’s youngest daughter agree to move to
the palace of a hideous creature who
wants her to say she’ll marry
him? • “Beauty and the Beast”
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: Before – cont’d
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: Before – cont’d
• Also– Select follow-up activities– Decide whether you want to tell the story at once,
or break it down to create suspense– Before you begin
• Show the cover, present the author and
the title
• Provide a context for the story
• Present the main characters
– Present unknown vocabulary using
flashcards
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: During
• How to become a memorable storyteller– Get the audience involved
– Make eye contact with your audience
– Know your audience
– Don’t be afraid of silence
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: During – cont’d
• Use gesture, intonation, facial expressions
• Vary volume, pitch and tempo
• Use distinct character voices
• Follow your words with actions
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: After
• Follow-up activities – Song– Actions to go along with the songs– Role-play– Sequencing
Stories in the ClassroomAction Plan: After – cont’d
• Follow-up activities – cont’d– Drawing – Relating stories to personal
experiences– Discuss the message / the moral
of the story
“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”
Hannah Arendt (political theorist)
Examples
The Rainbow Fish – message
The more you share, the happier you become
The Rainbow Fish
The Rainbow Fish
The Rainbow Fish
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - message
Time / the story of life itself
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Lifecycle (noodle project, life cycle mobile, movement activity)
• Fruit (magic box, fruit salad)
• Days of the week
• Math / counting
• Song
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Idea taken from
http://0809morningprek.blogspot.com/2009/04/life-cycle-of-butterfly_10.html
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Magic box
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Days of the week and fruit – spin wheel
Idea taken from http://eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=334902#this
The Very Hungry Caterpillar• Domino
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Song: The Butterfly Colors Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPAZHVNVJp0
Why tell stories?”Children who are not spoken to by responsive adults will not learn to speak properly. Children
who are not answered will stop asking questions. They will become incurious. And
children who are not told stories and who are not read to will have few reasons for wanting to
learn to read."
Gail E. Haley (American Author and Illustrator)
Reward?
Works CitedCasciani D 2005, Counting on the Caterpillar, BBC news, viewed on 8 March 2012,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4717503.stm
Classic Fairy Tales.com, Viewed on 8 March 2012, http://www.classic-fairytales.com/default.asp
Freemand J 2007, “Once Upon a Time: Using Storytelling, Creative Drama, and Reader's Theater with Children in Grades PreK-6”, Libraries Unlimited, Westport, Connecticut
How Children Develop and Learn n.d., The Creative Curriculum
for Preschool, Encompass: Children, Families, Community,
viewed on 8 March 2012, http://encompassnw.org/DownFiles/DL34/CC4_Ch1_exrpt.pdf
When Preschoolers Ask Questions, They Want Explanations 2009,
Science Daily, viewed 8 March 2012, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091113083254.htm