Storytellers are better writers

Website design By BotEap.com“Three apples fell from the sky, one for the narrator, one for the listener, and one for the head of the story.” armenian proverb

Website design By BotEap.comEveryone loves a good story, whether it’s from a book, a storybook, or a movie. However, most people, children and adults alike, would say, “I don’t know how to tell stories.” The truth is that everyone can tell a story, they just need to know how. Telling stories is relatively easy because you don’t repeat the story word for word. When memorizing a poem or Scripture each word must be correct. A story requires two skills: memory and imagination. Both are skills that children have in abundance. Why not take advantage of that talent to teach your children to write?

Website design By BotEap.comIf you want your kids’ writing to skyrocket, teach them to be storytellers. Just like reading, cooking, or working collaboratively with others, storytelling is a life skill. When your child acquires the skill of telling stories in everyday circumstances, they will have a lasting legacy and will write more expressively, be attuned to the beauty of language, listen to others when they tell a good story, recognize good handwriting and think more clearly. more imagination.

Website design By BotEap.comUsing storytelling in your homeschool brings much more than just the enjoyment of stories. You are giving your children a foundation in orality. Just as literacy is the ability to read and write, orality is the ability to speak and listen. The four modes (reading, writing, speaking and listening) constitute human communication. Orality supports literacy. Storytelling is the highest form of orality.

Website design By BotEap.comUsually, to help a child read and write better, we get them to do more of both, usually with some resistance. The most effective way to improve literacy is to increase oral language experiences such as storytelling, recitation, drama performance, to name a few. Storytelling is the best form of oral language experience because the storyteller internalizes a set of relationships and structures that he can then map back into the experience. Think of a fairy tale that you love. What does it show you? The value of being kind, the lowest usually rises to the top, the need for virtue and honesty, are just a few.

Website design By BotEap.comOrality takes the form of stories, rhymes, sayings, conversations and songs. Using oral language experiences with preschoolers is easy, since they are illiterate and in love with words. It’s so much fun to laugh with a young child and say a nonsense rhyme.

Website design By BotEap.comHowever, once children master reading, the focus tends to be on the printed word, and unfortunately speaking and listening begin to lag behind. To achieve their best in reading and writing, elementary students must continue to develop their oral speaking and listening skills.

Website design By BotEap.comHow can I bring more orality to my homeschool?

Website design By BotEap.comHere are some simple, easy-to-do activities that require little to no preparation:

Website design By BotEap.com1. Read aloud to your children every day. Choose stories and books that have a strong plot and rich use of language. Avoid adaptations of familiar stories or books.

Website design By BotEap.com2. Use storytelling every day. Narration is the art of telling in your own words a passage that is read.

Website design By BotEap.com3. Do simple nursery rhymes and finger plays with your children. If you have older kids, teach them so they can play fingerplays with the little ones. You can find books on fingerplays and nursery rhymes in your library. Some popular rhymes include: “Jack and Jill”, “Hey, Diddle Diddle, the Cat and Fiddle”, “Little Miss Muffet” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”.

Website design By BotEap.com4. Make storytelling a special moment during the day or week. Use collections of folk tales or picture books that are retellings of folk tales and ask your elementary school children to learn how to tell them.

Website design By BotEap.com5. Tell stories about your own life. All children love to hear about when their parents were little.

Website design By BotEap.com6. Tell simple, familiar stories like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “Ten Little Monkeys.” See if your children can tell all or part of the story on their own.

Website design By BotEap.comWhat does all this have to do with writing?

Website design By BotEap.comIf you want to help children improve their writing, do you make them write? Right? Wrong. When children are asked to write, they often struggle because they are being asked to perform two very different developmental tasks: writing and thinking spontaneously. One task at a time is usually not a problem; but, both at once require a certain amount of maturity. Start from a different point: try to have your child count instead of writing the sentence, paragraph or story.

Website design By BotEap.comThe process

Website design By BotEap.comHere’s the process: compose orally, revise orally, and then, and only then, write it down. At another time, ask your child to check for accuracy on grammar and punctuation, but definitely not when composing (orally or in writing). That is all. It sounds simple, and it is. However, seeing results requires consistency and a light touch. Your child needs to get used to thinking out loud. He is patient and praises all efforts. Be sure to offer guidelines at the beginning, but don’t prompt with answers. There are no wrong answers with this approach, just good, better, and better. Let your child play from time to time and have them test the process.

Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re ready to give the process a try, set aside the writing workbooks for a while (you can always come back to them later). The results will surprise you.

Website design By BotEap.comLearn more

Website design By BotEap.comTo learn more about storytelling, check your library for the following books:

Website design By BotEap.comThe Storyteller’s Starter Book: Finding, Learning, Interpreting, and Using Folktales: Including Twelve Tales That Can Be Told, Margaret Lee MacDonald

Website design By BotEap.comThis is an easy to understand manual that helps you start counting.

Website design By BotEap.comStoryteller’s Path, ruth sawyer

Website design By BotEap.comThis is a classic of narrative literature and one of my favorites that I go to for inspiration.