Student-Led Story Telling in Early Childhood Education
Designed by Sydney Smith
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Overview and Purpose
This mini-course is intended to show early childhood educators how to construct a lesson in teaching story telling. The concept of story telling involves many different beneficial components. This course will show educators how to create a conducive environment to promote this concept, support oral language skills, and promoting creativity in arts. I chose this topic because this is a concept I work on with my preschool students that promotes many benefits such as sequencing skills, creativity, and a love for reading.
Needs Assessment
Educational Opportunity
Sparking creativity and voice through the use of storytelling in young children is widely beneficial. To know one's students is to understand their needs, learning styles, skill level, background and so much more. A key strategy to assessing these is by having students create their own stories. As Wright (2021) wrote “Teachers' knowledge and understanding of the links between race, culture, and learning are vital to effectively cultivating and nurturing voice and agency in young children” (p. 29). Implementing strategies found in this course will encourage students to practice oral language skills, express themselves and give insight to educators wanting to connect with their students in a deeper way.
Existing Efforts
Studies done in early childhood multicultural classrooms illustrate the distinct pattern between the prominence of white discourse over the language of all learners in the classroom. The gap between students' identity and what is generally represented in the classroom has been addressed numerous times in a variety of ways. Flynn (2018) stated “storytelling offers a known form that lower SES, multilingual children can rely on as an entry point to participating in extended classroom discussions that continue ideas” (p.2). As students are encouraged to create their own stories, they visually see themselves as an integral part of the classroom where their voice has power. Most educators realize the power of reading to young children but neglect the power of allowing them to create literature that is relevant to the classroom and their own experiences.
Intent
Story use in early childhood classrooms is a common strategy, but the creation of stories is not often used. The ability to have insight into students' skills, needs, cultures, and language are advantages of promoting storytelling in the classroom. This course's intent is to guide early childhood educators in integrating storytelling in their instruction. Understanding this approach and applying it will help educators relate more to their students so they may transfer it across topics.
Learners will be early childhood educators who work with children ages 3-8. Other learners may include parents or community members.
Performance Objectives
After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:
- Identify the key aspects of developing stories.
- Examine the role and effectiveness of student lead storytelling.
- Participants will identify and invent strategies to support young children's articulation.
- Learners will identify the characteristics of creating a safe space that promotes storytelling.
Course Units
Unit 1: What is student led storytelling?
At the end of this unit, learners will be able to
- Define student led story telling
- Identify various aspects of student-led story telling
- Examine the impact of student-led story telling on children's language development
Learners will:
- Read and analyze articles that describe student-led storytelling
- Review a lesson plan on storytelling
- Reflection
- Complete a short quiz to assess knowledge
Unit 2: Strategies to support young students' articulation
At the end of this unit, learners will be able to
- Identify the stages of language development in young children
- Create strategies to facilitate children's articulation skills
- Evaluate the efficacy of the articulation strategies already being used
Learners will:
- Read and analyze a journal article and video about the stages of language development
- Create a strategy to use based on a select stage of language development
- Review strategies and discuss the benefits or concerns they provoke
Unit 3: Creating a safe space for story telling
At the end of this unit, learners will be able to
- Analyze the elements of a safe space and storytelling environment
- Recognize the role of trust, respect and inclusivity in fostering a safe space of storytelling.
Learners will
- Read journal articles about the aspects of creating a safe story telling environment
- Create a poster with guidelines for establishing this type of environment
Unit 4: Implementation and reflection
At the end of this unit, learners will be able to
- Apply knowledge to construct a lesson in student-led storytelling
- Evaluate effectiveness of strategies in lesson plans promoting language development and student-led storytelling
Learners will
- Analyze a lesson plan and create their own supportive strategies learned from the course
- Reflection prompt
Extended Resources
Flynn, E. E. (2018). Ideas in dialogue: Leveraging the power of child-led storytelling in the multicultural preschool classroom. Language in Society, 47(4), 601–633. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404518000593
Wright, B. L. (2021). What About the Children?: Teachers Cultivating and Nurturing the Voice and Agency of Young Children. YC Young Children, 76(2), 28–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27095171