Although I made a post last week regarding Digital Storytelling, I found this article in my Feedly account to be quite interesting. The article does not go over digital storytelling per-say, but it does go over the importance of general story telling.
The article describes how storytelling is, "the oldest form of teaching", and I would have to agree. When you are telling a story, you are essentially describing a scenario to the listener that is/may be new to them. They can take away new knowledge from this story. Also, the article does a great job of telling you that you are already a storyteller by being a teacher. The article goes on to state, "In reality, teachers don't see themselves as storytellers. Or rather, they see the occasional storyteller and think it's a theatrical, exaggerated show more akin to acting. But hang on a minute -- being a teacher definitely involves acting and theatrics." I could not agree more with this statement! In order to have your message, or content, delivered and retained by your students, you need to first grasp their attention. What better way to do this than by having fun with the material and adding a little pizzazz to your deliver!
The article also goes over the many benefits of storytelling (such as inspiring purposeful talking, enhancing the community in your classroom, and raising the enthusiasm for reading) as well as how you could become a better storyteller yourself (such as reading a wide range of stories yourself, observe other storytellers, and starting off small).
While storytelling might be more geared towards the elementary grades, I feel that storytelling can find a place in any secondary classroom as well! Check out the article to read for yourself!
References:
- "Why Storytelling in the Classroom Matters." Edutopia July 11, 2014. Web. Retrieved July 15, 2014. http://www.edutopia.org//blog/storytelling-in-the-classroom-matters-matthew-friday
Trevor,
ReplyDeleteI saw this post and found it be interesting as well! It almost made the blog!!!
I thought about how much "story-telling" and "acting" I do in the classroom, while I was reading this article. I teach Kindergarten and I feel that I have to exaggerate a lot. Sitting through 12 show-and-tells about different stuffed animals requires quite a bit of exaggeration, but it is something that one just does!
Great response to a great article!