HOW TO USE STORIES IN THE CLASSROOM
(By Claire Venables, 2019)
As younger learner teachers adopt classroom practices that focus on teaching the
whole child, stories have become a key resource for providing a natural, engaging
context for learning language. But when we read to children we are doing so much
more than just teaching them English. We are encouraging their imagination, exploring
other cultures and teaching them about the world. Listening to and participating in
stories also develops a range of linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social and cultural
skills. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to make storytelling with your English
language learners a regular part of your routine.
When your audience does not speak English as a first language, the delivery is
everything! There is an art to reading aloud to an audience of youngsters, so once you
have fallen in love with a great book, the next step is to work on your performance.
According to Tell It Again by Shirley Raines and Rebecca Isbell, ‘Storytelling involves
three essential elements: the story, the teller, and the listener. A well selected story
told by an effective storyteller captivates young listeners’ attention and the three
elements work in harmony.’ With that in mind, here are some tips for making story-time
with your young learners a big success.
General guidelines
You should always read the story to yourself (or in front of a mirror) before going
public. This will help you decide how you will read it, what voices and actions you will
use and how you will get students to participate.
You need to get a feel for the rhythm and speed of the book; make sure you vary both.
Depending on the book and your audience, you may need to adapt the language and/or
length. This should all be done before you attempt to read it with your students.
The use of space
Whenever possible, designate a special area in the classroom for storytelling, even if
this means moving the furniture around. You should also establish a routine and some
rules to follow during story-time. For example, you may like to get the children to ask
questions at the end to avoid constant interruptions. Do not forget to make sure
everyone can see both you and the book clearly. If a child cannot see then they will
miss out on the essential language support from the gestures you use and the pictures
that help them to understand the meaning. This can lead to them losing interest and
getting distracted. Finally, remember you should only begin reading when everyone is
settled and focused.
Generating interest
If you aren’t excited about the book your students won’t be either, so always show
enthusiasm. You can present the book in different ways to engage them in the topic,
e.g. you could slowly reveal the cover, or hide the book and have students look for it, or
bring the book out of a special bag or box.
Providing language support
Show the cover of the book and elicit words and ideas the students know based on the
title and/or images. Some teachers like to use flashcards or real objects to pre-teach
key vocabulary and, if applicable, you could even teach them a rhyme or a game that
ties in with the topic or language used in the story. Having students predict what the
story is about by showing them images or reading aloud key sentences from the story
is another great way to prepare them. Finally, if you have read the book with your
students before, encourage them to recall as much as they can about the characters or
storyline.
FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
STORY SEQUENCING
In this activity students are encouraged to collaborate to recall a familiar story,
illustrating the key stages and retelling it to their classmates.
Instructions:
1. In groups, students decide on the key stages of the story they are going to
illustrate. Stronger groups of students should be encouraged to think of more
stages (this provides differentiation).
2. Hand a piece of blank paper to each group and ask them to draw lines to divide the
paper into equal-sized boxes. They will need one box for each key stage of the
story, so if a group has more stages it might be better to give them several pieces
of paper so they have enough space for their drawings. (Alternatively, you could
pre-make these before the class and hand them out to groups.)
3. In each box, students draw a picture to represent the key stages of the story.
Depending on the level of the class/group, they could write a sentence (or more)
underneath each picture to describe what is happening.
4. Students take turns retelling the whole story with the others in their group, using
the pictures and words to help them.
5. Students then cut up the page and divide the pictures equally between the
members of the group.
6. The group works together to retell the story for their classmates, with each
member reading out their part and showing their pictures in the correct order.
7. The pictures can be kept in an envelope and used again in future lessons. (You
might want to write a number on the back of each picture for later reference.)
LIFT THE FLAP’ BOOK
In this activity children learn the meaning and form of words in context by creating
illustrated flaps to cover key words in a book.
Instructions:
1. In groups, the children each select a word from a page of the book and copy it on
to a piece of paper. (Monitor to make sure the chosen words can be easily
illustrated and that the whole group understands the meaning of each word; you
may wish to give groups specific pages from the book to look through, so they
don’t all choose the same pages/words.)
2. Divide the words between the members of the group, so that students have a
different word to the one they initially chose. Ask them not to show the others
what they got! Give each student one Post-it note.
3. Each students should cut up their Post-it note to create a flap to stick over their
word in the book (but do not stick them on the book yet!). They should then each
draw a picture on the Post-it to illustrate the meaning of their word.
4. Students show their drawings to the others in their group and see if they can
guess the word.
5. Stick the Post-it notes over the words in the book.
6. Choose someone to be the ‘teacher’ and read the story to the class.
7. When the storyteller reaches a flap, he or she should stop and show the drawing.
The other students should call out the word, and the storyteller can then lift the
flap to see if they are right.
STORYBOARDING
In this activity, children retell a familiar story, and then the teacher takes photos to
create a storyboard.
Instructions:
1. After reading a short story aloud, put the children in groups.
2. Students should choose between 5–10 key moments in the story, and then
recreate those scenes using their bodies and/or other props. (Note: Depending on
your class size and the time you have available, you could either ask each group to
choose and recreate their own key scenes, or choose the key scenes as a class and
assign one or two to each group.)
3. Take photos of each scene, upload them to the computer and print them out. (You
may want to print each image on to white paper with some space below it, if you
want students to try step 5.)
4. Within their groups, students can then put the images in order and take turns to
retell the story to each other.
5. With guidance, students can write sentences below each image and staple it
together like a book.
6. A shortened version of this activity is to photocopy images from the story
(laminate if possible to make them more durable), mix them up, then hand them
out (in sets) to groups. The groups then have to put them back into the correct
order and retell the story. It can be made into a race, with points awarded to the
group who finishes correctly first.
