Engaging Children with Action Stories and Storytelling Techniques
Action Stories and TPR Techniques for Children
Engage children in stories using Total Physical Response (TPR) with these simple techniques. Children can:
- Mime the story as it’s read or played on audio.
- Perform pre-arranged actions when they hear key words.
- Stand up when a character speaks or acts.
- Look at and point to key illustrations.
These actions bring the story to life and help children internalize the language.
Action Stories: Phased Approach
Phase 1: Pre-Teaching
The teacher pre-teaches vocabulary and ensures understanding through listening and imitating actions. Adapt the teaching pace to the students’ learning pace by introducing sentences gradually, repeating previous sentences before introducing new ones. Maintain a strict order of sentence presentation.
Phase 2: Instructions Only
The teacher gives instructions in the same order as before, but without modeling the actions. Students must listen and carry out the instructions without seeing the teacher act them out.
Phase 3: Changing the Order
Students listen to instructions and carry them out, but the teacher changes the order of the instructions. This adds a new challenge and reinforces comprehension.
Final Phase: Worksheet Consolidation
Students use worksheets from their books while listening to the action stories from an audio CD. They put pictures in the correct order, consolidating their learning in an action-oriented way. They can write numbers or draw dots on dice to indicate the correct sequence.
Storytelling: Enhancing Language Acquisition
Quality in Stories: What Makes a Story Good?
While subjective, a good story captures children’s attention and interest, motivating them to learn. However, ensure the story aligns with your language learning objectives.
Choosing a New Story: Key Aspects
- Values and Attitudes: Ensure they are not offensive.
- Structure: Organized stories are more easily accepted and understood.
- Dialogue/Narrative: Choose based on your teaching goals. Narrative is good for grammar, while dialogue is good for conversation.
- Language Use: Repetition of vocabulary is useful. Use stories with new vocabulary or familiar vocabulary for recycling.
New Language: What to Include
- Previously learned language for recycling.
- New language to be processed.
- New language that might be learned, depending on interest.
If new words aren’t key to understanding or can be deduced from context or pictures, listeners/readers will cope.
Reading Tips for Effective Storytelling
- Choose a book based on quality and children’s interest.
- Identify new or difficult words. Review them with flashcards, focusing on pronunciation and understanding.
- Allow children to preview pictures to predict what will happen. Use picture worksheets for predictions.
- Read aloud with rhythm, melody, and expression. Don’t be afraid to ham it up!
- Encourage children to describe pictures, read bits of text, or guess what will happen next.
- Ask questions about the story: setting, main characters, etc.
- Answer questions thoroughly.
- Dramatize roles in the story.
- Use activities like drawing, sequencing pictures, or matching sentences and pictures.
- Play games based on the reading, such as guessing games or pronunciation competitions.
- Implement a reward system to encourage a love for books and reading.
- Read to children daily or as frequently as possible.
Book Covers: Engaging Children Before Reading
Part 1: Introducing Book Covers
Comment on pictures: colors, drawings, objects. Use sentences like, “Isn’t that a cute picture?” Make suggestions about the content: “I wonder if this book might be scary but it has such beautiful colors. This book cover looks silly.” Don’t reveal the titles yet.
Part 2: Comparing and Choosing
Compare two books of different genres and ask them to choose one. Ask, “Which one would you like me to read?” Suggest reasons why: “Oh, because there’s a little girl in the picture.” Explain what’s on the cover in picture terms.
Parts 3 & 4: Reading the Book Cover
Explain top-to-bottom and left-to-right reading concepts. Point at the title and say, “This is the title of the book.” Use your finger to read the title, sounding out words. Comment on the pictures again: “Now let’s look at the picture of the book. What do we see?”
Connect the picture with the title: “Oh, the picture has something to do with the title.” Give the author’s and illustrator’s names. Suggest the plot: “I wonder what the book might be about? Let’s turn the page and find out.”
Turning the Page
Say, “Turn the page.” Open the book and compare the first page with the book cover (if possible). Continue reading by saying, “Let’s turn the page and see what the story is about.” Comment briefly on the picture and start reading the page from top to bottom and left to right, sounding out words.
Benefits of Storytelling
- Promotes well-being and relaxation.
- Increases willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings.
- Encourages active participation.
- Encourages imagination and creativity.
- Fosters cooperation between students.
Performance Techniques for Storytellers
- Tell yourself the story in your own words.
- Use story skeletons to remember key events.
- Think of the plot as a series of connected images.
Performance Skills for Engaging Storytelling
- Vary the volume, pitch, and tempo of your voice (enunciate clearly and exaggerate expression).
- Use your face, body, and gestures.
- Maintain engaging eye contact with the audience.
- Create a charismatic presence.
- Use different exaggerated character voices.
- Use your space/be dynamic.
