Animated Storytelling
At Hampstead Elementary School in Hampstead, Maryland, fifth-grade students sit cross-legged on the floor watching professional storyteller Joanne Hay as she mimes the part of "Ol' Man Bucket , a character in a children’s folktale. This gives the teachers a break for 30 minutes and introduces students to various types of new literature in a fun way! Stories, folk tales, and poetry are all tied into monthly themes.
“There is a big difference between reading aloud and telling a story. The professional storytellers bring the story to life. Their voices modulate the tone and speed of the story -- and can scream through the scary ending. The storyteller chooses how much description will keep the action alive. That action is illustrated with hand and body movements” (Brodowski, 2011).
§ Source: Brodowski, Pat. "Animated storytelling spices up Hampstead Elementary lunches"
The benefits are numerous! It teaches aspects of culture, exposes students to a variety of new literature, teaches new vocabulary, and literally makes the literature “come alive” for students.
So, you can see how different storytelling is from reading aloud. It stimulates the imagination! The act of storytelling is active and inventive!
“Storytelling has all the benefits of read aloud. It improves language skills such as vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, comprehension, story structure and recall. These skills will also help children become better writers” (Storytelling, n.d.).
For teachers and school librarians: The unit discussed in this website below “will show you how to memorize a story for formal storytelling settings and teach children to do the same. Once you have storytelling capabilities, you can use it to integrate literature-based learning into a variety of subject areas or add some panache to the most basic read-aloud or read-together techniques.” Click here for more details: Storytelling
