Once upon a story…

“Children need to be immersed in a listening and storytelling culture where their voices are valued and heard.” – Lucy Calkins

From the beginning of my teacher training, I have been in love with and identified with the works of Vivian Paley.  Her books line the shelves of my personal library.  Repeatedly, I turn to these books as reminders of what my kinders are capable of and the importance of teaching them the ways they are meant to learn.

This school year, I am fortunate enough to take part in a literacy cohort just for kindergarten teachers in my district.  Upon entering this professional development, my expectations were cautiously high.  We all know that sometimes PD is just not what it should be.  Fortunately – I have hit the mother load of PD.  The instructors are knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and realistic.  This is a PD worth writing sub plans for!

The focus of the class is literacy – with a heavy emphasis on play. Yes, PLAY!  It is alarming how PLAY has become a nasty four letter word in our classrooms.  Before we all start asking the “How can I fit this into my day with this assessment and that assessment, etc.?” question, let me share one of the best parts of this PD.  We embrace what is natural!  Play is natural – not something extra that should be fit in to our days.  Standards are being met through play – each and every day.  I know that we all know the benefits of play.  But should you need a reminder, or documentation to prove the benefits:

We are given time during each session to read (no homework) from several different books that are ours to keep!
We are reading:

The most recent session, we focused on storytelling and creating thinkers in kindergarten.  We were reminded that the standards (Common Core) are not what we teach, but where our students are heading this year. Storytelling a grand vehicle to get our students where we need them to be.  We started off with an activity that asked us to created characters for a story – any characters we wanted.

The next step was to join with a partner and create a story with both of our characters.  This was challenging – and fun.  We then shared our stories out to other partnerships.  What a fun time!  So many aspects went into the creating of the story:

• talking about story elements
• the relationship between the characters
• sequence of events
• dialogue of characters
• addition of props depending on setting and mood

How many standards do you see addressed above?  So many!  The speaking and listening standards are obvious – but many reading standards are also addressed.  We then highlighted the standards we thought were addressed during the activity.

Our instructors then used their characters and told their story.  After they were finished, we extended the learning by participating some word activities using language of the story.  Again, we were asked to highlight standards we thought were addressed during the extension activity.  Boom – foundational skills!

Our children are natural storytellers – with or without props.  How many times have you chosen to stop a child from sharing a story for the “sake of instructional time”? Instead of stopping her, incorporate her story into the lesson!  Doing what feels natural and right for our children can be challenging when the expectations are increasing and we are made to feel like what is natural and right does not mesh with academics.  Arm yourself with these benefits of storytelling:

• Students attain meaningful vocabulary
• Students are exposed to cultural diversity
• They play with the sound of language as they repeat rhymes and chants
• Ability to visualize increases
• Ownership increases – students become emotionally attached to what they are listening to, in turn producing motivation for remembering and retelling
• Students motivation to read increases
• As students learn to tell stories, they hone oral language skills and build self confidence
  • Oral language skills developed through storytelling lead to better reading comprehension
    (Generative Theory of Reading):

• Children must understand the point of reading is to make sense
• Children must become confident of their ability to make meaning
• Children must recognize that reading can be fun

• When these 3 things take place – comprehension takes place

 

Go forth and tell stories!

Want to incorporate technology?  Check out this post by Matt Gomez:
http://mattbgomez.com/33-great-apps-for-storytelling-and-creativity/

Snippets – Take 3

 

Maybe I’ve used this before, maybe I haven’t, but either way – I’m feeling crazy busy.  I’m running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Between the beginning of the school year, more responsibility at work, and planning a wedding – most days I feel lucky to be dressed and groomed to go to work.  Hence, the lack of blog posts in the past month or so.  Scatter brain doesn’t make for the most coherent of writing! Ha!

So, I bring you some snippets of what we have been doing lately in the lands of Kinder and Tutor Town….

 

 

Celebrating International Dot Day

 Using students’ voices and choices during tutoring

In my experience, the most successful tutoring sessions involve working on confidence and using activities the student feels invested in.   The smallest things, like paper color for flash cards, help students feel in control of their learning.  The student I tutor each week loves dinosaurs, so dinosaurs are on the top of his flashcards.  We keep activities varied each week to keep it interesting.

 

Indoor hopscotch and “SWAT” a word on laminated butcher paper that has been folded in half

Hidden sight words – white crayon and watercolor paint

      

Personalized flash cards – We play Memory and Go Fish

Literacy Through Play

I began taking a kindergarten literacy class that discusses how we can incorporate more play into our school day.  The class is relevant and exciting.  We are not required to read outside of the class, but I have found myself reading the books on my own time.  More to come from this class!