The Magic of Storytelling: The Gateway to Literacy

Literacy begins with telling our story!  Discover playful and creative ways to engage children in speaking, drawing, and writing about their lives through imaginary play.

In Reggio Emilia classrooms, the most important voice is the voice of the child.  Our task, is to draw out their stories.

We begin by defining Cooperative play is the highest form of play. Learn how recognize the types of play occurring in your classroom.  Lev Vygotsky was a Russian developmental psychologist in the early twentieth century.  His research in child development led to what is now called, the Constructivist Theory.  The belief that we all learn by constructing knowledge over time.  We will examine the work of Vygotsky and Dewey as they describe the child as a social learner, becoming knowledgeable within the context of group work and play.  Vygotsky differentiated between immature and mature play – calling dramatic play the highest form of learning.

This course follows the research of Vivian Paley, examining our adult perceptions of children’s learning and the value of imaginary play.  We look at the work of Boston Public Schools implementing Paley’s model of storytelling.  What is Paley getting at when she says, “As I continued to record the children’s dialogues, my own mind began to open.  I felt ready to risk the role of storyteller”.  Paley (2009)  How comfortable are you as a teacher fostering make-believe stories?

Finally we will look into teaching strategies, encouraging teachers to take a leap of faith in modeling storytelling based upon the real stories occurring in your classroom.   Drawing stories out from children is really about mastering the art of asking open-ended questions.  It requires a patience to wait for young children to process your questions and respond.  We place interesting materials in front of the children and ask them to create something.  As the child creates, we engage them in conversations, writing down their words.

This course includes over 60 minutes of quality classroom video and pdf article downloads.

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