{"id":19653,"date":"2018-11-13T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T05:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=19653"},"modified":"2018-11-14T11:04:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T16:04:59","slug":"oral-storytelling-not-just-for-grandma-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/oral-storytelling-not-just-for-grandma-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Oral Storytelling: Not Just for Grandma Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of my best childhood memories revolve around my Grandma Juanita\u2019s stories of her childhood. From tales of picking cotton \u2013 a story that taught me grown-ups always<\/em> know when you\u2019re lying \u2013 to a yarn about being chased by a bull, Grandma Juanita told the best stories. She also instilled in me a deep and lasting love of oral storytelling.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until attaining my MLS that I\u2019d come to realize the literacy benefits of such storytelling. While little formal research has been done into the effect of oral storytelling on early literacy acquisition, anecdotal evidence supports the theory that storytelling<\/em> (as distinguished from story reading<\/em>): teaches social and emotional skills; builds vocabulary; helps children become better listeners and readers; reinforces the importance of imagination and creativity; and promotes cultural awareness and expression, among other things.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But oral storytelling can be daunting, and even the most experienced, talented storytellers need practice. Don\u2019t let that scare you away, though; there are lots of ways to ease into storytelling. In the storytelling course I took at IU-Bloomington (shout-out to Christina Jones, librarian and adjunct professor extraordinaire), the first oral story I tackled was actually a felt board version of Laura Numeroff\u2019s If You Give a Moose a Muffin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Taking some of your favorite picture books and turning them into oral tales can be a great way to introduce oral storytelling into your repertoire. For instance, classics with less vibrant illustrations such as Millions of Cats <\/em>(Wanda G\u00e1g) make excellent oral stories when sharing with young audiences. For such stories, you can create visual elements yourself to make the tales more accessible; I love to tell Millions of Cats <\/em>using felt pieces. Other great felt-interpretations of picture books include Mouse Paint <\/em>(Ellen Stoll Walsh), Froggy Gets Dressed <\/em>(Jonathan London), Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons <\/em>(Eric Litwin), and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? <\/em>by Bill Martin, Jr.<\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/p>\n

Beyond felt stories, however, there are a variety of ways to adapt picture books for storytelling. The Very Hungry Caterpillar <\/em>(Eric Carle) has become a favorite of many librarians, at least partly because it’s so well-known. It can be told using a puppet or, as I suggested in a previous post<\/a>, using a tissue box decorated to look like a caterpillar. My latest favorite is a version of Karen Beaumont\u2019s I Ain\u2019t Gonna Paint No More<\/em> that uses a poster-sized drawing of the child from the story. Depending on the size of your storytime crowd, you can color the image yourself or give crayons to the children in the audience so they can assist.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/p>\n

The classic go-to for oral storytelling is of course folktales, fairytales, myths, and legends \u2013 and you can find an endless supply by browsing the 398.2\u2019s at your library, checking out ALA publications, and searching the web. I have a ready-to-use rotation of about ten tales, but one of my personal favorites is a French folktale called Three Perfect Peaches \u2013 which I tell with the help of stick-figure puppets.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

But why stop there? Maybe you\u2019re full of great personal anecdotes your young patrons will never forget. Or maybe those young patrons would love the chance to invent their own stories, with you acting as narrator. Once you\u2019ve gained some confidence, the possibilities for oral storytelling are pretty much limitless.<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about the importance of oral storytelling or finding story ideas? Check out these resources:<\/p>\n

National Storytelling Network<\/a><\/p>\n

Story Arts Online<\/a><\/p>\n

The Moth<\/a><\/p>\n

WBUR’s Circle Round<\/a><\/p>\n

Stories to Grow by<\/a><\/p>\n

SurLaLune Fairytales<\/a><\/p>\n

Folktexts<\/a><\/p>\n

The Storyteller’s Sourcebook by Margaret Read MacDonald<\/a><\/p>\n

Folktales Aloud by Janice Del Negro<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies:\u00a0III. Programming Skills, IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials, and\u00a0VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of my best childhood memories revolve around my Grandma Juanita\u2019s stories of her childhood. From tales of picking cotton \u2013 a story that taught me grown-ups always know when you\u2019re lying \u2013 to a yarn about being chased by a bull, Grandma Juanita told the best stories. She also instilled in me a deep and lasting love of oral storytelling. It wasn\u2019t until attaining my MLS that I\u2019d come to realize the literacy benefits of such storytelling. While little formal research has been done into the effect of oral storytelling on early literacy acquisition, anecdotal evidence supports the theory that storytelling (as distinguished from story reading): teaches social and emotional skills; builds vocabulary; helps children become better listeners and readers; reinforces the importance of imagination and creativity; and promotes cultural awareness and expression, among other things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1480,1604,96,1450,1614,1613,38,1607,136],"tags":[176,117],"class_list":["post-19653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-kaitlin-frick","category-competencies-for-librarians-serving-children-in-public-libraries","category-early-literacy","category-fairy-tales","category-knowledge-curation-and-management-of-materials","category-professionalism-and-professional-development","category-programming-ideas","category-programming-skills","category-storytime-2","tag-storytelling","tag-storytime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}