#1 - Reading Reflections

 

Reading Reflections #1

To start off our summer semester I read the beginning chapter of The Art of Storytelling, Fourth Edition (Greene & Negro, 2010). The beginning chapters were a great read to help explain why storytelling is so important in both school and public libraries. Including why storytelling is important for both younger and older children. “Storytelling has been called the oldest and the newest of arts.” (page 3). This is the first line of the first chapter of The Art of Storytelling, Fourth Edition. Right from reading that  line I knew I was going to enjoy learning the ins and outs of storytelling this semester. 

     One important aspect to storytelling are the literacy techniques children can develop and practice while listening to some tell a story. According to the article Tell Me a Story! Enhancing Literacy Through the Techniques of Storytelling by Teresa Cherry-Cruz (2001), she mentions the techniques that storytelling develops, including “listening skills, enhances verbal expression, increases comprehension, creates mental images, and highlights verbal reasoning” (page 1). As a current classroom teacher, this is something that I see many students still struggling in, so knowing that telling stories out loud, and reading stories, can help improve those literacy skills is amazing!

    “Another equally compelling reason to feature storytelling in public and school libraries: the joy it brings to young listeners.” (D. Agosto, 2016). This is something I realized before I read Agosto’s article on Why Storytelling Matters. Earlier this year when I met my new group of fourth graders on the first day I introduced myself, like I do every year. This year I got to include a fun story about how I went to Hawaii. But the best part of the story was when I told them I got to swim with turtles. The looks on their faces was so great! They thought it was the coolest thing ever and they were so excited and happy and wanted to know more. The joy and love a child can have just by hearing a story really proves that “storytelling is an ancient art that demonstrates the power of words” (T. Cherry-Cruz, page 1).

    I like how Andrew Stanton stated that storytelling is “..knowing that everything you are saying is leading to a singular goal and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understanding as human beings” in his Ted Talk. While reading the chapters for this week that was something I noticed mentioned, that storytelling is a way to help the listener grow and learn from a story too. Stories help us connect with others and with ourselves. See Andrew’s full Ted Talk about what the clues to a great story is below (there is crude language in the beginning story, in case you do not like to hear that). 

    According to dictionary.com, a picture book is described as “a book consisting mainly or entirely of pictures, especially one for children who have not yet learned to read”. Some picture book have no words, some have minimal words, and some have more words than ‘normal’. Picture books are usually considered to be for younger aged children, however as a teacher I have used picture books in upper grades as well.

This week we had to read different sets of picture books, our choices, fables, and fairy tales. I chose to focus on fairy tales for this post. A fairy tale is “a story, usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins, dragons, fairies, or other magical creatures” (dictionary.com). As a child who grew up with the Disney version of fairy tales, I always find different twists of fair tales interesting. 

This week I chose to focus a part of my post on the seven fairy tales I read, they are below:

Prince Cinders: this fairy tale is a gender switch on the original tale of Cinderella. Cinders still gets help from a fairy godmother, just like the original Cinderella.

Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!: The Story of the Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear: in this fairy tale Baby Bear tells the story of the three little bears from his point of view. This is also an ‘updated’ version of the fairy tale, Goldilocks uses a cell phone during this version. 

The Egyptian Cinderella: this is another version of the story of Cinderella as most of us know it. 

Rumplestiltskin: the story of a magical angry man who helps a young woman weave straw into gold after a promise made, the only catch is that to get out of the promise the young woman has to guess the name of the creature helping her.

Hansel and Gretel: this is about a boy and girl abandoned by their parents in the woods and get lost. They find the home of a wicked witch, and need help getting home. They try to outwit the wicked witch to survive.

Cinderella: this is the Disney version in book form, about a girl who lives with her step-mother and two step-sisters.

Snow White: the Brothers Grimm version

I chose to add the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White as well after reading the article Telling Traditional Tales: Some Thoughts and Experiences by Lyn Linning. I thought the way Lyn Linning told the story of Snow White to older children. These children knew the story of Snow White, but when Linning paused then began again with the ending for the Brothers Grimm version with the wicked step-mother and how no child knew that ending. “Older children are at first stunned into silence, then stimulated to discuss crime, punishment, justice and revenge in different cultures.” I find that telling the ‘original’ version of the story makes children think more. I am always astounded by the different versions from different parts of the worlds of fairy tales, or how you can make on part slightly different which can change the way the story goes. These picture book versions of fairy tales can also be used to introduce older readers to read longer chapter books of fairy tales. Some longer chapter books are included below.

 

    As a current fourth grade teacher, and a future school librarian, I never thought to tell the Brothers Grimm version of any story. I always thought they may be ‘to much’ for children. I loved learning about how Linning told the group of children and their response. I am hopeful that when I am a librarian that I can tell stories like this and get children thinking as well. 

Resources:

Agosto, D.E. (2016). Why Storytelling Matters: Unveiling the Literacy Benefits of Storytelling. Children and Libraries. https://journals.ala.org/index.php/cal/article/view/5990/7634 

Cherry-Cruz, T. (2001, December 26). Tell Me a Story! Enhancing Literacy Through the Techniques of Storytelling. theASHAleader. https://blackboard.sc.edu/ultra/courses/_1195152_1/cl/outline 

Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Picture book meaning & definition. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/picture-book   

Greene, E., & Negro, J. D. (2010). Storytelling: Art and Technique (Fourth). Libraries Unlimited. 

Linning, L. (November 2002). Telling Traditional Tales: Some Thoughts and Experiences.  Orana. https://blackboard.sc.edu/ultra/courses/_1195152_1/cl/outline 

Stanton, A. (2012). Ted Talk - Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story. YouTube. Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDwieKpawg