{"id":4810,"date":"2021-03-18T12:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=4810"},"modified":"2021-03-18T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:23:22","slug":"whats-the-buzz-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2021\/03\/whats-the-buzz-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s The Buzz: Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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World Storytelling Day is just around the corner. As the world gets ready to celebrate the art of oral storytelling, it seemed the perfect time to ponder the instructional case for storytelling.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storytelling<\/a>\u00a0is an ancient interactive art form in which one conveys a tale with gestures, words, and sounds while encouraging the listener to use their imaginations. In the ancient world, it was the way that people shared their beliefs, learned history, and received the news. Before print was widely available, every culture had a Bard, Gusan, Troubadour, Seanchaidh, Griot, or storyteller with some other moniker. In the modern world, storytelling continues to be significant as it relates to\u00a0organizational strategy<\/a>,\u00a0workplace influence<\/a>, and\u00a0career success<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) reminds us that storytelling has several instructional applications. Their storytelling position statement<\/a> tells us that storytelling is an oral language skill from which all students can benefit. Listening to stories helps students learn vocabulary and language patterns which in turn helps develop their reading skills. Also, students can rehearse their original stories before writing them to become better writers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storytelling has other benefits beyond language arts<\/a>. It can help lay the foundation for cross-cultural understanding as students find similarities between themselves and the characters in a story. Students who participate in storytelling activities can better recognize emotion and emotional needs, making it a perfect opening for social and emotional learning (SEL) activities. Storytelling is one of the best ways to convey factual information for retention. Science tells us that storytelling is a proven way to structure the instructional environment to invoke intelligence<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Stories in Instruction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons for an educator to use stories<\/a> to assist with instruction. Stories can provide foundational knowledge on which to build new skills, provide a bridge that allows for the communication of complex information in more accessible ways, and can be used at the beginning of an instructional set to get your students’ attention. Instructors can also use stories to summarize the information presented during a class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/a> tells us that there are four types of story-based instruction:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n