A librarian makes a case for using storytelling to increase literacy

Storytelling is humanity's oldest form of literacy. Everyone is born with the ability to communicate orally. It is the strongest and most natural way for humans to express themselves. In fact, many of the world's great civilizations and leaders led strictly through oral communication. I can't help but recall this past summer's news coverage of Ronald Reagan's funeral.

Every news channel used the word "storyteller" to describe his charisma and leadership. Whether or not I agreed with his politics, I couldn't refute that he used story to connect with the commonality in the American people to create believers in his vision for the country. What a great example of the power of storytelling!

As a librarian at Multnomah County Library and the chair of the library's Tapestry of Tales Family Storytelling Festival, I work tirelessly to promote the important role storytelling has in literacy development. Sharing a story builds and sustains lifelong readers. The building blocks to literacy begin long before children start school and their literacy skills expand throughout their school years with continued exposure to and experience with story.

Children of all ages need, but don't necessarily receive, diverse experiences with words and language patterns to build and expand literacy skills. Those without these necessary skills are less likely to succeed in school and in life. If their recreational time is filled with television and video games, they run the risk of growing up without the natural rhythms of language and therefore have poorly developed cognitive and interpretive language skills.

Storytelling is different from passively watching TV and even reading aloud. Good storytelling actively involves both the teller and the audience in the story and the interaction between them is immediate and personal. It enlists the use of all five of our senses and forces listeners to rely on their memories to envision the events and characters, like a movie in one's mind. Sadly, most parents stop reading aloud to their children once they begin to read. This diminishes readers' ability to understand a complex story. Storytelling fills this need. Incorporating it into their day-to-day activities will expose youngsters to higher level and more diverse language patterns.

This past November, our storytelling festival was enriched by the performances of master storyteller Donald Davis. He also spoke with the City Club of Portland, the city's civic advocacy organization, about how stories unite communities. During that presentation, he responded to a Library Foundation question to discuss the role of storytelling in developing children's reading and language skills. "Everything about language development is based on modeling…. A child's language is a function of the language pool in which the child is soaked from birth to adulthood. If that soaking pool is rich and strong, adult language will be strong. If the soaking pool is … weak or inappropriate, that's where adult language will end up." Davis says if children only get exposed to language from Jerry Springer and video games, they will experience a "degradation of language syntax, grammar, vocabulary and interest in literature itself."

Whenever I talk with educators about the significance of storytelling in the classroom, they agree with its value but they always ask, "How can I prove to my principal that storytelling works? Where's the data to support the literacy connection?" Several published quantitative studies link storytelling to student success. Robin Mello, Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and professional storyteller, summarizes the findings of these studies in her paper Building Bridges: How Storytelling Influences Teacher/Student Relationships (ERIC Document 457088). "The literature demonstrates that the storytelling process assists listeners and tellers as they gain an understanding of language, culture, comprehension, humor, and logical thinking skills." Collectively, these studies validate that storytelling is a successful teaching method that boosts fluency, vocabulary and recall, and leads students to create more complex and involved writing. The research also supports what storytellers have always known: listeners envision the stories in their minds as they unfold.

Further research indicates that the more exposure students have to storytelling, the greater their attention span is because they gain experience with more complex listening skills. Mello's own study with upper elementary school students found that "children perceived the role of listener as powerful and active." Because students felt empowered by the interaction, they naturally paid more attention to the information being presented and not only improved their listening comprehension skills but they also perceived that the story content had greater value. What educators wouldn't want attentive, mesmerized classes that are more likely to retain and value the information that they impart?

All these studies and research may create good support for storytelling in the classroom with media specialists and teachers, but what about getting school administration to buy in?

It's all in the numbers! Students' test scores will improve as they gain more experience with listening. Pamela Schembri, Media Specialist at North Junior High School (Newburgh, NY) and author of Scary Stories You Won't Be Afraid to Use! Resources and Activities for a K-6 Audience (2001), says that storytelling improves student scores on the listening portion of English Language Arts tests. "When language patterns are stronger, students know what to expect and can better predict endings because they have greater experience with listening. Their ears become trained." She notes that she wrote her book because "the fear factor" and the suspense of a story taps into young people's senses and is the hook that can get kids to be believers in storytelling without realizing they are improving their listening skills. I think back to my first memories as a young girl camping and hearing ghost stories by the campfire. I didn't have to hear the story of "The Hook" more than once in order to remember and recount every last detail of it to my friends. (By the way, if you smiled right then, you just experienced the power of story!)

Some educators may still be a bit skeptical. Many tell me this kind of teaching strategy might work with talented and gifted students or in already successful and achieving schools, but what does it do for at-risk students?

Schembri actually works with seventh and ninth grade high-risk, inner-city students, and they are captivated by storytelling. She began working with these students when an educator was teaching a Native American unit and asked her for some assistance finding Iroquois stories. She suggested that she come to the class and tell Iroquois stories to them instead of reading these tales aloud. From there, the class began storytelling on a regular basis. She notes that they stay focused and remember the lesson or idea that is being presented and that the students especially like personal narratives. She also experienced great success using storytelling techniques to help ESL students improve both their understanding of the English language and classroom lessons.

Librarians know the power of story and how school media centers can play an integral role in building a storytelling community. School and public libraries regularly present story programs, booktalks, and dramatic retellings of folk and fairy tales. Library collections are a great resource and librarians can provide recommendations of tried-and-true tales as well as storytelling resources that can inspire teachers to incorporate storytelling into daily lesson plans. Media specialists can offer easy, practical tips to help individuals enrich their own narrative style. In fact, media specialists are often the driving force in promoting, educating, and creating successful school storytelling communities.

A great way to get started is to encourage students to become storytellers themselves by offering the media center up as a rehearsal and performance space. In addition, there are also many opportunities for community partnerships to help you build storytelling in your classroom and school. I suggest collaborating with your local public library; whether it hosts a formal festival or not, the librarians can offer great recommendations for regional storytellers who can suggest student and educator workshops. If you coordinate early with a local festival, your students could practice the art of storytelling and then possibly participate in a festival's planned events.

Visit the Tapestry of Tales Family Storytelling Festival Web site http://www.multcolib.org/events/tales/ and its Educator Resources section for articles and a booklist for storytelling in the classroom and an extensive list of online lesson plans for each grade. The site includes links connecting storytelling to Oregon state benchmarks and common curriculum goals for each subject. Though your state's benchmarks may vary from these, this is still a great starting point to learn how to directly connect storytelling to state standards. For additional storytelling in the classroom resources, visit the Web site Learning through Storytelling by Turner South, the educational division of CNN and Turner Broadcasting, at http://www.turnerlearning.com/turnersouth/storytelling/index.html. The Resources section highlights several books to help media specialists and teachers become classroom storytellers. Donald Davis's book, Telling Your Own Stories: For Family and Classroom Storytelling, Public Speaking and Personal Journaling (August House, 1993), offers many great story prompts and ideas to help you and your teachers build storytelling skills. Margaret Read MacDonald has written several books to help budding storytellers learn all the basics, including The Storytellers Start Up Book: Finding, Learning, Performing and Using Folktales (1993). Her latest book, Three-Minute Tales: Stories from Around the World to Tell or Read When Time is Short (2004, both August House), offers beginning tellers a great collection of short tales to learn and use in any situation. David Holt and Bill Mooney's Ready-To-Tell Tales: Sure-Fire Stories from America's Favorite Storytellers (1994) and More Ready-To-Tell Tales from Around the World (2000, both August House) offer a rich collection of stories to learn and share with students and adults alike. Primary school media specialists and teachers will find practical activities and lesson ideas in Martha Seif Simpson and Lynne Perrigo's Storycraft: 50 Theme-Based Programs Combining Storytelling, Activities, and Crafts for Children in Grades 1-3 (McFarland, 2001).