Page 21 - 2025_Journal_91-5

model these classroom norms and set high expectations for their students during
storytelling lessons because, most of the time, children will work to meet the high
expectations set by teachers.
Teachers also need to use a gradual release model with students when introducing
storytelling. Combs and Beach (1994) discussed how storytelling experiences should
“begin very informally and move toward the formal, guiding [students] to consider
wider audiences and situations” (p. 467). Children, especially when they are young,
love to walk up to a trusted peer or friend and begin telling that person about their
life. Storytelling helps students take that innate need to tell stories and connect with
others to a whole other level as they begin to use stories to learn about a variety of
topics.
To help students develop their storytelling skills, teachers need to model and
scaffold the correct way to implement storytelling. Teachers can do this by sharing
personal stories as they begin to model all the aspects of storytelling and then move
into other stories, such as historical stories or content-area concepts (Combs &
Beach, 1994; Daniel, 2012). The teacher also needs to model performance skills
such as speaking loudly, being professional, showing expression, using movement,
and using different voices for different characters or events (Stanley & Dillingham,
2009). All these skills are essential to a good storytelling performance—but do
not come to students easily, so it is important that students see how to use them
effectively through teacher modeling.
As the students begin to grow from personal stories to more literature- or history-
based stories, teachers can gradually take a step back from leading in the classroom
to allowing the students to lead in selecting the content, the style, and the purpose
for the storytelling event. This is especially important as students use storytelling
because this will help them to develop creativity for their performances. In The Story
of Today, Fox Eades (2006) provided a great way to encourage students to structure
their thinking to follow a storytelling mindset:
This is a good way to start storytelling, for you and the children. Start them
off by saying something like, “Very early, on a Tuesday in May, a group
of twenty-six children were waking up, ready to come to Riddings Infant
School [This is equivalent to the earliest three years of primary schooling in
the United States, ages 4 through 7]. First, they ... e.g., got out of bed ... then
they got dressed... then they... etc.” The children take it in turns to supply
a sentence. Keep going, sentence by sentence, until you get to the present
moment. (Fox Eades, 2006, p. 17)
This technique can be used in all classrooms by teachers to help students reflect on
their day and begin to develop the skills needed for storytelling.
After classroom norms and modeling of these strategies have been introduced,
the teacher begins to move to more formal types of storytelling and focuses on text
selection or topic selection for storytelling. First and foremost, teachers need to
pick stories and topics based on their curriculum needs (Daniel, 2012). One of the
incredible things is that storytelling can be incorporated into almost every subject.
Teachers can choose to start with a specific story in mind or can consider a specific
concept they want to cover and then find a story to fit that concept (Fox Eades,
2006). Teachers can consult with online resources to find a text to pair with their
storytelling lesson. The websites in the Table suggest books to use, including online
works. Some of the websites to access books require subscriptions; some are free
resources.

Promoting Professional and Personal Growth of Educators and Excellence in Education 19