Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom

Without a solid grounding in language, education is virtually impossible. But at times, the wide gap in language skills-even within a single classroom-can be difficult for teachers to bridge. That's where innovative, well-conceived storytelling can be the great equalizer; reaching and involving students of all kinds while helping them develop their literacy skills.

This resource offers a series of grade-appropriate lessons that link storytelling in the classroom with the development of essential language skills.

This resource offers a series of grade-appropriate lessons that link storytelling in the classroom with the development of essential language skills.

Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom shows just how powerful a tool storytelling can be for building vital language skills—not just reading and writing, but speaking, listening, visual literacy, and information literacy as well. It is an exceptionally rich and rewarding resource that helps teachers and tellers work together to focus story time on language development.

Moving grade-by-grade from pre-K to middle school, Literacy Development in the Storytelling Classroom offers both research-based ideas and specific lesson plans for using storytelling to promote literacy learning. Lessons seamlessly integrate material from traditional domains of social studies, science, math, and language arts, while incorporating elements from the creative arts, such as music, visual arts, drama, dance, and folk crafts as both storytelling vehicles and curriculum extensions. The stories themselves in this collection are drawn from the full spectrum of the world’s cultures—every child is represented, and every child will benefit from the concepts and lessons in this remarkable book.

• Specific lesson plans for each level from pre-K to 5th grade
• Contributions from a variety of professional educational storytellers and teachers who use storytelling in their classrooms
• Photographs of children engaged in storytelling lessons as well as original children’s art and additional diagrams and charts
• An extensive bibliography of print, multimedia, and online resources on both the theoretical basis and practical applications of classroom storytelling
• An appendix of national standards and abbreviations