The Magic of Reading:
Using Stories to Promote Literacy and Learning
Lucy Crichton
Meet Lucy Crichton! Graduated in Drama, Design and Teaching
English as a Foreign Language, Lucy Crichton
is a teacher, teacher trainer and storyteller
who has given lectures and workshops
around the world. She has been writing for
the primary classroom since 2008 and has
been involved in projects in South America,
Europe and Asia. Lucy is the founder of The
Secret Garden English School in
Florianopolis, where she teaches children
and teenagers using, music, art, drama,
gardening and cooking. She has been living
and teaching in Brazil since 1992.
Session outline
The starting point for being a storyteller
Setting up story time in your classroom
Clear and practical ideas while telling a story
Why Stories?
• The oldest and most powerful
teaching and learning method
known
• The way humans have
communicated since they first
made sound
• Improves listening and promotes
a sense of well being
• Can reach the subconscious and
change behaviour patterns
• Modifies negative behaviour and
increases concentration
Uncovers hidden talents
• Increases self esteem and self
confidence
• Can be cross curricular and
motivate children to find out
more
• Can introduce children to folklore
and literature
• Is inexpensive – no new texts,
computers or other tools are
needed
A personal story
IONA
GIGHA
I THINK I’VE FOUND MY
P L AC E I N T H E W O R L D !
Stories make the invisible,
visible…
“It’s important that we
share our experiences
with other people. Your
story will heal you and
your story will heal
somebody else. When
you tell your story, you
free yourself and give
other people
permission to
acknowledge their own
story.”
Iyanla Vanzant
Literacy is about being
interested in books and
what they offer. It’s a
about a confidence that
grows according to the
way stories and books
are offered to the
emerging child…
Who told you stories when you were a
child?
My favorite stories as a child
Do you use stories in your classroom?
Reading aloud
• No need to learn the story off by heart.
• No need to worry about making mistakes in English.
• Reading shows that books are a source of interesting
ideas.
• The pictures in the books help understanding.
• Watching someone read from a book encourages
reading.
• You can follow the words with your finger as you read.
• Children can borrow the book to take home.
Telling a story
• The children feel that you are giving them something personal.
• Children these days are not used to the experience of hearing
someone tell a story and it can have a powerful effect on them.
• You can use the language more creatively.
• You can make use of your whole body.
• You can see children’s faces and how they are responding to the story
as you tell it.
P R E PA R I N G
YOUR
CLASSROOM
Doorway curtain
Storytelling carpet
Getting close
Darkening the room
Lighting a candle
Songs and Rhymes
Do you use storytelling routines before you
read a story?
Pre-reading activities
Pre-reading Eliciting
vocabulary from the story
There was a little girl, climbing up a
tree,
So, so high, you can see,
She jumps from branch to branch,
CRACK!
And down she falls….
There was a little girl, climbing up a
tree,
So, so high, you can see,
She jumps from branch to branch,
LOOK!
What can she see?
POEM
Two little feet go tap, tap,
tap
Two little hands go
clap,clap,clap
One little leap from
behind the chair
Two little hands reach
high in the air
Two little feet go jump,
jump, jump
Two little hands go
thumb, thumb, thumb
One little child turns
round and round
One little child sits quietly
down
STARTER LEVEL
Make a prop that children can use
as you tell the story.
From Look
Use pieces of cloth to represent objects from the story!
From Look
I can
jump!
Think about sound effects and how they can add depth and sensation
to stories. From Look
Chorus work
• Look at the pictures.
• Read the story.
• Ask students to
identify repetitive text.
• Get the class to
chorus some of the
speech bubbles.
From Look
From Look
From Look
From Look
LEVEL 1
Use a piece of cloth with a
knotted head as a puppet!
We’re All
Superheroes!
With a simple knot puppet, we can jump the story off the page!
To re-cap
• Tell your students a personal story about your life.
• Reconnect to your childhood and joy of books.
• Choose stories you know will reverberate with your students.
• Prepare them to listen and be ready for the story.
• Include props, puppets, chorus work and sound effects to involve
them.
• Show your love and dedication for education through every story
you tell….
“The happy ending in
fairy tales is an
affirmation of what we
know and can
accomplish.
It is a celebration of
what we can become if
we listen to the magical
voices inside our
heads.”
Stephen Swan Jones
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