STORY TELLING TO CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS
During our living and working in Nigeria, Ethiopia,
Lesotho, America and Canada, we found that story-telling to children in schools
is very common and a part of their teaching. We observed that the effect and
influence of story-telling is very good for learning , at least we found very
useful for our children and grand children. I thought that such a teaching
method should be applied in our schools in India also; A short description of
such a programme is given here :
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" If you want
your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want
them to be brilliant, tell them more stories "
- Albert Eisenstein
" Storytelling
is an age-old art shared among friends, families and strangers, and its
presence can captivate young and even older learners in the classroom
too."
Story
telling to children is stepping stone for future learning;
makes
learning easier and natural,
Storytelling is a form
of teaching and has the potential of fostering EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and help
children gain insight into human behaviour . ( SOCIAL SKILLS)
*Stories have
transformation power to see the world in a different way (EXPOSURE)
* Developed and used
purposefully, storytelling can contribute to inclusion and connection, build
confidence and bring about change.
IMPORTANCE
of storytelling/stories;
SKILL
DEVELOPMENT:
Develops various
skills, behavioral , social, ( learning about kindness, wisdom, honesty ,
compassion and more) communication skills etc.
Develops confidence (
enhances their communication skills; increase their ability to express
themselves; encourages them to communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideas;
Develops
listening, reading and writing skills;
Develops
imagination, creativity,, understanding, open to new ideas,
Stories teach
about life, about ourselves and about others; and the world ( about various and
different cultures); increase their cultural understanding ; expose young
children to new things, places, cultures, traditions and values
Motivational memories
with characters whose value they can emulate,
* improves social
SKILLS; children learn how to pay attention and listen actively to the person
talking;
* Boost LISTENING
skills ( to focus, to be attentive)
* Fosters their
imagination, enhances their creativity and open to new ideas
* Increase their CULTURAL
understanding ; expose young children to new things, places, cultures and
traditions
* Enhances their
COMMUNICATION SKILLS; increase their ability to express themselves; encourages
them to communicate their thoughts, feelings and ideas
* Pick up new words
and hence the VOCABULARY Promotes LANGUAGE learning by
enriching vocabulary and acquiring new language
structures
* Help sharpen memory
( through feedback, reviewing process etc )
*Increases knowledge
and confidence ( exposure to new things, environments etc )
* Learn about
kindness, wisdom, honesty, compassion and more and try to
emulate ( VALUE SYSTEM)
* Develops VALUE
SYSTEM ; learn values, critical values sharpens our
opinions and values
* Improves THOUGHT
PROCESS ( imagination, creativity, thinking and expression etc)
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STORY_TELLING
PROGRAMME IN A SCHOOL:
* Story-telling
programme can be initiated in a school any time in a most flexible
manner;
* May start at any
level /standard/class of children as a regular programme or casual weekly
/periodically as suits to the environment of the school; or
may a a few minutes at
the end of the class as suits to the teachers;
Probably, should be
started in an experimental way by forming three groups of children and watching
the effect on them:
A; group of children ,
no story-telling to them;
B; group of
children with story telling to them;
C; group of
children with story-telling to them with REINFORCEMENT ( by giving them some
assignments and taking feedback etc.)
An experimental
programme can be designed for feedback from the children of different groups as
how they interact among themselves with others and outside the school at home
with their friends, family member etc;
A competitive
environment can be created by giving children various assignments based on the
stories and evaluating their performance and awarding them certificates and
trophies of MERIT and Prizes etc.
One school /your
school can serve as a MODEL and then motivates other schools to introduce such
a programme if successful in your school; Competition can be extended to
several schools locally, then at District level- state level and even at
National level; ( Such programmes are already there for Maths, Geography,
Public Speaking etc. at various levels in Canada and USA): https://www.northsouth.org/public
Potential of a
story-telling programme as a new technique of learning/teaching of school
children must be tested in our schools.
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SELECTION OF STORIES:
Short stories can be
selected /identified according to the type of story from Internet, Google
and many other websites; for example ; http://sushmajee.com/;
http://sushmajee.com/stories/index-stories-1.htm
stories for children
(Shishu Sansar); http://sushmajee.com/shishusansar/index-shishu.htm
1; General
stories; http://sushmajee.com/stories/index-stories-1.htm
2. Inspirational
Stories: http://sushmajee.com/stories/inspirational/index-inspirational.htm
3. Religious
stories; http://sushmajee.com/stories/inspirational/index-inspirational.htm
4. Historical
stories: http://sushmajee.com/shishusansar/stories-historical/index-historical.htm
5 Motivational: (
Great Indians) http://sushmajee.com/shishusansar/stories-great-indians/index-great-indians.htm
(Great
People) http://sushmajee.com/shishusansar/stories-great-people/index-great-people.htm
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