Why Children Should Be Given the Opportunity To Tell Stories

Why Children Should Be Given
the Opportunity To Tell Stories
Copyright © 2007 Martha Hamilton & Mitch Weiss 954 Coddington Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607-277-0016 Fax: 607-277-0968 Web site: www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com

There are many rewards to be gained from having students tell folktales, authored stories, and their own
tales. Storytelling should be done both formally and informally so that students learn to speak
confidently in front of groups. Here are a few more reasons students should be given the opportunity to
tell stories:

1. Storytelling increases self-esteem. With the greatest risk comes the greatest sense of achievement. One child wrote: "The hardest thing I've ever done was telling my story in front of my class and all those parents that night. But it was also the best thing that ever happened in my life when everyone in the audience applauded for me." That kind of confidence lingers and spills over into other aspects of life.

2. Storytelling, unlike some arts or sports activities, can involve all youngsters regardless of ability level. Children often surprise teachers, parents, other kids, and themselves with their storytelling skills. One teacher wrote: "Storytelling is within the grasp of each child so everyone can participate. The success of kids who don't usually do well in school was surprising and especially rewarding for me, but also for the other kids." Children often gain respect for others whom they thought weren't as capable as them. Many teachers have also remarked about how a storytelling project improves class cooperation.

3. Showing poise and confidence when speaking in front of others comes with practice and experience.In surveys in which adults are asked to name their greatest fear, speaking in front of a group always comes first. The more children are encouraged to do oral presentations while they're young, the easier it will be for them when they're older. Through storytelling, children learn techniques for gaining and
holding an audience's attention (eye contact, use of voice, gestures, pacing, etc.).

4. Storytelling improves listening skills. The pure pleasure children experience while listening to stories helps them to associate listening with enjoyment. During a classroom storytelling project, students learn to listen respectfully to their peers and how to coach one another in a constructive way.

5. Learning a story, rather than memorizing, ensures a much better sense of story, sequence, cause and
effect, and character traits. Comprehension skills must be used in order to learn a story and tell it well. Telling stories improves and reinforces other language skills such as vocabulary, story recall, and reading aloud with expression and confidence.

6. Storytelling encourages creative writing. For example, during the course of a project where students tell folktales, they learn not only their own stories but those of their classmates as well. It’s as if they go inside a story and live there for a while. By doing so, they discover, on a visceral level, what makes a  good story. Their own subsequent stories show much more creative use of dialogue and contain more of the standard story components: beginning and end, plot, characters, setting, and theme.

7. Storytelling stimulates inventive thinking and imagination. Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." If children choose a folk story and, in keeping with the oral tradition, make it their own in the retelling, they learn to be creative, to think on their feet.

8. Telling stories instills a love of language in children and motivates them to read. From folktales they develop an understanding of other people, places, and cultures, and learn to appreciate diversity.

9. Perhaps most important of all, storytelling is fun! One father, who had watched his own child and her classmates tell stories in front of parents and peers, wrote to our local school district to ask that funding for storytelling continue: "Storytelling is an important activity with many long-term benefits for kids. I've noticed many young adults in business who lack even basic skills in communicating their ideas to others
verbally, particularly to a group. Storytelling gives kids a real jump on acquiring these skills. In addition,
it develops something that many practiced speakers lack, namely an ability to use expression and humor
to captivate and motivate their audiences. An added benefit is that I have rarely seen a bunch of kids so
motivated to do a 'school' activity. How can we lose with all these benefits and fun?"

For more information, see our website at www.beautyandthebeaststorytellers.com or our books:
Children Tell Stories: Teaching and Using Storytelling in the Classroom (R. C. Owen, 2005)
Stories in My Pocket: Tales Kids Can Tell (Fulcrum, 1996)
How and Why Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell (August House, 1999)
Noodlehead Stories: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell (August House, 2000)
Through the Grapevine: World Tales Kids Can Read and Tell (August House, 2001)
The Hidden Feast: A Folktale from the American South (August House, 2006)
Scared Witless: Thirteen Eerie Tales to Tell (August House, 2006)
A Tale of Two Frogs: A Russian Folktale (August House/Story Cove, 2006)
Priceless Gifts: A Folktale from Italy (August House, 2007)
Rooster’s Night Out: A Folktale from Cuba (August House/Story Cove, 2007)