Recommendations

Great picture book authors I recommend (there's no order whatsoever, sorry about that):

- Emily Gravett: The Odd Egg, Wolf won’t bite, Monkey and Me, Again (Infantil) Wolves (both Infantil and Primary 1 and 2).

- Oliver Jeffers: Stuck, The Incredible Book-eating Boy, The Day the Crayons Quit, The Great Paper Paper and The New Jumper (for Primary 1, 2 or 3), How to Catch a Star, Lost and Found and Up and Down (Infantil).

- Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler: The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, Zog, The Smartest Giant in Town, Monkey puzzle, The Snail and the Whale, Stickman and Room on the Broom (Primary 1 and 2)

- Polly Dumbar: Penguin and Tilly and Friends book collection (Infantil)

- Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear (mmm, I think Eric Carle is the illustrator for this book, but not the author), The Mixed-up Chameleon (up until Primary 1).

- Roald Dahl: The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe the Pelly and Me (Years 2, 3, 4), Magic Finger, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Twits (Years 3, 4 and 5), James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Revolting Rhymes, Dirty Beasts (Years 5 and 6. The last ones are poetry books).

- Michael Rosen: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (E.I. 5 and Primary 1). He also has books and poems for older kids!

- Jon Klassen: I want my hat back, This is not my hat (they seem simple, but the humour is subtle so I would suggest Primary).

- Martin Waddell: Owl babies (Infantil), Farmer duck (E.I. 5 and Primary 1)

- Dr. Seuss: Green Eggs and Ham, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, Fox in Socks, Ten Apples Up On Top! (ideal to start reading real books in the classroom with Primary 2 and 3. Not many words, repetition and humour (quite absurd, hehe)), Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (two classics for older kids in Primary). There are a lot more from this author!

- David Walliams: they call him the next Roald Dahl. He has great (difficult) books for Year 5 and 6. At school we recommend them to children that have a very high level of English. You can find his books in Catalan and Spanish too. Here are my favourites: Billionaire Boy, Gangsta Granny, Mr. Stink, The Boy in the Dress and Ratburger. Critical citizens books, no doubt about it.

Other classics you need to know:
- Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (Infantil)
- Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury (2 to 3 year-olds)
- Where's Spot? by Eric Hill (2 to 3 year-olds)
- Meg and Mog by Helen Nichol and Jan Pienkowski (ideal Halloween story for Infantil and Primary 1)
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (ok, so maybe I wouldn't use this in the English classroom, but it's a must have book!)
- If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff (up until Primary 1)
- Olivia by Ian Falconer (all the kids love this pig. E.I. 5 and Primary 1)
- The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman (a bit perverse, hehe, Primary 2 and 3)
- Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann (another classic for Infantil)
- Elmer by David McKee (E.I. 4 to Year 2. You can use it to talk about people being different, but I use it to introduce Carnival).

Mind map

Here are the mind maps we made together in the session with your ideas related to Children's Literature. Sorry it took me so long to post them.

Why do we use stories in the classroom?

Here are the resasons we came up with in the session:

To introduce language, topics, vocabulary
 Input
Acting out stories: output, performing skills
Speaking skills
Listening skills
Patterns and repetition
Exercises imagination and creativity
Comprehension
Motivating and fun
Stories give meaning the the child’s world
To tackle difficult topics
Memorable
To educate
Atmosphere: relaxing, sets routine, stress-free
Universal: every age and every culture
Bonding with our audiemnce/Social experience
Opens our minds to new experiences/cultures

Think about it

The first time I read this passage in John Stephens' "Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction" I was doumbfounded by the implications of what it meant. It made me think deeply about what children read (or listen to) and how that might have an impact on them. How about you?

“Writing for children is usually purposeful, its intention being to foster in the child reader a positive appreciation of some socio-cultural values which, it is assumed, are shared by author and audience. These values include contemporary morality and ethics, a sense of what is valuable in the culture’s past (what a particular contemporary social formation regards as the culture’s centrally important traditions), and aspirations about the present and the future. Since a culture’s future is, to put it crudely, invested in its children, children’s writers often take upon themselves the task of trying to mould audience attitudes into “desirable” forms, which can mean either an attempt to perpetuate certain values or to resist socially dominant values which particular writers oppose.” (Stephens, 1992)

Storytelling theory

We have three major components in the storytelling event. One is the context of the event, the physical and social setting in which a story is told. A second is the transfer of imagery that occurs between storyteller and audience (we will develop this concept a few paragraphs below). And finally, there are three obvious ingredients: storyteller, audience and story. These three ingredients form the storytelling triangle that you can see here:

In this triangle the storyteller has a relationship with both the audience and the story. This last one –storyteller and story- includes the intellectual understanding of the story, emotional experience with the story and the imagining of the story.

The mentioned relationships involve the storyteller. There is a third relationship that does not: the relationship between the story and the audience. In a successful storytelling event there will be a connection between them. As a storyteller, we can try to influence this relationship but we cannot force the audience to create one. However, making effective use of the tools available to us, we can try and encourage this relationship between the story and our audience.

 Now let us go back to the transfer of imagery. We can define “imagery” as the internal representation of an actual experience. When a story is told there is a transfer of imagery from the storyteller to the audience. Before the story is told, the storyteller has mental images of the story. After the story is told, the listeners have created their own mental images of the story. The bridge between our images and their images is oral language –together with gestures, posture, tone of voice, facial expression, etc- and the visual support you use.

(These definitions are extracted from the book “Improving your storytelling” by Doug Lipman)

Storytelling tips

When we tell a story we must make the most out of our strengths and compensate our weaknesses. Here you will find some ideas on how you can do that:

- Language competence and preparing the story: It is important to prepare the story beforehand, especially for us non-native speakers. When we tell a story to our students we are their model. The input they receive comes from us. This means that we should be sure on how to pronounce every word that comes out from our mouth. To do so we should scan the story a couple of times in case we find words that we haven’t heard before –although usually we know its meaning by context or we have seen it elsewhere- . If this happens there are many tools in the internet called “Text-to-speech” –aka TTS- that you can use. Here’s a good one: http://www.oddcast.com/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal

- Styles: There are many ways in which we can tell a story. We can do it in a dramatic style or didactic, we can tell a story solemnly or encourage the children to participate in some parts, we can use multimedia props or only visual or no props at all. There is no right way. Do what feels natural and right to you!

- Tone of voice: This is the combination of vocal timbre, inflection, modulation or loudness. Together, they convey much of the meaning of the spoken word. Using the appropriate tone of voice in the different moments of the story will help our students understand what’s happening even if they don’t know many of the words coming out of your mouth. 

- Facial expression, gestures and posture: All these also carry a lot of meaning as in most circumstances we rely on them for important information about intention or emotional attitude towards what people say or hear. Body language has a cultural factor that we should also take into account when trying to “read” the response of our audience to our story. Think about it if you have students from another country in you classroom. 

- Orientation in space: Do you sit down on a chair in front of them or on the floor? Do you need to stand up and move? How about your audience? Again, do whatever feels comfortable to you. However, you should know that our position relative to our listeners conveys meaning about our relationship and intention. The same happens in the classroom out of a storytelling context. Putting a table between you and your students suggests that you are distancing yourself from them. Speaking from above seems authoritative like in old secondary classrooms with those platforms. 

- Transitions: When we tell a story and have a book in our hands it is easy to go from one scene to another as turning the page is a clear and visual signal. When we don’t we should make use of our gestures or body language. If two characters are speaking alternatively use different voices and facial expressions. For example: If the Gruffalo is talking to the mouse look down and use a deep voice and then switch to a higher pitch and look up. 

- Pause: Don’t be afraid to use pauses when you tell a story. Pauses allow you to think and react to your audience before going on. Pauses allow the students to absorb what just happened or imagine what’s coming next. Best of all, pauses can be used to cause anticipation. They can also be used to help with a transition from one page to another or from one chapter to another. The absence of a pause when the audience is expecting one can create humour or a sense of urgency. 

- Repetition: It has many uses to storytelling in general. Mainly, to reinforce information and contribute to the rhythm and tempo of the story. Moreover, for us language teachers it is a great resource to support some specific structure or vocabulary, it also helps memorizing or aids with the understanding of the story.  

After all these clues to a good storytelling experience I want to show you an example. In this video you’ll meet Michael Rosen. He’s an excellent children’s author… and storyteller. If you don’t know his “We’re going on a bear hunt” you're missing a great classic. 

Great TED talks about storytelling

Hi there!

I wanted to start by posting three videos that I think you might find interesting to start the topic on storytelling. These are not specifically about the use of stories in the classroom, but they might be useful -and quite amusing- nonetheless.

The first talk is given by the screenwriter of "Toy Story" or "Wall-E" and will give you some ideas on creating good stories. In the second video a Turskish novelist will link the topics of storytelling and overcoming cultural walls. Finally, in the third talk you will meet with a published picture book author who talks about surreal childhoods.

Storytelling talks from real storytellers.