
Introduce stories and a brief history of storytelling through a journey to a storytelling tree, exploring storytelling eggs and childhood emotions to engage learners.
Explore how stories permeate everyday life—from movies and songs to classroom lessons—tracing storytelling from cave paintings to ancient Greece and classic tales like Hansel and Gretel.
Trace storytelling's evolution from cave paintings and oral traditions to photography, television, and video games. Show how social media serves as a time capsule for narratives while sequencing remains key.
Develop essential storytelling tools: eye contact, voice modulation, facial expressions, and body language, while emphasizing the story, the listener, and the teller to engage audiences with dramatic pauses.
Explore the essential elements of a story, including setting, plot, and the motivations behind action. See how protagonists face conflict, with a problem and a solution concluded in a storyboard.
Explore the story arc, also known as the story pyramid, as Gustav Freytag’s chronological plot structure—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement.
Explore story structure through the three little pigs, tracing exposition, the enticing incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution as a teacher narrates and engages listeners.
Discover how props and puppets enliven classroom storytelling, using colorful objects as physical metaphors while mindful selection considers audience age, prop count, and impact on the story.
Explore various puppetry props and types, including stick, hand, sock, box, and finger puppets, with practical movement tips and hands-on guidance for storytelling tools like flash cards and story dice.
Explore call and response patterns—leader and chorus, and question and answer—and pourquoi origin stories as classroom storytelling techniques.
Explore drawing stories by narrating as you draw, with demonstrations like I love sailing and Timmy's house, and discover classroom applications to engage students.
Draw a board picture in primary stories, have students fill the missing rhyme, and erase the corresponding portion for a playful demonstration of dream away rhymes.
Demonstrate change stories, or cumulative tales, through a rhyming chain story and musical demo, showing how chain stories teach sequencing, vocabulary, and reading and numeracy skills.
Explore finger stories narrated with hand puppets, like the story of Silly and Billy, to spark imagination, solve problems, and build creative and critical thinking through interactive storytelling and call-and-response.
Explore musical stories that combine narrative with song to boost cognitive, social, emotional, motor language, and literacy skills and school readiness, using Pete the Cat and color progression.
Explore how storytelling engages the brain through neural coupling and narrative transport, boosting empathy and theory of mind, and why storytelling in classrooms and homes nurtures compassion.
Story listening activates auditory and left temporal language areas, engages frontal and parietal lobes, stirs hormonal responses like cortisol and oxytocin, and enhances recall and emotional connection.
Explores how storytelling strengthens social and emotional awareness, empathy, and literacy in young children in the classroom, helping them understand emotions, connect with others, and expand their world through narrative.
Tell stories you love with enthusiasm, using props and expressive voice to engage young children; structure the tale with a clear plot and takeaway, and practice regularly.
ASSESSMENT
Stories have a unique ability to capture the attention and stimulate the brain of a child. By crafting a gripping tale with twists and suspense, children become engrossed and eager to learn. Imagine if we could combine these storytelling skills with exemplary characters, extraordinary situations, and important lessons, both moral and academic. The power of storytelling can be harnessed in pedagogy, leading to improved learning outcomes.
To help educators develop the necessary competencies to teach children through stories, the STTAR self-paced learning course on the Art of Storytelling has been designed. This e-learning module is broad in scope and highly engaging, with a focus on helping teachers understand the impact of stories on children. By learning about the elements and types of stories, educators can create interesting story arcs and maps that will lead to greater student engagement in lessons.
The Art of Storytelling course is a must-have for educators who wish to improve their teaching methods and achieve better learning outcomes. The module provides a comprehensive overview of the power of storytelling in education and equips teachers with the skills needed to create compelling stories that captivate their students. By utilizing the techniques learned in the course, educators can create a more dynamic and engaging learning environment, leading to better understanding and retention of information.
In conclusion, the STTAR self-paced learning course on the Art of Storytelling is an essential tool for educators who want to improve their teaching methods. By incorporating storytelling into lessons, teachers can capture their students' attention and create a more engaging learning environment. This will result in better learning outcomes, improved retention of information, and ultimately, a more successful educational experience for both teachers and students.