Storytelling and Teaching
STORIES
Oral Stories are the
building blocks of our communication and education and can easily be called the
best way to learn information. While the right side of the brain uses
creativity and imagination, the left side of the brain engages with the
language and facts. Thus, stories use both sides of our brains, and a well-told
story can fully engage the listener. A story is the quickest and easiest way to
engage students in content and discussions. Because there are myriad benefits to
using storytelling for education, I will cover that in future blog posts.
As an oral storyteller and mother tongue
teacher, I use stories to teach in nearly all my English classes. Every week I
have twenty different lessons with a total of over 80 students. My mother
tongue classes range in size from one to twelve students. All my English mother
tongue classes are held in English, and thus the stories are told in English.
Once a week, I participate in a special World Class project, where we speak
Swedish and tell stories in various languages. I will share more about that
exciting project in a future blog post.
I believe that learning is fun! Recently,
I completed my Master's degree in Storytelling at East Tennessee State
University. I would leave each class full of excitement to share with my
son what I had learned, demonstrating how much I love to impart with others what I learn. In this blog, I will be sharing some of the
stories that I tell with additional activities to build more learning into the
story. Since I believe in learning and sharing with other teachers, I will even
include tips for activities, exercises, and games that I develop, learn, or
collect from other teachers or storytellers.
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