Storytelling is a powerful tool that early childhood educators can use to connect stories to children’s lived reality and spark discussion in the classroom. In addition to the stories themselves, post-telling discussions (i.e., the talk that takes place following the telling of the story) are essential when sharing oral stories with young children, as they assist in aiding comprehension (Cox, 2015). In addition, these discussions can help support young children’s memory and cognition by communicating narrative structure, probing conversation, and posing challenging questions for them to answer (Irena et al., 2021). Sometimes, navigating a successful post-telling discussion can be difficult, but there are techniques teachers can use to facilitate these discussions successfully.
When planning for a post-telling discussion, teachers should, for example, remember the components of CROWD (see Lonigan & Whitehurst, 1998):
Completion focuses on sentence completion related to story details. Trailing off or stopping at the end of a sentence allows children to remember specific details about the story. Incorporating words and phrases from the telling allows children to remember specific aspects of the story, thereby helping to assist memory retention.
Recall involves asking questions related to key elements of the story. Challenging children to recall moments of the story can assist memory and cognition.
Open-ended prompts emphasize asking questions after the storytelling that allows for conversation and interpretation.
‘W’ represents ‘wh-questions,’ asking who-what-where-when-why-how questions. Wh-questions can be used to expand on children’s vocabulary as well as enhance comprehension skills and sentences by encouraging children to formulate open-ended questions.
Distancing prompts are questions that allow children to draw connections between the story and their own lives.
Incorporating other activities into post-telling discussions further assists children’s processing of information, with opportunities to bring in art, movement, and music. Suggestions for post-telling discussion that go beyond conversation include:
Response Drawings support children's memory. The purpose of these drawings is to allow the child to freely express their opinions and feelings about the story being told in a form other than discussion. These drawings are usually prompted after the storytelling and can be done individually or in small groups.
Sound and rhythm involves incorporating or creating music as a way of extending the storytelling interaction. For example, a teacher might alter popular song lyrics to match the content or lesson of the story, and then teach the song to the class.
Science lessons can be connected to the story shared. This can be done by bringing objects to class related to the storytelling discussions or venturing to locations that are new and related lessons being taught. This might look like sharing a story about a garden and then bringing in a garden item such as a flower, rock, or bucket into class to familiarize children with these items.
Dispersing post-telling discussions throughout the day is another technique teachers can use to support children’s retention of story details and lessons learned. For example, a teacher might start a discussion directly after story telling, then take a break for other activities unrelated to the conversation. However, later in the day after other activities occur, the teacher may return to discussing the story.
CROWD strategies can also be implemented into these activities as well.
Post-oral storytelling discussions help ground children’s analytical and comprehension skills through conversation, interaction, and activities. By applying these tips and techniques to post-telling discussions, teachers will be able to facilitate rich conversation and support children’s comprehension and memorization skills.
Ruby Riess is a junior in the Applied Psychology program at New York University
References
Cox, J. (2015, August 18). Storytelling in the classroom as a teaching strategy. Teach Hub. Retrieved from https://www.teachhub.com/classroom-activities/2015/08/ storytelling-in-the-classroom-as-a-teaching-strategy/
Maureen, I. Y., van der Meij, H., & de Jong, T. (2021). Evaluating storytelling activities for early literacy development. International Journal of Early Years Education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.1933917
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69(3), 848–872. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06247.x