Our evidence-based tip sheets for early childhood professionals break topics down into two parts: theory (Introducing It) and practice (Applying It). This set of tip sheets explores storytelling/story acting as a way to help children build language and social-emotional skills. Many early childhood educators make use of stories in their classrooms, whether reading from a book or sharing stories spontaneously. Storytelling/story acting is a special teaching strategy that harnesses the educational power of stories. Our tip sheets explain how to do it and why it works.
Introducing It: Using Storytelling/Story Acting in the Early Childhood Classroom explains the strategy and the science behind it.
Applying It: Storytelling/Story Acting in the Early Childhood Classroom gives examples of how this strategy works in practice.
References
Below is a list of resources referenced in Introducing It: Using Storytelling/Story Acting in the Early Childhood Classroom.
- Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the Squid. Harper Collins.
- Bamkin, M. Goulding, A. and Maynard, S. (2013) The children sat and listened: storytelling on children’s mobile libraries. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, 9(1), 47-48. doi.org/10.1080/13614541.2013.755023
- Mardell, B. (2013). Boston Listens: Vivian Paley’s Storytelling/Story Acting in an Urban School District. New England Reading Association Journal, 49(1), 58–67. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5771608c414fb5bdf8e68072/t/57716935f66fa7d0817d8ac4/1431708604597/BostonListensPaley.pdf
- Cooper, P. M. (2009). The Classrooms All Young Children Need: Lessons in Teaching from Vivian Paley. The University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo7994597.html
- Sachs, J., Mardell, B., & Boni, M. (2014). Storytelling, story acting, and literacy in the Boston Public Schools. American Journal of Play, 6(2), 173–189. https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/03/6-2-interview-storytelling-story-acting-and-literacy_0.pdf
- Goldin‐Meadow, S. (2009). How gesture promotes learning throughout childhood. Child Development Perspectives, 3(2), 106–111. doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2009.00088.x
- Eiteljoerge, S. F., Adam, M., Elsner, B., & Mani, N. (2019). Word-object and action-object association learning across early development. PLOS ONE, 14(8). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220317
- Forrest, S. (2019). Study: gestures help students learn new words in different languages. Illinois News Bureau. news.illinois.edu/view/6367/745146#:~:text=%E2%80%9CVisualizing%20a%20gesture%20with%20each,a%20time%2C%20the%20researchers%20found
- Cook, S. W., Mitchell, Z., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 1047–1058. doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.04.010
- Babayiğit, S., Roulstone, S., & Wren, Y. (2021). Linguistic comprehension and narrative skills predict reading ability: A 9‐year longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 148-168. doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12353
- Snow, C.E, Burns, M.S., & Griffin, P. (1998) Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
- Cooper, P. M., Capo, K., Mathes, B., & Gray, L. (2007). One authentic early literacy practice and three standardized tests: can a storytelling curriculum measure up? Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 28(3), 251–275. doi.org/10.1080/10901020701555564
- Milenova, M. (2020, November 23). Fundamentals of authentic assessment. Center for Early Education and Development. https://ceed.umn.edu/fundamentals-of-authentic-assessment/
- Blohowiak, C. (2017, April 12). Setting the stage for learning. CEHD Connect. College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. https://connect.cehd.umn.edu/setting-the-stage-for-learning/.
- Reese, M. H. T. & Meuwissen, A., (2023, September). Evaluation report: Creative Play, spring 2023. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Early Education and Development, University of Minnesota.