Free Choice Storytelling Reflection
Before Reading
I will admit
I am probably one of the most indecisive people on the planet! That being said,
I had a super difficult time choosing a book to read for this storytelling
experience since there were no parameters on the assignment. It was very
overwhelming to think about what to choose because there are so many amazing
books out there, and the longer I’m in this course the more books I add to my
list because people are constantly sharing great books in their read alouds and
blogs! I decided a good place to start was to look through the books I had
considered but hadn’t chosen for previous assignments. I also had to think
about what type of storytelling experience I wanted to choose: with a book,
without a book, with props, interactive, etc. After a lot of thought, I decided
I would do an interactive storytelling experience because it was so much fun to
do on an earlier assignment. Once I narrowed down the type of storytelling I
wanted to do, it wasn’t too difficult to choose a book. I had two books I had
put on my interactive read aloud list: More
Bears! By Kenn Nesbitt and Kiwi
Cannot Reach by Jason Tharp. After rereading the books, I decided on More Bears! because I thought the
audience I would be reading to would enjoy that book more since.
As I began
planning my storytelling experience I thought I would read to my group of
second graders. They are generally a fun audience and LOVE read alouds.
However, as things often do in elementary school, the week turned hectic,
schedules were shifted, interruptions happen, and it didn’t work out for me to
read to my second graders. Now I had to come up with a new audience. I knew I
could always read to someone at home and make them pretend to be children, but
it is definitely more fun to read to real children (and sometimes children are
more cooperative than grownups J ). After a little juggling of my lesson plans and
schedule, I decided I would try reading to a group of my upper elementary students.
They are a little older than the audience I originally thought would enjoy the
book, but I was down to the wire if I wanted a live audience so decided to go
for it.
Preparing
for the storytelling had two main parts: preparing the reading of the story and
preparing the physical environment. I read through the book multiple times and
also did a little research on the author to give background. I read the book
multiple times to myself and practice using expression and getting the flow of
the book. Setting up the space was not difficult because I was using a space I
had used multiple times before. I just had to position my rolling desk in the
right spot so that those watching the video would clearly be able to see the
book and me, but no students could be seen in the video. It took a little
adjusting because there were more students in this group than I had used in the
past. I also needed to check the lighting. I made sure all the lights were on
in the room and looked at the image on the screen. There was a little glare
where the blinds were cracked so I closed the blinds, and we were ready to go. I use my laptop for videoing because I have
found it to be the easiest method. After videoing I can edit if needed and save
it to the laptop to easily upload to Youtube. The last thing that needed to be
done before reading the book was choose someone to start the camera.
The Storytelling
Reading the
story was tons of fun. I had practiced multiple times so I felt very confident
as I sat down to read. I shared some information about the author to give the
students a little background and also explained how I needed them to help me
tell the story by reading the words in the speech bubbles. As I read the story
the students interacted beautifully. There was one moment when someone came to
the door (I forgot to hang my do not disturb sign up), and one of the students
had to quietly slip out and answer the door. Luckily we have glass doors so I
could see who was there, and she was able to tell them to come back in a few
minutes. After that brief interruption, we finished up the story without
incident.
After Reading Reflections
Although I
had a little difficulty deciding on a story to tell and my audience didn’t work
out as I had planned, overall it ended up being an excellent storytelling
experience. The book I ended up choosing was a lot of fun to tell because it
was a silly story. Although I intended to read it to a younger audience, the
older audience I read it to really liked it. They laughed and giggled through
the whole experience and did an amazing job with reading the speech bubbles on
the different pages. It was nice to see them engaged in the story throughout-
even with the surprise ending. After this storytelling experience I think I
could definitely read this book to an older elementary audience like I did, and
it would be suitable for a first or second grade audience as well.
After
completing the storytelling experience I thought of a few ways I could extend
the experience. We could talk about what animals they think there should be
more of in books and why. I could also have students write about what animals
they would pick and depending on the age have them give reasons. In fact, on a
different day, I read the book to a group of first graders and had them write a
sentence about what animal they would want more of in the book and why. Then
they were allowed to illustrate. With older students I could have them write a
paragraph with 3 reasons and still allow them to illustrate. I considered that
in a library setting I would do things a little differently. I could have a
list of animals along with a fairly simple craft to create those animals (such
as using a paper plate or paper bag). The students could choose which of the
animals on my list they would like to see more and then complete the craft to
create that animal. Overall, this was a great experience and one that I plan to
add to my toolbox for when I have my own library.
Nonfiction Read Aloud Recommendations
This week I read a selection of nonfiction picture books. There are so many excellent books out there, but I chose just a few to share with you.
Susan,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was very thorough, and I could picture the whole experience. I am also a very indecisive person and agree that fewer parameters make some decisions much harder but in the same breath, I will complain about the limitations if there are any. This sounds like a complaint from all teachers about their students.
Working in a school means nothing will go off without a hitch. I also wanted to read to an audience, but schedules did not work out as we had a school activity on the day and recorded so I just recorded things after school. I deal with iPad problems and there are usually a few problems each day. There are also a few additional offices in the library that students come and go out of that also cause interruptions.
It has also fascinated me how many additional ideas come to mind after an experience. Each reading is slightly different, and each class asks a different set of questions. Teaching is so rewarding, and no day is every the same. Great job with your blog.
Hi Susan,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your step by step account of this story time! There are so many things that can affect a story time whether they are big things like having to find a new audience, or small things like a tiny crack in the blinds messing with the lighting. I appreciated that you went through all the hurdles and how to worked around them. Sometimes story time is a simple affair and other times it feels like everything is stacked against us! I also tended to think of additional ideas after I finished story time and tried to write them down in a notebook I could refer to in case I get the opportunity to read that story again. I'm not sure if my career will take me down the children's librarian route, but I want to be prepared just in case! Thanks for sharing so many great tips!
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI, too, was very indecisive in choosing a book. I felt like I had too much to make a selection from. And, yes, I need guidelines for everything. I thrive on following directions and need those boundaries that most people hate. I think that writers/ authors these days are so creative and illustrators do an amazing job bringing the words to life, it so hard to hone in on a few really good books for this assignment.
I am glad that you chose to read to a real audience of children. I don’t have any of my own and can be tricky to squeeze in the time that it takes to set up recording with the kiddos at school. Plus, there is always a kid who loves to be a distraction because they know they are being recorded. If I had kids of my own, or the opportunity to snag a friend’s or relative’s, I would use them in all of my storytelling experiences because I need to feed off of their curiosity throughout the story. I can ask questions (and get great responses) and we can have great conversations about the story, sometimes taking us in a completely different direction than anticipated.
You did a great job with your recording and with your insightful blog post this week.
Kelly Justice