Promoting Language via Oral

Storytelling

Trina D. Spencer, PhD, BCBA-D University of South Florida

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WHY? WHAT? HOW?

Narrative (aka story) – monologic telling or

retelling of a specific event, real or fantasy;

causally related events told in sequence

WHY?

Why Oral Storytelling?

• Families from all SES groups use oral storytelling. Do not need to be literate or to have access to books.
• Oral stories are more likely to be child friendly, personally relevant, and culturally grounded.
• Oral storytelling reduces the need for background knowledge needed to understand the story.
• Adults naturally use more sophisticated talk during oral storytelling than they do in shared book reading.
• Oral storytelling allows for more intimate talk around emotions.
• Children whose parents encouraged this type of storytelling have fewer behavior problems and better social skills.
• Oral stories are flexible, adjustable, and developmentally appropriate.
• Easier to repeat which increases the impact on language production and comprehension skills.

COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

FOR

English Language Arts &

Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects

• Identify and express mental states and emotions of self and others.

INTRODUCTION

Strong academic oral language is critical for bolstering students’ success in school. Most state educational standards (e.g., Common Core State Standards) include objectives for speaking and listening in addition to reading and writing. These language-based skills are highly interrelated and essential for academic success. Students who do not have an adequate oral language foundation have considerable difficulty meeting academic expectations. Story Champs was developed to systematically and explicitly promote oral language as the foundation to success in school. In Story Champs, academic language is fostered primarily through listening to and producing oral narratives (stories), but informational discourse is also addressed. The organizational structures and complexity of the language used in narratives and informational discourse reflect the sophistication of language that students must read and write in school. Strengthening academic language via oral narratives can facilitate growth in other academic skills such as recalling and sharing information, acquiring word meanings through context, expanding domain knowledge, producing more advanced writing, and comprehending text.

ORAL NARRATIVE LANGUAGE

• Eye contact
• Emotions
• Turn taking
• Problem solving
• Theory of mind
• Protection

WHAT?

Narratives contain…

• Story grammar: character, problem, feeling, action, and ending
• Complex language: because, so that, when, after
• Modifiers
• Vocabulary: less common, but useful words

Sample Story

Yesterday, Nola was playing on the playground. Some of the children started to make fun of her. Nola felt sad because her friends were being mean. She talked to her teacher about it. Her patient teacher said, “I will talk to them.” After Nola’s teacher talked to the children, they apologized. Nola was happy they said they were sorry.

HOW?

• Start with easy stories & build toward more difficult storytelling tasks.
• Use many different stories rather than repeat the same story on consecutive sessions.
• Model child-relevant stories with all the story grammar elements.
• Have children retell the stories using all the story grammar elements.

Encourage Spillover

• Drawing, dictating, and writing
• Take home telling
• Shared story book reading
• Draw attention to students’ use of complex sentences
• Use the new words intentionally in other contexts
• Encourage children to use and define new words
• Use story grammar to promote social emotional health
• Use story grammar framework to teach problem solving

Comprehension Assessment of Story Comprehension

Carlos and the Big Hill

You are going to listen to a story. It is called Carlos and the Big Hill.

1. What was Carlos doing in this story?
2. Why was Carlos sad?
3. What happened next?
4. Why do you think Carlos's mom gave him a hug?
5. What happened at the end of the story?
6. The next time Carlos rides his bike, do you think he will go down a big hill? Why / Why not?
7. What does injure mean?

When Carlos rode past his neighbor’s house, he started going down a big hill. Then Carlos’ bike hit a bump in the sidewalk. He fell off his bike and injured his arm. Carlos cut his arm on the rough ground.

Carlos was sad.

His mom gently cleaned his cut. Then she put a bandage on his arm. After Carlos got a bandage, his mom gave him a hug. He asked his mom if she would watch him ride his new bike. She said, “Of course. I want to watch you, but don’t injure yourself again.” Carlos rode his bike so well that his mom clapped and cheered for him.