Storytelling Reflection (Post #5 - Interactive Storytelling)

There Was An Enthusiastic Audience...

Calandro, L. (2017). There was an old lady who swallowed a bat! Cartwheel Books.

    The inspiration for my final storytelling selection came about by discussing this course with a coworker as we monitored student dismissal at school. She invited me to read a story with one of the kindergarten groups she sees on a daily basis as part of the RTI program. The teacher had already read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves with her students during the previous week and suggested that I consider reading a different version of the story with them - emphasizing a connection to the previous story, predictable story patterns, and rhyme scheme. After acquiring the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat; I planned the storytelling lesson. I practiced reading the story several times before meeting with the students. Although nothing about reading the story by myself could prepare me for the energy and enthusiasm that the students would have for my visit to their small group class.

    To say that these students were so excited and ready to read is an understatement. The energy in the room was palpable, after all, it was Friday, Boosterthon week, and two days before Halloween! I had to edit out almost 4 minutes of excited chatter, seat changes, and general discussion from the beginning of the video. The room where we met is so narrow that I had trouble arranging the camera in a way that would guarantee that the children's faces could not be seen. That is why there is a pumpkin clipart image on the right side of the video. It is blocking one of the student's faces as she enthusiastically rocks in and out of view of the camera throughout the session.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this storytelling experience. The students were engaged and seemed to enjoy the storytelling. Although there were some gaps in understanding of the patterns; overall the students were able to make connections to the previous reading and answer many of the questions we asked during the discussion after the reading.

If I were to do this lesson again, I think I might use props to tell this story as opposed to reading it from the book. Additionally, I could show the book's pages using an ELMO projector while holding up props. I think that children would enjoy that additional element. There are many resources for supplemental materials related to this book series available online. I have linked some below:

Omazing Kids Yoga - Free Printable Story Props (PDF)    (Original Omazing Kids Yoga Blog Post)

Teachers Pay Teachers - Search results for free resources

Etsy -  Storytelling "Old Lady" Storytelling Resources for Purchase

This week's readings:

Alexander, K. How to read a book. (2019). Harper Collins.

Carthew, M. (2013). Footprints on the moon. Teacher Created Materials.

Elliott, Z. (2020). A place inside of me: A poem to heal the heart. Farrar Strauss Giroux. Books for Young Readers.

Scott, J. I talk like a river. (2020). Neal Porter Books.

Sidman, J. (2014). Winter bees and other poems of the cold. HMH Books.

Image credits: All images are the creation of the blog author with the exception of book covers which were sourced via Amazon.com