How do we tell stories?






The following report of Andrew Wright's storytelling workshop was originally written for the 22nd TESOL Macedonia Thrace Northern Greece Annual International convention and has been cross-posted on their blog.

 Andrew Wright wasn’t wearing his storytelling coat on that Saturday morning, but he was definitely in storytelling mood. His workshop included tips on effective storytelling in our classrooms and of course, he read a few stories too.

But, why do we tell stories?
Andrew Wright believes that stories give motivation, they allow students to experience English instead of just study it, allow for bonding, support the four basic skills, help presenting and re-recycling and springboarding.

 What are stories?
Stories can be real (facts, history, our life) or fiction (oral or written). They are life’s daily stage of events and we are the actors and how we talk, walk and behave is part of the story as well.

How to tell stories?

  • Be clear: Tell your story in such a way so that people can understand you. 
  • Include drama: Struggles (small or big) keep listeners engaged.
  • Be vivid: Describe as well as you can so people can see, hear and feel the story.
  • Commit and give yourself as much as you can.
  • Brainstorm your memories. Provide summary words and phrases. What is the situation? Who is involved? When? Where?
  • Use the five senses: See, hear, smell, taste, touch.
  • Include what you and key people thought, felt, said, did.

When telling a story, put your orchestra of telling to work: Content, words, voice, body, objects and pictures and participation.

 In case of interruptions, cling on to your warm giving instead of introducing harsh negativity. If a book falls down, it can stay there. If two students are talking, walk near them and make eye contact or invite them to tell a story.

 So make your story and try it on a friend. Tell your story based on your sequence summary and time it. Observe the changes you make to your sequence summary and revise it accordingly. It’s better not to write your story in full because this makes it difficult to narrate.

 What is your story?

 Image credits: Dimitris Tzouris CC BY-NC-SA Flickr & Dimitris Tzouris CC BY-SA Tumblr

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can you hear that? Practice speaking and listening using free tools

Image
Listen. How often do you listen? Especially to your own voice? For those learning a foreign language, speaking is a core skill and technology has made it really easy to practice speaking and listening back to our own voice. ESL learners are lucky, since most of the apps available today were made for English. It is, after all,  the language used in over 55% of the Internet. Practice speaking and listen to your voice It is very important for language learners to be able to listen to their own voice, since it helps them improve their pronunciation and intonation, both extremely important in verbal communication. There are many ways they can record their voice, play it back and share the recording with their teacher, relatives and friends. You could also do the same and share your voice comments with them. Using a mobile device iOS devices come equipped with the Voice Memo app, which allows easy recording and sharing via email or other apps, such as Dropbox. There ar
More »

Time to tame online video

Image
I bet you watch a lot of video on the web - either for leisure or for work. Apart from streaming services I use at home, I usually watch a TED Talk when I have lunch at work and I usually include a video explainer in my training workshops. From what I’ve seen so far, I can quite safely assume that nearly all teachers show videos to their students almost daily. Talks, documentaries, animations, explainers and music are all in your quiver of professional EdTech tools. It is also safe to assume that many times you have wished you had more control over how YouTube and video on the web in general behaves, sparing you all those uncomfortable moments. Stop autoplay How many times have you felt embarrassed in front of your students or audience when a video started playing automatically? Remember looking anxiously for the tab with the little speaker icon, trying pause playback? Many websites use autoplay to draw you into their content. Some (like Facebook) allow you to change the
More »

All you need is Chrome

Image
This post is as a sneak peek of the presentation I did at the 23rd TESOL Macedonia Thrace Northern Greece International Annual Convention, on March 26, 2016 and was originally published on the TESOLMTh e-bulletin. Computers have made it a lot easier to organize our work, do research and enhance teaching by incorporating creativity tools. The web has added flexibility and collaboration to the mix. Chrome is a web browser that brings everything together: Research, Collaboration, Productivity and Creativity. All this is achieved by both using the browser’s features and by adding third-party apps. Not like those on our smartphones, but web apps that bring additional features and functionality. Everything syncs like magic Got a new computer? Good for you! Been using Chrome? Once you log into Chrome on your shiny new laptop using your Google account, something wonderful happens. Have you witnessed it? All your preferences, your bookmarks, your saved forms and passwo
More »