A Stories For Young Learners Reflection

By
Zalman Fitrie Bin Othman
800905-01-5641
TESL 3
There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.
Doris Lessing
Teachers have long known that the arts can contribute to student academic success
and emotional well being. The ancient art of storytelling is especially well-suited for student
exploration. As a folk art, storytelling is accessible to all ages and abilities. No special
equipment beyond the imagination and the power of listening and speaking is needed to
create artistic images.
As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their unique
expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in
an articulate, lucid manner. These benefits transcend the art experience to support daily life
skills. In our fast-paced, media-driven world, storytelling can be a nurturing way to remind
children that their spoken words are powerful, that listening is important, and that clear
communication between people is an art.
Storytelling is

the

conveying

of

events

in words,

and images,

often

by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture

as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values.
Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters, and narrative point of
view. That what I have learnt in this semester LGA3103 Stories For Young Learners.
Listening to a story is far apart by being a good story teller. One must have a specific
skill set in order for him to ensure the story telling session has met it objectives. When telling
a story, an effective storyteller demonstrates the following traits observable by the pupils. A
good story teller must learn these criteria which are voice mechanics, facial expression,
focus, characterization, use of space and pacing. Its not easy for me as to make a straight
face as I mimic the characters in the story in front of my peers. It takes a lot of courage and
determination for me to stand beyond them with our lecturer on the side jotting down marks
and scribbling down only-god-knows comments.

Our second task for this course was actually to choose a story suitable for a 5 to 7
minute storytelling session for Year 1, 2 or 3 pupils. We were also to provide with suitable
and related props to aid our story telling session. What important is that, we had to use the
strategies and relevant techniques that we have learnt throughout this course.
As a good story teller, we have to speak with an appropriate volume for the audience
to hear and really employ clear enunciation. We must remember also to uses nonmonotonous, vocal expression to clarify the meaning of the text. For me, I have tried to
follow this aspect in few parts of the story I told. As for facial expression, teacher has to
expressively use non-verbal communication to clarify the meaning of the text. Not many
expression for this story apart from surprised and shocked. However, I have tried made few
expression hopefully will give some impression to the listener.
Eye contact was also important. It maintains a charismatic presence in space (stage
presence). I was lucky at the time because most of my colleagues had gone for recess, left
me with few sets of eyes to focus on. Lucky. As the concentration is clear, the eye contact
with audience was engaging.
To have a great characterization, a teacher must have a great sense of mimicking the
characters. If dialogue is employed, characters are believable to listener. Storyteller's natural
voice is differentiated from character voices. Voice-wise, I wasnt able to do so due to sore
throat, but I did try nevertheless, but with no avail to make a lasting impression like the other
story teller before me.
I cant say that I was satisfied with my session purely because I wasnt completely
ready for the session. I wasnt anybody fault but yours truly. Started out trembling, but I have
to focus in order for me to convey the story. Thought The shoemaker and the elves was an
easy story to tell, but it wasnt, based on the ghastly feedback from my peers after the
session. I learnt that, a good prep and remembering all the words is essential, or otherwise
you will start to stutter and stumble in speech impediment.
It was the longest 6.45 minutes in my life. I just hope that the workshop apron, the
shoes I borrowed, a bigger-than-it-was-supposed-to-be elves photo and the flamboyant
name tag would be my savior for scrapping some of the 40% of the assigned mark of the
task. And of course, will be more prepared next time. However, I have learnt a lot and lot
more to learn.

Everyone seems to get these days that storytelling is important, because were
awash in data and information and cant remember it all. But we do remember
stories.