Storytelling with Children Second Edition 2009: Some Notes for Reviewers From the Author
Andrew Wright, Hungary
Andrew Wright lives in Godollo, Hungary, near Budapest. Andrew and his wife Julia run a private language school in Godollo and Budapest doing mainly company teaching. Julia is the director of the company. Andrew spends most of his time writing books and travelling in order to work with teachers. Andrew’s books include: ‘Games for Language Learning’. CUP, ‘Creating Stories with Children’. OUP, ‘1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy’. Longman Pearson, ‘Writing Stories’. Helbling Languages. E-mail:andrew@ili.hu, www.andrewarticlesandstories.wordpress.com
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My perception of the new edition is new or modified…
My perception of what remains essentially the same…
Some quotations about the first edition of Storytelling with Children.
Review of the first edition by Betty Rosen.
Betty Rosen
- This is a genuine new edition with at least 50% of the content changed.
- Of the 18 stories and lesson plans 13 are new. The new ones were partly chosen to increase the variety of cultural origin, partly to increase the type of storytelling involved e.g. more mime and action drawing based stories. (Pages 62 to 133)
- The unique ‘store of activities’ which can be used with any story helps teachers to devise activities for stories which they might find elsewhere. This section has been enriched and made clearer to use with activities gathered under ‘purposes’.
(Pages 31 to 62)
- The guidelines section is the clearest addition in the new edition. Each of the guideline sub sections is designed to introduce the ideas behind different types of activities which can be related to the use of stories. Some of these sub sections are simple, practical techniques related to stories, for example, ways of writing poems and of chanting, ways of using music, ways of dramatising. There are also sub sections which offer practical suggestions for how stories can be placed at the centre of language learning for example, Cross-curricular topics and stories, Making a storyline.
(Pages 133 to 179)
- A wide range of language proficiency levels is catered for with special attention given to how children with a low language proficiency level in English can be helped to understand the stories and to respond to them reflectively and expressively:
(pages 11 to 13, page 21, page 34 to 37, and others)
The characteristics which earned Storytelling with Children such acclaim and placed it in the category of ‘classic’ resource book for teachers of children have been kept. There is…
- a rich and practical section of suggestions for how to tell and to read stories successfully (pages 9 to 31)
- the store of activities (pages 31 to 62)
- the section of stories and lesson plans (pages 62 to 133)
’Andrew’s book changed the whole way I went about doing stories and reading with YLs, especially VYLs and the early primary grades.’
Jason Renshaw
’I got a heady inspiration for the art of storytelling with my nose wedged firmly in Andrew Wrights, Storytelling with Children’ (Oxford)
Jason Renshaw 8 May 2006 Englishraven2003@yahoo.com.au
Storytelling with Children had a profound effect on my teaching and philosophy with YLs
Jason Renshaw email 17 October 2006 englishraven2003@yahoo.com.au
’Andrews storytelling book is great for ideas’
Jackie jemery@ihenglish.net
Your book is extremely helpful and full of interesting ideas for teachers to develop the art of storytelling in their classrooms.
Jackie Emery, International House, Terrassa, Spain. jemery@ihenglish.net
A more permanent and cost-effective solution is to fill school libraries with English books and tapes that are truly interesting as well as comprehensible. We do not acquire language by ‘practising speaking’. Study after study shows that we acquire language by reading and listening, when we get thoroughly involved in interesting stories.
Stephen Krashen, Ph D. Professor Emeritus, Univ of Southern California.
I don’t quite know where the quote came from but we can write to him and ask him if we can use it.
…the stories were wonderful. I lent my copy to someone who didn’t return it. She returned all of the other books but not that one. I also know that many of the teachers with whom I work have found it to be a ‘bible’ of sorts.
Caroline Linse clines@aol.com
Your book has been one of the most used books in my library…
Karen Widl widlke@aston.ac.uk IATEFL YL events secretary
This review was published in Society for Storytelling newsletter dated Winter 1995 Vol 2 No 3.
Storytelling with Children in the Oxford English Resource Books for Teachers series, ed. Alan Maley. Pp 220, price 8.30 pounds
This book is aimed very specifically at teachers of English as a Second Language (a roaring industry this, undertaken by both gifted, highly trained specialists and all sorts of nondescript Toms, Dicks and Harriettes, all of whom should find this book a really excellent resource, particularly those who need to be made aware of the necessity for imaginative, rather than pedestrian, involvement in the teaching and learning of another language). Having said that, as with all good E2L teaching, there is a very great deal here that is of value to any would-be or actual storytelling teacher. And professional storytellers going into schools would also find much of this book attractive, since the best of them ensure that their own performances meet the gestalt of on-going education process.
The style is consistently user-friendly and everything is made crystal clear. Wright provides a concise justification for the use of stories, whether told (this has most flair) or read aloud, with a warning that any language focus should never be allowed to stifle the magic of the story. He offers invaluable help to the novice teller, with tips covering even such practicalities as what to do when a class is noisy or how to cope with interruption. There is a veritable treasure chest of ideas for activity before, during and after the telling, at different levels, ranging from making a video to the most simple responses during a telling. The largest section provides stories and detailed lesson plans illustrating the various possible activities he has outlined earlier. He shows how stories may be linked to topic work and (very particularly for the E2L teacher) how grammar may be addressed through stories and finally a section of further ideas: all of this dripping with tales, familiar and less known.
Andrew Wright can teach us all – there is much wisdom in this book. My only criticism would be that it takes a perceptive eye to differentiate between its imaginative insights and its more superficial pragmatisms.
Betty Rosen is well known for her books on storytelling in education. ‘And None of it was Nonsense’ and ‘Shapers and Polishers’ and as an educational thinker and storyteller. She is a former teacher and a member of the SforS education sub-committee.
The Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course can be viewed here
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