Storytime is a tradition in both public and school libraries. It brings together young and old readers to form a literacy community. When librarians feel comfortable about telling stories it can bring storytime alive. Today, I am going to reflect on my first storytelling experience for this class. I chose the book It’s Hard To Be a Verb by Julia Cook. I wanted to choose a book that I could get excited about and this book did just that. I didn't want my first storytelling experience to be boring so I looked through several books until I decided on this one. I also like the fact that this book is a Mom’s Choice Award winner.
According to Venkat (2020), when storytelling, gestures and movements are a great way to show the character's emotion. Throughout the book, I made gestures and movements to show how frustrated my character was. Something else about this book excited me because there are several rhyming words and repeated phrases throughout the book. I like reading books that contain words that have sound repetitions because they are fun to read as well as listen to. I also chose this book because it goes along with what we have been learning in class. We have been studying about verbs and why they are important. This book went right along with my lesson so I used it as a review of verbs.
This book can also be used to show how difficult it can be to be a student who lives with ADHD. I am an adult that has ADHD so I could easily relate to this story. My son also has ADHD so I really felt like I was reading this story to him, therefore, really connecting with the story. Once I picked the book I wanted to share I had to read it several times. I wanted to make sure I knew the book from front to back so the story would flow with little effort. Being able to read the text smoothly, especially with rhyming words and phrases that may be difficult to say, enhances the listeners' interest.
After I read the book several times and I felt confident in knowing the story I decided to start recording myself while reading. I started and stopped recording several times. Personally, I do not like watching my own videos but I knew I had to watch them if I wanted to get better and grow in this experience. When recording myself, I would get halfway through the book and then mess up on a page and would need to start all over again. I wanted my reading of the book to be perfect but I felt like I was just getting more and more frustrated. I finally had to allow myself to make mistakes throughout the reading of the book so I could go back and learn from my mistakes.
After several attempts at reading the book I finally noticed that when I would make a mistake on a certain part of the book I would definitely remember it the next time. It was like when you study for something but you get one question wrong and you remember that one answer forever. This is when I realized that making an outline would have been a good tool to use. So I went back and made a script and included the parts of the book I wanted to emphasize. Making a script was a great strategy. It helped me remember the important parts of the book I wanted to make sure I shared. Mapping out the story also gave me the chance to bring in parts of the story that I think the students will enjoy.
Below are a list of folktales I've read this week:
Something I will take away from this experience is that I have to invest time in learning the story from front to back. Making connections with the story you are telling helps because it brings out emotion. I connected with this story because I have ADHD, my child has ADHD and I have several students that have this diagnosis. This story showed the human side of this disorder and I felt my students could also connect with it.
What is a Folktale
References
Skill Share Blog. (2022). The narrative technique guide: 25 examples and explanations that’ll make you a better reader and writer. Retrieved from https://www.skillshare.com/en/blog/the-narrative-technique-guide-25-examples-and-explanations-thatll-make-you-a-better-reader-and-writer/
Venkat, S. (2020,May/June). Using oral storytelling techniques in reading sessions. Knowledge Quest.
Theresa, thank you for sharing the rationale behind choosing this book. I really appreciate you sharing the connection you had with the book. I love that the connection is not only to your work life, but also your personal life. I also had to start and stop myself several times when it came to recording. However, I think it is also important for us to maybe try to keep going when we make a mistake. As we know, it can happen when we have people in front of us and we will just have to keep going instead of starting over. It was really a struggle to not have actual students in front of me when doing this read aloud. I appreciate you finding that YouTube video about Folktales. That is something I can add to my resources for my classroom.
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