IN THE BEGINNING...
By Raquel Narca for Storytelling Philippines
Teaching reading is a dynamic activity. In a kindergaten classroom, I integrate the target lesson for the day, play, critical thinking, creativity, and values formation with our daily story reading. Using books and storytelling in the classroom is literature-based teaching.
Photo credit from Raquel Narca
My first two weeks of a literature-based teaching in the classroom is the getting to know each other stage. I usually start with my favorite children’s books. My “favorite” because these are the books that preschool children easily like and enjoy. And with all honesty, these are my favorites because these books are easy, enjoyable to use in the classroom and makes storytelling more fun for me as a teacher. Children gets curious and excited knowing about their teacher. By experience, I gain children’s trust when I make them see me as a regular person rather than an authority in the classroom.
When I show, tell, and share with them my favorite book, I usually get mixed reactions, such as
“I have that book, too.”--- this is my chance to tell them how enjoyable reading is and having another child that is exposed to reading, it is easier to promote and encourage the love for reading.
“I don’t like story/reading.”--- I very much welcome this kind of response and any other aversion to reading because this is my chance to tell the child that it is okay to not like a story and that we have a journey together in finding a story he/she will like in the future. With reading, I usually tell them that for now, I will be the one reading and there will be audiobooks and videos that we can watch to fully enjoy a particular story. This is also my chance to give them an overview that there will be games and other fun activities before or after we read a story.
“But, you’re old, that’s a kid’s book.” ---this response always give me a big smile. This is my chance to tell them about myself, on how I was like a child like them a long, long time ago, on how I don’t know how to read and my struggles to be able to read and on finally, I’ll be able to become a teacher and now helping children to be readers and book lovers.
In the second week, I select stories based on interviews with the children and parents, and from the reactions I gathered in the first week of classes. The two weeks help me to revised my plans. I usually rearranged the order of presentation of the stories. Sometimes, I have to vary my methods of storyreading and storytelling in order to fully engaged the children with our classroom activities.
Here are my Ten Favorite Books
· If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff / Illustrated by Felicia Bond
· Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle
· Big Al by Andrew Clements Yoshi
· Guess Who I am...a fold-out animal surprise book by Phoebe Dunn
· Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus/ Pictures by Jose Aruego
· Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
· From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
· Nobody’s Hat by Nati A. Santos/Illustrated by Ferdinand R. Doctolero
· A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
· Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough
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How to Cite This Web Page
Narca, Raquel. "In The Beginning...". Accessed [put the date when you accessed this page]. Available from http://www.storytellingphilippines.com/2016/06/in-the-beginning.html
Original Story Copyright June 2016
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