Literacy and Learning Through Talk

Corden, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning Through Talk: Strategies for the Primary Classroom BUCKINGHAM; Open University Press

Good chapter on 'exploratory talk'

Ideal chapter on 'storytelling'
'Through voice and eye gesture the listener is drawn into a story, woven into the tale as a participant, to feel anger, fear, despair and joy. Storytelling is interactive: it moves the listener back and forth from spectator to participant. The storyteller achieves this through inflection, emphasis, cadence, pace, pause and register.'

Could be most relevant in an autistic context?
- Eye contact
- Participation

Start With A Story

Clark, R. & Sylvester, R. (2002) Start with a story: supporting young children's exploration of issues BIRMINGHAM; Development Education Centre

Good examples of how to use stories in context
'The role of the story'

Establishing key foundations of storytelling:
'creating an environment for talk'
'listening and taking turns'
'audience'
'decision making'

Stories for Thinking: Using Stories to Develop Thinking & Literacy

Fisher, R. (2004) 'Stories for Thinking: Using Stories to Develop Thinking and Literacy' in Fisher, R. (2004) Teaching Thinking LONDON; Continuum

Following the opinion that a literate person makes a more 'able child' in comparison to 'less successful learners'. Using stories to create a backbone for social practice, learning rules and life skills from telling stories and looking at their structure.

I think these are relevant to creating a context in which to tell stories, as well as covering the ways in which stories are a base for different types of questioning.

Relates to SEN in the 'community of enquiry' aspect, creating a classroom environment where children can explore a text read to them, or come up with their own oral stories based on previously established community 'boundaries' set up by enquiry and questions.

'by interrogating a text in a community of enquiry children learn that a story usually contains many more questions or problems than they first thought, and that questions (and answers) beget further questions in a dynamic and potentially endless process of enquiry.'

Oral Storytelling within the Context of the Parent-Child Relationship

Cutspec, P. A. (2006) 'Oral Storytelling within the Context of the Parent-Child Relationship' WASHINGTON; Talarin Research Institute (1) 2

Good for establishing foundations of literacy in special needs as well as in the early years - could continued reading and storytelling before school effect not only ability, but willingness to understand in later years?

ABSTRACT
(1) using oral storytelling to build a foundation of motivation for emergent literacy;
(2) using oral storytelling as an approach based on the home environment and parent modeling behaviors.


MAIN
'We emphasize that reading to young children is important for language and literacy growth, but it can be overdone. After several days of too many hours of reading every day, the reading experience might well start to become distasteful for a child.'


'Vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are acquired during interesting conversations with responsive adults. Talking about books, about daily happenings, about what happened at day care or at work not only contributes to children’s vocabularies, but also increases their ability to understand stories and explanations and their understanding of how things work – all skills that will be important in early reading.'


'During the first months and years of life, children’s experiences with language and literacy can begin to form a basis for their later reading success (Bergin, 2001; Burns et al., 1999). Therefore, vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are acquired during interesting conversations with responsive adults - most importantly, parents. The key to building motivation as a foundation for emergent literacy is to keep in mind that knowledge about and love for literacy can develop only through experience.'

LOTS OF RESEARCH INFLUENCED / TAKEN FROM BURKE

Writing As People; Voice, Poetry and the Special Needs Student

Blake, B. E. & Kuhn, S. (1997) 'Writing As People; Voice, Poetry and the Special Needs Student' EDRS; Scottsdale (US)

Good for establishing ideas and linking to literacy through reality. Good case studies of special needs.

ABSTRACT:
'Poetry is a powerful avenue in which students can learn to express their voices and 'write like people'. In the special needs classroom, where students specifically have problems with narrative structure... developing voice through poetry becomes especially crucial.'



POETRY
'poetry, as a special way of knowing can help students to learn about [their] feeling selves, [to] learn how to give audience to others and become members of a culture, to ultimately learn how to use words in the company of others, to reconstruct reality' (Blake, 1990)


'it is precisely because there are fewer or 'no' rules for creative expression, that the structure seems less inhibitive, affording students genuine opportunities to 'control' or to 'own' what they write.'


'because we have not traditionally listened to the voices of special needs students, poetry as a way of knowing and learning affords these students even greater opportunities to teach us about who they are.'

People to look up

Jacqui Harrett

Teresa Cremin

Kieran Egan

Vivian Gussin Paley

Teachers TV - Storytelling in RE

Look at later - has some information on different ways stories can be told.
Inportance of telling not just reading stories.

Storytelling Workshop

Teachers TV - Storytelling for Independence

Includes short section on interactive storytelling.
Could link to social stories - learning key social skills through storytelling rather than mainstream curriculum-based stuff.

Teaching Independence (Special Schools)