c. Storytelling, drama and role play
Activity i
The video on Storytelling from the University of Greenwich has an example of an inspirational professional storyteller who highlights for student teachers the excitement and versatility of storytelling.
In every teacher’s repertoire there’s an embarrassing story of an incident in school. We tutors are no exception. We have found that student teachers enjoy listening to these stories. We ask them to tell the person sitting next to them about an incident in their own lives which they remember as important, amusing or embarrassing. The tutor then goes on to give a rendition of ‘The Three Billy Goats Gruff’ with appropriate voices, chorus lines and actions.
In groups, the student teachers retell their version of a traditional tale and present it to the rest of the class. We alert student teachers to the cross cultural nature of storytelling, the origins of storytelling with reference to an original story such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and the importance for children of storying.
Activity ii
Taking a group of children for storytelling is a school-based activity for our Year 1 student teachers.
The student teachers need to be encouraged to consider creative opportunities for the role-play area in their classroom, such as involving mobile phones, story boxes, or puppets. They can share ideas about what they would hope to see in their schools to enhance literacy development through play.
Activity iii
Teresa Cremin’s pages on Drama give a full account of the rich possibilities with this age group for classroom drama to support literacy. TiR (Teacher in Role), freeze frames, hot seating and talk partners are some of the techniques they can try out in your sessions. Using traditional tales or modern picture books, they can explore ways to engage children in these activities. For a fuller introduction to drama at this level, The Really Useful Literacy Book (Martin et al., 2004) has a splendid chapter on ‘Playing with role in the Foundation Stage’.
See also 2e. Drama and role play
and
Teresa Cremin on Drama
Connections to Standards
Q 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 18, 19, 25.
 
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