1. Away with the faeries
Storytelling in Schools
Contact details: Anne Murray
Senior Educational Psychologist
Derbyshire Educational
Psychology Service
anne.murray@derbyshire.gov.uk
annemulkeenmurray@gmail.com

2. Storytelling project
6 year 4 boys struggling with aspects of literacy
 ESL; Social difficulties; telling lies; anxiety & low
confidence
 Chosen for a special project
 Outcomes: language development, narrative
structures and increased confidence with writing
 45-60 minutes after break
 Weekly/bi weekly September – Feb
 Teaching Assistant in school supported the project
 Meetings with parents

3. Language development
 Brain research has led to increased
understanding of neurobiological bases of
language
 Effects of positive and negative experience
and environmental factors
 Development and timing of differentiated
language functions can have significant
positive impacts
 University of Oregon programme: Changing
Brains

4. Benefits of storytelling
 Expert Panel and its Development within the
National Curriculum Dec 2011
 Positive connection between oral development, cognitive
development and a range of educational attainment
 Correlation with improved word reading, reading
comprehension,
 Development of phonological awareness, oral
vocabulary, syntactic knowledge
 Promote listening, attention, & engagement
 Understanding of narrative structures

5. Benefits of storytelling cont.
 Supports the development of collaborative
pro-social skills
 Social and communication skills: turn
taking, deep listening, asking questions,
mutual support
 Emotional Literacy : insight and empathy,
safe container for exploring fantasy,
enhanced well being
 Moral and spiritual development: ethical
decision making

6. Your brain on stories
 Left hemisphere function: “The Interpreter”
 Narrative used to organises memories into
plausible stories
 Accuracy less important than coherence
 Fill in the gaps of memory with plausible
inventions
 Over-simplification
 Good entry point to engage learners

7. The story is told
eye to eye,
mind to mind
and
heart to heart

8. Specific skills taught during
the project
 Listening/ Attention
 Asking questions
 Memorising stories and rhymes
 Group chanting
 Leading call and response
 Telling brief personal accounts -1 minute,
 Telling stories for 3 minutes and longer
 Improvised stories with/ without props
 Telling group stories to audience
 Developing awareness of narrative structures
 Developing awareness of needs of listeners

9. Storytelling process
 Listening to adult told stories; Listening to each
others improvised or learned stories;
 Delivered group performance to younger children
 Feedback to each other
 Shared understanding of Information about narrative
structure: plot, character, conflict, resolution,
sensory descriptions
 Range of themes, styles and topics
 Developed awareness of how the teller controls the
story
 “Nobody knows what you are going to say.”;“You can tell a
story about anything.”; “The power of 3 things, 3 wishes;
etc.”

10. The stories we told
STORIES
Stone Soup
How the
Rhino Got
His Horn
Rainbow
Fairy
Jack the
Sailor
The
Inukshuk of
Labrador
Pandora's
Box
Black
Plague at
Eyam
Village
3 Little Pigs
in Buxton
The Boy
Who Wasnt
Afraid of
Anything
Mary Green
and the
Sleeping
Giant at the
Roaches

11. Jack the Sailor
 Chose and Learned the story and the actions
 Sang sea shanties to introduce the story and
told a shared story to younger children
 Memorisation
 Performance
 Found talking down to younger audience easier
 Shared experience
 It’s OK to ‘Just do it’
 See notes for story

12. My observations of the group
during storytelling
 Breathing together; Laughing together; Shared mood changes
 They sat motionless, quiet and relaxed. Eyes on the teller,
unfocussed
 Unaware of selves and company
 Listening for long periods- up to 20 minutes; Unified sustained
interest
 Unconscious engagement & sense of flow
 Conflict between desire for resolution of story & continuation
 ‘Heads connected by wi-fi’ :Shared Internal representations
 Could visualise and feel the experience ‘Ouch’!
 Left the classroom behind; Used strategies to block out interruptions
& were not easily distracted

13. Engaging the listening brain
with stories
 What happens to your brain when you listen to a
story that you can understand?
 Talker and listener have almost simultaneous brain
activation/mirroring
 Sometimes listener’s brain activates in anticipation
 Everyday conversations shared constructs, implied
meanings
 Foreign language: no comprehension- no activation

14. Big stories and little stories
Big Story
Crafted/Structure
Storytelling for
audience
Legends
Fairy Tales
Epics
Myths
Little Story
Family Stories
Anecdotes
Account of
events
Examples

15. Pupil Response
 Engaged: prepared, ready, willing, excited
 Collaborated and co-operated, supported
each other
 Took ideas home:
 Woke dad up to tell him a story at 6.00
 Told a story to his whole family on Christmas Day
 Gathered stories from family members
 Began reading all the Greek myths

16. ‘I need a pen!’
 6 part story for
Christmas-linked to
Classroom project
 Visuals only
 Pen free zone
 One boy demanded a
pen as he felt he had
to write down his story
too.

17. STORY CYCLE
STORY
Listening
Triggering
Insight
Inspiration
Influence
Telling

18. Pupil Quotes
 I know how to tell stories
 I am not to scared to tell a story
 I learned how to tell a story
 I am not shy to tell a story
 Now I can tell loads of stories and If I get
butterflies I carry on

19. Teacher Report
 Increased confidence
 Increased participation in class
 Write more independently
 Better listening
 Increased amount of writing

20. TA Feedback
 Increased confidence in asking and
answering questions in class
 More ready to take a risk
 Feel more positively about selves and school

21. Parents
 Generally pleased with the project
 Increased confidence
 Writing more and trying new words
 Storytelling is a great way to engage with
child
 Would like to know more about storytelling

22. And then a few months later
 After an in-service day a woman came
up to me and introduced herself as the
parent of one of the boys. She had not
come along to any of the parent
meetings and had not given any
feedback. She said “ About that story
telling– I thought it was a waste of time.
But I had to tell you I think it has made
a big difference to him…more
confident…doing better in school…

23. 21st Century Stories
 Reality TV
 Television Soaps- Eastenders (stories often use plots from Greek
Tragedy )
 Movies
 Celebrity Magazines
 Online identities: Twitter, Facebook
 Role Playing: Avatars
 Interactive Video games
 Children/Teen Literature
 Music Narratives: Adele
 Audio Books
 Phone texts
 Web Cams

24. Parents completed story trees
 Reflected the importance, and presence of stories in their lives Story
Tree
 Roots : Where do your stories come from? How did you learn
them?
 Ground: Who listens to your stories? What is your favourite story to
tell?
 Trunk: Can you remember and tell stories? What do people like
about them?
 Branches: How might you develop your story telling skills?
 Leaves: what are your favourite stories? What makes them special?
 Fruit: What have you gained from storytelling?
 Talked to child about it. Told stories at home.

25. Personal reflections
 Storytelling is an effective no/low cost
positive intervention to use with all children
 It has helped promote inclusion for a diverse
group of children
 We are hard-wired to tell stories: Anyone can
do it with minimal effort
 Finally—next time have 30 paper boats pre
pared before daring to tell a group of adults
the story of Jack the Sailor again!!!