ABSTRACT
A major outcome of the NOP in 30 local education authorities (LEAs) from 1989 to 1993, was the emergence and documentation of storytelling as a significant factor in the development of oral language across the primary age range. The promotion of storytelling at this time has left a legacy of good practice (Howe and Johnson 1992; Grainger 1997; Grugeon and Gardner 2000) which has made a significant contribution to the English National Curriculum Orders. The first requirement at Key Stage 1 Speaking and Listening , ‘Breadth of Study’, is that the range of activities should include: telling stones, both real and imagined (8a); Knowledge, Skills and Understanding ,
require pupils, to ‘speak with clear diction and appropriate intonation; choose words with precision; organise what they say; focus on main points; include relevant detail and take into account the needs of their listeners’ (DfEE/QCA 1999: 16). All these are skills which will be developed by oral storytelling and the NLS framework reinforces this. Text level work from Reception through to Year 6 includes oral storytelling: in Reception and Year 1 the emphasis is on developing understanding of story structure; stories may be re enacted through role play and using puppets; oral retelling will develop understanding of sequence, character, dialogue and features of story language. In Year 2, role play and individual retelling will continue to develop this understanding which will beconne increasingly important to the development of pupils’ written work. In Developing Early Writing (NLS 2001: 9) oral telling and retelling ‘where they are helped to say it like the book’ are seen as important ways in which children come to understand the features of written texts. In Year 3 an increasing familiarity with a range of traditional stories will allow more sophisticated discussion of typical story themes, characters and language and retelling will continue to make an important contribution to a more explicit understanding of narrative texts. By Year 5 preparation for oral storytelling sees this as a presentational skill in its own right (DfEE 1998c). This is also a skill that teachers need. The Literacy Hour requires teachers to model the skills they are teaching and to become confident storytellers themselves. This chapter tells how teachers developed this competence working alongside their pupils.
