Describing the power and process of co-creating stories with young children, the late Vivian Paley wrote, “It is in the development of their themes and characters and plots that children explain their thinking and enable us to wonder who we might become as their teachers. If fantasy play provides the nourishing habitat for the growth of cognitive, narrative, and social connectivity in young children, then it is surely the staging area for our common enterprise: an early school experience that best represents the natural development of young children.” Expressed in fantasy, children’s stories allow them to wrestle or play with feelings, experiences and ideas from their own lives. A supportive teacher who listens to, scribes, and reads back children’s stories validates the essence of that child. Seeing and hearing their own stories in written form, shared with others, also brings meaning and motivation to literacy.
In the article, “Once Upon a Story: Co-creating Narratives Enhances Creativity and Language,” Laura Friedman writes, “Throughout the years as I have worked with emergent readers — as a Title I Literacy Aide, as a Head Start intern, as an adult literacy volunteer, as a fifth- and sixth-grade aide, as a Montessori teacher, and as a preschool teacher, I grew to appreciate how personal experience, captured through narrative, supports the process of learning to read and write."
Learn more about Friedman's strategies for co-creating stories in the Out of the Box training, "Once Upon a Story," based on Friedman’s article, then observe Vivian Paley in action in this brief video:
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