Different parts or pictures of a story will appeal to different children, every child is so unique. An important part of being a good story-teller is just listening to the different ways that young children communicate their interests, noticing these, and responding to them. Children need us to allow them to linger in the different parts of a story that interest them without rushing them to finish the book if they want to look at a certain page and talk about the picture and what it reminds them of. A great listener makes a great children’s story-teller.
Very young children have not yet fully developed the ability to think quietly, but most of the time their inner speech will be said aloud (Bailey and Brookes, 2003). Often a story-telling session with a group of young children can be punctuated with lots of audible thoughts. For example, they might see a picture of something on page that reminds them of something or someone that they saw and all at once they want to tell you about it which then that reminds the others of something similar they once saw and the lively chatter continues. This makes it very interesting and engaging for the children, but it can sometimes make it a bit tricky when trying to read a picture story book to a group young children and make it through to the end of the book and hold everyone’s attention.
I find it helps me to make a story telling session more meaningful and engaging the children if I anticipate their need to think out loud and talk during a story and include it as part of process. Depending on the time of day, they might have different physical needs as well. In the morning, children need to move around and be active engaged somehow during a story, whereas later on in the day, they will be feeling tired and story time can include some breathing and calming time as they need to relax and take some deep breaths.
For example, if I know there is a picture of a cat on the following page, I might ask them, “Who has a pet cat at home?” Then, I’ll count the little hands that went up and give each one a number. So, if four little ones raised their hands, then having a number gives them a realistic amount of time to ‘hold their thought’. Then I’ll ask those four children to tell us about their pet cat. It can also help children to be given positive upbeat reminders that we take turns to talk and to listen to others stories. For active little ones it can be helpful to physically act out turning on listening ears while their friends are having a turn to tell their story. Then, we move on to page about the cat and the children are better able to focus because they have shared their thoughts which are important parts of cognitive, language, and social development in pre-literacy activities.
Reference:
Bailey, Becky A.; Brookes, Carolyn. (2003)
Thinking Out Loud: Development of Private Speech and the Implications for School Success and Self-Control. Young Children, v58 n5 p46-50,52 Sep 2003