Young children – meaning babyhood
through toddlerhood – love to be told stories. Of course the stories have to be short,
involve things they know about and perhaps even involve lap sitting. All these things I learned from the youngest among
us.
Two years ago while
attending a meeting with educators where Colorado's Lt Governor, Joe Garcia was speaking
(his two pet projects are Early Childhood Education and Higher Education), I
was given three precious minutes to explain why storytelling is important in
Early Childhood Education. I spoke with
storytellers who work with the youngest children and mapped out a plan for my
three minute speech which went well.
But not everything goes
according to plan. While the Lt Governor
did not jump on the “Band Wagon,” the director of the San Luis Valley Early Childhood Education Council did. The upshot
being that I was to teach a college class in Storytelling for Early Childhood
Educators. The class was full. The class was fun. The instructor learned a lot. And so did the students.
One thing we addressed was
the Vocabulary Gap where we centered our discussion on the merits of
storytelling in teaching vocabulary. (More Vocabulary Gap websites here.) It’s
the second best way, you know, following closely on the heels of conversation to teach vocabulary. It’s the eye contact, the closeness, the
feeling of “I’m the one being paid attention to!”
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