Blog Post #5 - Storytelling Reflection #2 - Interactive

 

Interactive Storytelling Reflection

That's Good!  That's Bad!

Last storytelling experience - That's Good, That's Bad - Storytelling Experience #4

With my previous storytelling experiences, I have come to feel that all storytelling has the capacity to be interactive, in some form or fashion.  I would say that three of the four stories that I have completed through this learning experience have lent themselves to be interactive whether with or without a book and/or props.  Including the audience in the experience is key to good storytelling experiences.

To select my final story for my interactive experience, I decided to select a children's fiction picture book, as this genre lends itself to a more interactive experience.  The selection process for my final storytelling was a trip down memory lane.  During this storytelling experiences, I have come to realize that  good literature and good storytelling have this effect of past connections to the literature.  In looking back, I turned to favorites from my experiences with my own children and past classes, which brought several stories to mind:  Chick-A-Chick-A-Boom-Boom, Is Your Mama a Llama?, and Froggy Goes to Bed.  Looking through our "family library" of books, That's Good! That's Bad! popped out and I knew I had a winner.

With this experience, I decided to attempt my first live storytelling.  This was a new challenge and required a pre-prompting of expectations, along with a very simple visual of the interactive reading response on the board.  My main concern with this new challenge, I had to be aware that my audience may not be as engaged with the book as younger students, but this was not the case.  It excited me to see how engaged my 6th graders were with this simple text.   As with previous reading, I did want to point out a learning standard or example, in this case onomatopoeia, which my students were able to define and recognize in a non-threatening manner.  This proves that there continues to be a place for read-alouds, even in the upper grades. 

In doing some searches about interactive read-alouds, I came across this excellent resource for grade levels K-7.  This website provides a lesson matrix that connect to standards in comprehension, structural elements, vocabulary and literary language, literary elements and devices, genre, and writing traits. Heinemann Interactive Read Alouds  What a great way to give precise examples of reading and writing standards in a non-threatening and engaging way.  

While looking for clip art for my blog, I was surprised to find out that Margery Cuyler's book from 1993 has three sequels:

That's Good, That's Bad in the Grand Canyon  (2002)

That's Good, That's Bad in Washington, DC  (2007)

That's Good, That's Bad on Santa's Journey  (2009)

This gave me the idea of having students create their own experiences and research of a historical event, place, etc through this non-threatening manner.  What a great way to teach how to hook your reader and engaging them in learning new content.  

Plus, I also found this similarly written text, but not by the same author or illustrator. 

There is so much value in the read aloud and we, as educators, must not assume that students are too old for a good read aloud, even if they are picture books.  As I said previously, I was able to take a walk down memory lane, why shouldn't we share that journey with our students.