Storytelling as an educational tool – Importance and Benefits

If you want your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want them to be brilliant, tell them more stories.-

Albert Einstein

Storytelling has a vital and important role in the field of education. When it comes to primary level kids, storytelling becomes more important. Children enjoy listening story. At the same time, if a storyteller is creative and effective then the child reaches the world of imagination. Can imagine all the things and can experience everything narrated by the teacher. But it depends on the storyteller how creative he/she is. ?

Storytelling is a humanistic art. It is a very old form of art and teaching. But at the same time very effective way of teaching and learning.  Storytelling is not only an effective educational tool but also teaches moral values, ethics, traditions, and cultures to the students. It also helps to shape a better citizen of the country by connecting them with many moral-based stories. 

Now let us see what do you get in this article on storytelling for kids.

1.  Types of story
2. Important of storytelling. Storytelling – an effective educational tool.
3. Benifits
4. How can storytelling help teachers in education?
5. Storytelling and social skills development in the kids. 

Before jumping into the benefits or educational uses of storytelling, let’s see firstly what are the types of storybooks for kids.

1. Types of stories

There are many types of books available in various libraries, e-library, or on the internet. Let’s see which are the types of storybooks. Students can enjoy those storybooks. Appropriate storybooks play an essential role in the learning process.

Some types are:

Folk tales and Fairy tales

Fable and Picture story

Audiobooks and the Fantasy world

Comic books and Historical books

Action & Adventure and Literature fiction

Mystery and detective, Biography, and many more types of storybooks are there.

When it comes to little kids they enjoy the most books like :

Folk tales and Fairy tales

Fable and Picture story

Audiobooks, comic books, and the Fantasy world books.

Types of books you choose for your students are also very important. Every book has various levels of content. It makes according to the level of the child at each stage. So you have to choose stories and books to narrate according to the level of your child.

We have discussed types of books now let’s see what is the importance of storytelling in the field of education. Storytelling has its own place in the field of education. As it is an old but very effective way of teaching

FROM WHERE DO I GET ?

As a teacher you know and you have many sources of getting storybooks. But parents are worried about it. Here I give you some ideas for getting attractive storybooks.

1. Purchse from near by store.
2. You can buy online.
3. Visit near by library and can be a member and issue the book from there.
4. Download some library app for reading.
5. Can use multi-media like youtube etc.

In this way, you can find out the best storybooks. Can make the best use of it. Use more and more storytelling methods for the development of your child. It is one of the best ways to teach various skills and values easily.

2. Importance of storytelling. Or storytelling as means of education tool :

 I think you have a question about why do I come up with this topic- storytelling. I choose this topic as it is a very important tool for the teaching-learning process. If a teacher can use it effectively, It has many benefits.

Storytelling is one of the ways where children get a chance to explore more knowledge and to create their own understanding. As a teacher, you can teach many topics easily with the help of storytelling methods.  We can say that it is an interesting and effective tool of education. Story listeners listen to the story carefully, they engage therefore they remember. Storytelling can label as a foundation of the teaching-learning process. Because every human being learns something or another thing from the listening of stories from grandmother. We grown-up by listening story. Let’s see its importance step by step :

1. listen, think and participate.

Story listening involves the active engagement of the child. They listen, think and participate. This is the three-way process of learning. When storytellers narrate the story – the listener:

 First listens to the story carefully.

At the same time, they think and imagine the story in their own way. And try to create his own perspective. 

Even sometimes connect it with his past experiences. And establish new knowledge from that story. That knowledge is last ever in his mind as he connects and learns. 

The story has multiple layers of meaning. So students learn so many things at a time. In a way, they actively participate in the process of learning with the storytelling method. Can create their own story in connection with what they learned.

 They learn new experiences and knowledge at the same time old values and culture from the same story. But all this learning process depends on the storytellers – how effectively and interestingly he/she narrates the story. How he/she can able to take the child to the imagination world. 

2. Different methods for storytelling. You can use:

Naarrte the story by the person( teacher or student)s:

Use of Multi-media – audio or video presentation of the story.

Dramatization of story.

Puppetry – use of puppets or toys to tell stories.

Picture story. 

These are some effective ways of storytelling. The effective use of these methods converts the storytelling process into educational learning experiences for the kids.

Now let’s see the benefits of storytelling:

Above I discussed how storytelling can be effective as an educational tool. If you can use this method effectively it has many benefits. Such as :

3. benefits of storytelling

1. Storytelling helps to develop creative and critical thinking among students.
2. Further, it helps the students to create his/her own new knowledge.
3. Knowledge gets from the storytelling method becomes everlasting.
4. It attracts the students to learn.
5. Students engage and participate actively.
6. Makes the learning process more effective and interesting.
7. Helps to develop reading skills among the children. 
8. Develop the imagination skills of the kids.
9. Kids become better listeners.
10. Memory becomes sharper.

More benifits of storytlling for kids development :

1. The patients level of the students is increased.
2. Improves many social skills through storytelling. Such as: Help each other , reapsect the elders , National integration , brotherhood and many more.
3. Become a good speaker. It helps to enhance communication skills.
4. Increase the understanding of various cultural diversity through the storytelling methods.
5. Value-based stories help to instill many virtues in the kids. Such as Kindness, honesty, wisdom, compassion, and many more.
6. One can easily develop early literacy among the younger kids with the help of many fictions, folk tales, or fairy tales. The little one learns basic language and numeracy with help of this method.
7. With the help of Action & Adventure, Mystery and detective stories can develop problem-solving abilities among kids.
8. Most importantly at early-stage storytelling helps for child development. 
9. An effective way of storytelling, develop curiosity among the students. Pause and ask while narrating the story, can help students to find what will happen next. They become more curious and learn something new by his/her own. So it fosters curiosity among the kids. 
10. Listening story helps to improve concentration power and vocabulary among little ones. As they listen to new words during the storytelling process. They listen to the story patiently and calmly which helps to develop concentration among them. 

An effective way of storytelling has many advantages. It helps for the overall development of the children

4. How can storytelling help teachers in education? :

There are many methods and approaches used in the field of education for making the teaching-learning process effective and interesting.  The teacher can use experiential learning, play-way method, activity-based learning,competency-based learning, and many more. If you want to know more about these methods and approaches click on them. You can get deep ideas with examples about that methods and approaches.

Apart from all these, storytelling is also the oldest and root method to teach and learn.  As a teacher, if you can use this method effectively you can teach many topics easily and effectively. Let’s understand with an example. If you want to teache any journey related topic. You can personalize your experiences and make a story out of them. And narrate the story in front of them. In the same way, you can ask students to tell their stories of their journey. This makes the learning process interactive and engaging. Same time they explore new knowledge. 

Storytelling is not just used to teach language aspect but also it helps to illustrate the most complex and abstract subjects such as Mathematics and science. 

There are many stories available for each complex and easy concept and subject. You can use these stories as tools or means of the learning process. And teach your concept meaningfully and easily.

Some tips to make storytelling effective:

1. Use voice modulation while narrating the story, know where to pause, where to use high or low voice frequencies.
2. Connect the audience.
3. Eye contact is a must while narrating the story,
4. Use various facial expressions,  body gestures, and movements of hand while narrating the story.
5. Interact with the audience by asking questions.
6. Use of metaphors.
7. Try to create an imaginary world in the mind of kids with your voice and an effective way of storytelling.
8. Sometimes you can use the dramatization method or some puppet fingers to make your storytelling experience live for the children.

These are some tips for you all to make your storytelling experience memorable with your kids. Use these tips, will surely help you.

So I can say that using my given tips you can effectively make your teaching-learning process interesting without any doubt. Make your classroom learning evergreen and enjoyable for your kids.

Now let’s see how as a parent pr teacher you can use storytelling as means of your child’s development. Specifically, how can your nurture your child using small value-based stories? Let’s see :

5. Storytelling and social skills development in the kids. 

As a teacher or a parent, you can use many moral-based and value-based stories, to inculcate many values and virtues in kids. Which helps to shape a better human being. Helping in the child’s social development at an early stage. There are tunks of stories on the virtual mode you can show these to them. As a teacher, you can narrate also. Teach them all the ethics and values. 

You can narrate stories like:

• The milkman and her pail
• The proud rose
• The bundle of sticks.
• Panchtantra Kahani
• Swanky Donkey
• The Mumbai Musician
• The clever crow 
• The foolish goats
• Alice in wonderland 
• The golden egg
• The golden swan
• The hunter and the doves
• The lion and the mouse
• The magic pot
• The monkey and juggler.

Many more stories are available you can narrate these stories and teach meaningful lessons to your little one. This is the best way to make the children aware of some cultural diversity. And help to develop many social and ethical skills in the kids through storytelling. 

You are worried about how to develop social skills in your kids. Do not worry click on the link given. You will find many activities to develop social skills in your kids. If you use or find it useful let me know in the comment section.

6. Conclusion :

In this article, I try to serve you a full plate of meals with all the needed ingredients. Just you have to eat this plate. Here I discussed all the types of story books-which is the basic knowledge. Everyone should aware of all the types of storybooks. Then only he/she can choose the correct story to tell.

Then further I discussed the benefits of storytelling. How can you use it as a means of an education tool? Which is one of the essential parts of this article. With this, I gave you some tips to make your storytelling effective. Here I solved your more concerning question that how would you narrate the story effectively?

Lastly, I discussed the social development of the child with some morally based stores.

At last, want to say that storytelling not only makes your teaching-learning process effective and enjoyable but also nurtures your child to make him/her a better human being.

So I urge you all as a teacher to use storytelling in your classroom or as well parents can use it as home. Can make storytelling routine part of life.