Storytelling Study Group by Kenia Santos

Introduce yourself

keniacs — 2022-04-14 00:37:27 UTC

Take sometime to introduce yourself below. Here are a few questions we'd love you to answer:
1. Where are you from?
2. How long have you been teaching English?
3. Why teaching? Why not becoming a baker, an architect or an astronaut?
4. What is your favorite children literature book?
5. What was the last children literature book you worked with?

Remember to read your colleagues' answers and leave comments for at least two of them. <3

Understanding the teacher population

keniacs — 2022-04-14 00:42:50 UTC

We would love to be able to use what we learn and discuss here to write research papers in the future.

Check back in the following weeks to contribute with further information about yourself and your teaching context so we can better understand our teacher population!

Find everything in one place

keniacs — 2022-04-14 00:46:30 UTC

Scroll down to find the links to files such as our reading schedule, papers, articles, videos, and more!

Online bulletin board

keniacs — 2022-04-14 00:48:31 UTC

Have you read or watched something interesting that you think other people in the group might enjoy? Have you found or created materials you'd like to share?

Add the files/links below so we know where to find them!

Week 1

keniacs — 2022-04-22 20:34:09 UTC

We are reading from the Tell it Again Handbook this week.

Task:

Read pages 5-11 and share the following below:

3 things you found interesting
2 things you found surprising
1 question you have

Remember to read your colleagues' answers and leave comments for at least two of them. <3

Text 1: Tell it again Handbook

keniacs — 2022-04-22 20:35:27 UTC

Book lists

keniacs — 2022-04-22 22:46:07 UTC

Do you own story books you'd be willing to lend/share materials about? List them below so we know who to ask!

I am an amateur astronaut

heidireitzfeld — 2022-04-25 02:34:16 UTC

Good evening! I am Heidi from the UK, currently living in Florianópolis with my husband and my 6 year old daughter. When we arrived here 5 years ago I struggled with the lack of a library nearby...and also the lack of creative play ideas for children, so after taking some time to adjust to the new culture and language, I found myself starting and running a small playgroup called "playdohpuddles" from my home, mostly for friends of my daughter at first! I started to record ideas from my classes in instagram and this quickly opened up connections to the wider English teaching community here in Brazil. Thanks to my online contact with Claire, I met Lucy from "The Secret Garden English School" and now I work with Lucy, teaching English to students aged 6 and upwards. I incorporate stories into my classes with the students and this is where the magic starts! My favourite book is always the one I am currently reading with my daughter...So I guess the favourite can change 6 times a day. In class I read a different story each week with the younger students. The last book I worked with with the older students was "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!"

Teaching is my calling in life, but I'm also a chemical engineer and a project manager

rosanasol — 2022-04-29 21:55:33 UTC

Good evening! I began teaching English when I was 16, right after I got my Michigan proficiency certificate. Then, I became an engineer, and quit teaching after working at an English institute for eight years. As an engineer, I was a teacher, and I trained so many professionals throughout my carrier...when I decided I was done with my life in the industry, getting back to teaching was my chance to resume my dream carrier, the one that was meant to be. That was 2018. In 2019 I took a course with Claire, during the CNA Education Congress in São Paulo. Then, I began reading and taking courses on how to teach pre-primary young learners, and here I am, as I should've been from the beginning, a young learner teacher. In fact, when I was 11 I wanted to be a teacher for children with special needs, that is what I do best now, teach children on the spectrum.
The book that I remember from my childhood isn't in English: O Gênio do Crime, I still have it. My parents didn't use to read to me. The first time I put my hands on an English storybook was in 2019, after one of the courses I took with Claire. I'm working with Brown Bear at a private regular school in Bahia, I have students that are from 3 to 8 years old. I'm also planning another unit, a series of lessons based on Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes.

This week's musings :-)

heidireitzfeld — 2022-04-30 01:12:07 UTC

My 3 interesting things:
1) The Kangaroo from woolla-my-who-what-where? I have NEVER heard of this book and shall have to investigate right away.
2) "Stories as a means of developing autonomous learners" That's lovely!
3) My favourite idea in these pages was top of page 7 - speaking of storytelling as a "shared social experience". Sharing emotions together as a group is indeed majestically powerful!
My 2 surprising things:
1)There are "six million teachers involved in primary English language teaching" ... wowsers! That's a whole big bunch of us!
2) They list 16 reasons for using stories! Whooopeeee! Reading all those reasons really helps me and makes it feel suddenly much easier already. Sometimes I feel like I need to justify (to myself) why I love to use stories/storybooks more than I love the blessed coursebook. I haven't read the theory on this until now! Thank you for the chance!
My question:
Why did my daughter's school put an event right at the time that we have our next meeting scheduled? :-( Please fill me in afterwards! Lots of love 🤬

No post office for many miles :-(

heidireitzfeld — 2022-04-30 01:17:40 UTC

I did say in our meeting that I own and would be able to share my English picture books. The reality is that it won't be possible for me to send any by post, even with a lot of effort! I don't drive and I don't have a car and the next post office is also a 20 minute journey from here! :-( It would just be too difficult.

I am a Saci breeder

kenia_santos2 — 2022-04-30 01:43:42 UTC

I'm from Belo Horizonte, MG. I've been an English teacher for circa 22 years, I have also taught PWC (Philosophy with Children), and I'm currently a Fine Arts teacher in a international High School program. I have always loved learning and was certain that becoming a teacher would grant me the chance to be always learning something new. I'm the happiest when I'm planning and delivering my lessons.
My favorite children book is Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.
The last children book I worked with was Kobi Yamada's What Do You Do With A Problem and I used it with High School students. :)

Week 1 musings

kenia_santos2 — 2022-04-30 02:21:29 UTC

Three things I found interesting
1. That the authors present a variety of reasons for the stories in the language classroom, because many teachers do not feel secure about having to explain the practice to parents especially.
2. That the authors present interesting ways to make cross-curricular connections right at the beginning, so teacher understand early in the reading that there's more to storytelling than getting practice with vocabulary and chunks of language.
3. I love it that, even though briefly, the authors point to the development of learner autonomy through reading. I find it that this is an aspect to be further discussed and explored.
Two things I found surprising
1. I love it that we have had so many story suggestions in the very first few pages of this booklet.
2. I found it surprising that the authors have introduced a basic syllabus framework for teachers to start thinking story-based syllabuses from the very beginning. I find it important for readers to be critical of the suggestion though, and consider the fact that this booklet was published 8 years ago and a lot has happened in the field of education in the past few years especially concerning students' role in their own learning process.
Question: I wonder if we'd benefit from trying to put a project together as we read, adding new information week after week as we understand how to better it, or we should wait until the end of the reading.

On page 6 of our reading this week, I came across the term "acquisition-based methodology" for the first in my life...I found this article about it, I hope it can help you too, the concept is now clear for me.

rosanasol — 2022-05-01 16:29:13 UTC

Project Based Learning x Project Oriented Learning

kenia_santos2 — 2022-05-06 20:48:37 UTC

Hi everyone, this is a quite enlightening video on what PBL is not.

Jayne Moon - Children Learning English, Chapter 9

kenia_santos2 — 2022-05-06 20:56:47 UTC

I love this book and decided to photocopy this chapter to share here because I think it covers a very important aspect of the work with story books.

David Vale - Teaching Children English, pp 28-29

kenia_santos2 — 2022-05-06 21:05:17 UTC

Another relevant file for the upcoming discussions.

Buck Institute - Gold Standard PBL

kenia_santos2 — 2022-05-06 21:07:26 UTC

Week 2

kenia_santos2 — 2022-05-10 14:29:13 UTC

We are reading from the Tell it Again Handbook this week.

Task:

Read pages 12-20 and share the following below:

2 things you agree with
1 thing you disagree with
1 question you have

rosanasol — 2022-06-20 22:17:33 UTC

these simple resources are beloved by the children

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rosanasol — 2022-06-20 22:22:22 UTC