Strategies to make a story come alive and to keep the students curiosity.
Students sit in a circle listening attentively as the teacher opens the new story book to read to the class. For the first few moments all eyes are on the teacher as she begins to read the first few sentences. Soon after the students begin to shift in their sits, playing with their hair and moving their body to find a more comfortable position, as the teacher reads a few more sentences. Students are anxious to see the next picture as the words are quickly losing their interest.
Gain the interest of your class with visual storytelling that makes the teacher active in creating the pictures. The beautiful pictures drawn by the illustrator gain the students attention but only for a moment unless the topic intrigues them.
Students are more likely to remain involved in the story if it becomes a game. Tangram and draw tell stories are just that. These are stories that use shapes or symbolic pictures to tell the story.
Tangram stories make pictures with tans; seven geometrical shapes. The tans can be flipped or turned in a matter of seconds to make a new picture to align with the story.
Draw tell stories use symbolic pictures and basic shapes to make a story map of the story. At the end of the story, a new drawing is revealed that relates to the story. Often the new drawing is the unknown identity of the character in the story.
Learn how to make tangrams with paper or brush up on your basic art skills to read your next draw tell story to the class.
