Story-acting boosts engagement in early education: Implementing Story-Acting With Young Learners
Teachers can use this technique to build classroom community and help students see themselves as storytellers.
By Tracy Mertens for Edutopia
Vivian Paley’s book The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter: The Uses of Storytelling in the Classroom describes how her story-acting method, involving children writing and acting out their own stories, transformed her classroom into a magical world of meaning that engaged every child. After reading Paley’s book, I began practicing this method in my classroom. I noticed the benefits right away but initially struggled with how exactly to get started. Through trial and error, I’ve developed a number of best practices that preschool and early elementary teachers can use to implement story-acting with their students.
What is Story-Acting and How Does it Work?
Story-acting has two critical phases: writing and acting.
Phase 1: Writing children’s stories. In this phase, you write down stories that children tell you. In my preschool classroom, I introduced story-acting at circle time and explained that during center time (a larger time block when children are independently busy) they would each have a turn to tell me a story that I would write down so we could act it out later.
During each child’s turn, write down their story word for word. Then read it back to them and ask if they want to change or add anything. When the story is finished, ask for a title. (For older classrooms, students may write out their own stories—adapt according to your group’s skills.)
Depending on your students, it may be best to introduce story-acting in phases. If your class is shy or doesn’t know each other well, begin by enacting a read-aloud or fairy tale that they already know and love. When they feel more comfortable, introduce the more vulnerable (and exciting) element of creating their own story content. Your group may be ready for this right away—gauge your students’ temperaments and plan accordingly.
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