READING OR STORYTELLING?

Today, we have been answering some questions related to the book Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers by Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster.

One of the questions, that I think it is the most interesting, is: "Reading or storytelling?"

In my opinion, as teachers we have to know how to use all the techniques that are in our hands. And this is what happen with that. I think we don't need to choose one of them for ever, but we have to know what is better to use with each book. For example, if we want to tell a story, we should choose one that have a complete story that maybe is difficult for our children to understand. Also we can use materials and tell the story with that... While the best stories for reading are the ones that have repetitive structures or with rhymes, in which we are going to lose the beauty of the text with telling it. For example, this is what happen with the book Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?.

In conclusion, reading and storytelling are essentials, the only thing is to know when we have to use each.