Doing stories
Vivian Gussin Paley

American early years educationalist Vivian Gussin Paley describes how storytelling techniques can be used to develop children's oracy, social skills and confidence. 

Sam, age four, has never done stories before. That is, he has not dictated a story to a teacher for the purpose of having his classmates act it out. However, after four decades working with young children it is still the only activity I know of, besides play itself, that is immediately understood and desired by every child over the age of two.

When I enter the room, Sam is playing alone. "Fire, fire!" he shouts. "Old person on fire!" "That sounds like a fireman story," I tell him. "And I'm looking for a story. Tell me yours and the children will act it out with you.

Without further instruction, Sam the player becomes Sam the storyteller. "The fire truck. Then the house is on fire. Then the old person. And a cat. I put it out and I go home."

We have our first story for my demonstration to the class. "Sam told me this story he was playing," I say. "He is the fireman and he'll need a fire truck, a house, an old person, and a cat. Anyone else, Sam?" "Water," he says. "Can the whole group be the sound of water?" He agrees and, with all the roles filled, we begin. I read aloud Sam's script and the children play their parts knowledgeably. One might think they have been doing stories all along and, in a way, they have, since they can see it is so much like play.

This sort of spontaneous classroom theatre tends to carry some surprises. Emily comes in late, just as we begin to act out Sam's story. She is upset and hangs on to her father. However, the activity on the makeshift stage grabs her attention and she rushes to be next to tell a story.

"Mommy bumped into a car crash," she dictates. "And the man yelled at her and then Daddy had to come bring me to school." "Where is Mommy," I ask. "She hasta talk to the policeman." Several other children are waiting to do their stories. When it is Eddie's turn, he expands upon the general topic. "The policeman gives the person a ticket because she speeded too fast. And the car got on fire and they put it out. And the Mommy drives home."

In the time left before we must return to the rug, a lost puppy is found, a baby deer goes swimming, a princess walks in the park, and Batman flies over the tallest building in his car. Finally, Darin tells of a little brother who plays with his big brother until their mother calls them.

As each story is acted out, the group examines, scene by scene, ideas that have entered the mornings play and talk. Every child is storyteller, actor or audience as the familiar images of play bind the children into a community based, above all, on looking at, listening to and understanding one another.

There are logistical questions that must be answered if the actors are to know how to do their roles: What does Mommy do when she picks you up? ("Tells the teacher hello was she good?") What does the mother say to the brothers? ("You have to take a bath.") Even the children whose speech is uncertain find a way to clarify an action, often with help of the actors and the audience. The play must go on.

In the months that follow, if the children continue to do stories, they will have invented their own literature of themes and metaphors, of characters and plots; they will learn to listen well to each other's ideas and step respectfully into each other's stories. Most importantly, perhaps, as when the little ones first discovered play and grownups marvelled, it will once again be apparent that the creative impulse comes from the inner self and continues to define and refine us into thinking beings.

In the case of storytelling and acting, we build a literacy network, propelled by the need children have to connect themselves to one another through their play and stories. As Sam insists when Darin's story of two brothers is acted out, "I have to be Darin's brother 'cause everyone didn't see me play with him yet." And so we act the story out again, because Sam knows, and we know, that nothing is more important than letting people know who you are.
 
 

Vivian Gussin Paley's eleventh book, In Mrs Tulley's Room: a childcare portrait, has just been published in the UK by Harvard University Press.  London Bubble Theatre Company has brought the Paley storytelling approach to London children. Visit www.londonbubble.org.uk. (See also article in Literacy Today, June 2000, Action zone arts.)

 
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