Timeless Tricks for Attention-Getting Storytelling

Synopses of children’s stories from around the world include snippets of ear-catching dialog.

Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!

Timeless Tricks Please! – In countries dominated by digital communications it can be a challenge to hold children’s attention at storytelling time or any time.

Teachers in all nations who use timeless tricks during storytelling with children are most likely to “win” the attention-getting “battle.”

Use Ear-Catching Dialog – One time-honored trick in storytelling is to change-up your voice. Formal training in drama is not required to make this happen.

Simply reach within yourself for voices other than your own that seem appropriate for the characters in the story that you are telling. For example, a giant’s voice would likely be loud and bold. A kitten’s voice would be soft and sweet. But, not always…

Children love mix-ups! Use the timeless trick of offering a surprise by “assigning” unlikely voices to characters in stories you tell. Imagine, for example, a kitten with a booming voice – memorable for sure!

Visit a Magical Place – Storytelling in elementary schools is often the province of weekly visits to the media center/library – a magical place. If your class’ schedule there is like most elementary schools, the visit is considered a “special.”

Special is an apt adjective for many of the strategies that media center specialists/librarians use to help kids get on task quickly when they visit the wonderful world of books and computer-generated programs.

Class periods in the library or computer lab fly by; media specialists want to make the most of their time with students. No wonder they – and all K – 5 teachers – need timeless tricks for attention-getting storytelling!

Sarah Luvender, a K – 5 Media Center Specialist, welcomes K – 2 kids to a magical space with a colorful pond-design rug, complete with cattails at the pond’s edge where the children sit for story time.

Ms. Luvender and her “library friends” get ready for story time.

Ms. Luvender helps the children get ready to focus on the book of the day with a poem that she sings more than she recites. She teaches the poem to early readers at the beginning of each track-in session. (She works in a year-round US school.)

Ms. Luvender begins the poem and the children respond, first to her welcome, then to each question before Ms. Luvender says it’s time to get started.

As she and the children sing the poem aloud they gently act out the lyrics. This activity especially helps squirmy kids settle down for the story to come.

You can use Ms. Luvender’s poem too; just make up your own tune and substitute your name! You might also want to change your poem title to Welcome Story Friends. Read on… (more…)