On-Ramps for Learning: Storytelling for Everyone

by Sherry Norfolk, September 2019

If you've ever watched a child's expression change from "Huh?" to "Aha!"—that magical moment when understanding is achieved, when the lightbulb goes on, and the connections are made—you know the joy of witnessing a small miracle.

That's what storytelling brings to the classroom, especially for children who have intellectual /developmental disabilities. Stories and storytelling are the ultimate instruments for differentiation, providing unlimited possibilities for integrating learning across modalities.

Today's schools feature "inclusive" classrooms in which there is a varied mix of emotional/behavioral, intellectual/developmental, and physical disabilities represented in addition to the general population. In "self-contained" classrooms (serving only children with special needs), diversity is the norm as well.

How can you reach them all? The good news is that storytelling creates an on-ramp for learning! Consider these two real-life class descriptions:

• Educator A: "I have a couple of nonverbal kids, several on the autism spectrum, and a variety of cognitive delays. All [students] have behavioral/emotional IEPs."
• Educator B: "In our class, several [students] are on the autism spectrum, two have cerebral palsy, several are nonverbal, one is in a wheelchair and has limited vision, some have behavioral issues."

Those are hodge-podges! But Educator A reported, "I was certain that there was no one activity that we could all do together, but one and all, they engaged with the storytelling and retelling, and were eager to help create new stories and act them out together! Storytelling works. Period." Educator B said that "the storytelling sessions are the only time my students work together all year; otherwise, they each have differentiated strategies and work separately with me or an assistant. It's so wonderful to see them cooperate and collaborate peacefully."

Storytelling can be used and understood by everyone. It can be accessed by visual learners through facial expression and body language, auditory learners through character voices and sound effects, and kinesthetic learners through participation and repetitive, predictable gestures. With the aid of sign language interpreters, stories can be understood by the deaf; with the addition of tactile materials, they can be comprehended by the blind. These adaptations don't detract from others' experience of the story, they simply allow everyone to succeed.

In other words, if a storytelling strategy works for students who have special learning needs, it will probably work for all of the students!

Providing opportunities for retelling through creative drama, puppets, and props allows children with language delays, physical disabilities, cognitive delays and multiple disabilities to demonstrate understanding and to participate. The options for engagement, representation, and expression are endless.

Storytelling provides natural, organic pathways to learning language and communication, socialization, and collaboration. It is essential to oral language development. Research indicates a close correspondence between language development and cognitive processes and the need for integration if children are to achieve their cognitive potential (Feuerstein, Falik, Feuerstein, and Bohacs 2012). Storytelling—clearly narrating and acting out a story—serves this purpose and helps to achieve the same goals.

Storytelling provides opportunities for differentiated instruction. In inclusive and self-contained classrooms, teachers need to provide different learning paths to students. "Forcing all students to learn the same way means some will always struggle, a few will be very successful and the majority will just get by. Being prepared with various teaching styles for the same material gives each student the opportunity to learn. Even on separate paths, students can reach their learning goals" (Room 241 Team 2013).

Storytelling/theater strategies provide students with multiple opportunities for engagement, representation, and expression. Storytellers engage learners with expressive character voices, facial expressions, sound effects, meaningful gestures, and body language. Language is layered on top of sensory experience and physical activity. This allows learners to make use of information via multiple modalities. Students can connect with stories as active listeners, writers, performers, and collaborators, increasing academic achievement and intellectual development.

Storytelling can also be effective for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, combined with sensory and physical impairments. Sensory stories—stories that offer a variety of stimuli—provide experiences that help these children learn to understand and interact with the world.

In addition, storytelling is holistic. It addresses the integration of the left and the right sides of the brain (Siegel). When listening to a story, the left side of the brain is processing sequence, vocabulary, cause-and-effect, while the right is creating images. Both sides of the brain have to work together to make meaning. The combination of words, images, and spatial orientation really gets young brains humming!

Storytelling belongs in inclusive and self-contained classrooms—because it WORKS! Storytelling is important, impactful, effective, and joyful for both the students and the educator/storyteller!

Why is this so? Here are just a few of my favorite answers:

Storytelling allows instant response. In a world of instant gratification, with students whose attention spans are limited and whose needs are incredibly diverse, the face-to-face, live performance art of storytelling allows the storyteller to observe her listeners and respond to them immediately, changing the tone of voice, the gesture, or the vocabulary in reaction to paralinguistic feedback. A questioning look is met with a restatement or definition of language or concept; a giggle is rewarded with repetition of the gesture or sound that occasioned it; boredom is instantly detected and replaced by engagement. A bond is created.

Our human brains are hard-wired for story. Not only do we learn language by hearing language, but we learn, evaluate, store, and retrieve information through story (see Kendall Haven's article in this issue).

Storytelling engages learners. Storytelling provides a new point of entry for learning, helping to level the playing field for children with disabilities by engaging all learning styles and multiple ways of knowing. It has the power to transform the special needs classroom, reaching children who have not responded to other strategies, and provides students with the means to achieve and demonstrate understanding.

And, perhaps most importantly, storytelling breaks down barriers. Watching bewildered, frustrated, angry, lost kids relax into wide-eyed innocence in the trance of story...oh, that's the BEST!

How do I know? I'm a storyteller! And, I'm a teaching artist. I have had the privilege of bringing storytelling into hundreds of inclusive and self-contained classrooms across the country, and I've had the pure, unadulterated joy of seeing it transform learning over and over again. I want to share the joy!

Works Cited

Room 241 Team. "Advice on the Best Practices for Teaching Special Education" Room 241 Blog, Concordia University-Portland (February 11, 2013). http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/special-ed/advice-on-the-best-practices-for-teaching-special-education/.

Feuerstein, Reuven, Louis H. Falik, Rafael S. Feuerstein, and Krisztina Bohacs. A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language: Overcoming Disability, Delay, and Deficiency. Teachers College Press, 2012.

Fox, Mem. Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever. Harcourt, 2001.