Storytelling Across the Primary Curriculum

Starting from the question‘what is a story?’ Storytelling Across the Primary Curriculum leads the reader through the theory and practise of storytelling as an educational method – a method taught by the author over the last ten years through Primary English teaching programmes.

This practical book gives teachers the skills and confidence to use storytelling and the spoken word in new and exciting ways in the classroom. It will also give teachers the confidence to ‘put down the book’ and trust themselves to tell, rather than read, a story. It provides a wealth of examples of cross-curricular teaching opportunities, including a section on the ways in which the teaching of phonics can be embedded in the 'real' language of story.

Storytelling Across the Primary Curriculum is ideal for trainee and practicing primary school teachers who want to develop their classroom practice within the field of storytelling. Students on BA Primary, BEd, and PGCE courses, particularly those specialising in English, will also benefit from this book’s stimulating and intuitive approach to teaching English language and literacy.

Alastair K. Daniel has more than twenty years' experience in education as a teacher and storyteller. Having previously taught Primary English at Kingston University, he is now Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy in Education at London Metropolitan University.

Part 1- Classroom Storytelling
1 Introduction : storytelling as the social art of language
2 Building the framework : narrative structure and meta-narrative
3 Lessons in thievery : selecting stories for classroom telling
4 Forging the tale anew : adapting the story for classroom telling
5 The craft of classroom storytelling
Part 2 – Storytelling across the primary curriculum
6 Words, words, words : storytelling, language and literacy
7 Stories of pipers and tales of tall ships : history and geography through storytelling
8 Telling valuable tales and exploring deep meaning : religious education and moral development
9 Possibility thinking : storytelling, science and mathematics
10 Storytelling within the arts curriculum
11 Storytelling and the visual arts
12 Storytelling, drama and dance : living the narrative
13 Singing the narrative : storytelling and music