October 15, 2007 Storytelling Festival
I attended the story telling festival on Friday afternoon. The storytellers I listened to were Connie Regan Blake and
Peggy Godfrey. Peggy Godfrey’s story was interesting. I enjoyed the way she included poetry into her story. The theme
of her story was agricultural ranching. She talked about the nurturing of livestock and their babies. She also had student
volunteers participate in her storytelling. The volunteers were two boys who pretended to be a ewe and an orphan baby sheep.
The boys were not shy at all. They were very energized to participate and act out the scenes being told.
The way I think storytelling might be used to
enhance student learning for English language learners is using real life experiences that might reflect on a child’s
life. Sharing stories that have the same cultural background or similar kinds of stories children can relate to is a good
way to engage children into storytelling. This could help children to share stories for their own culture and make comparisons
with the structure of stories told in English.
