Storytelling Addressing the Literacy Needs of Diverse Learners

succeed. In short, let’s improve our storytelling skills. This article can help. Instruction in today’s inclusive, culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms requires that teachers understand that there are many different ways of telling a “good story” besides the traditional, time-sequenced “school story” format (see box, “What Does the Literature Say?”). Having opportunities to explore all narrative forms, while learning the rules associated with each, allows children with different storytelling histories to support one another’s path to literacy. This teaching approach promotes a vision of diversity as a resource, by encouraging children to make selections of narrative form based on the anticipated audience, rather than reducing all experiences to the school-story format that educators so often use. Children with a wide range of oral and written abilities can participate in storytelling that can be used to bridge their diverse literacy experiences.