Journal Article by Robin D. Groce

I think this book gives us the opportunity to reflect on our roles in our students’ lives, as a general classroom teacher and how we can best help our students develop into active learners and well-adjusted adults. Paley also made us think about how children’s story and classroom community play a significant role in helping children learn about themselves and

I teach fourth grade language arts where my main focus is to prepare my students to write a personal narrative for the Nebraska State Writing Test in January. Reading and writing are intertwined in my area of professional responsibility as I motivate my students to write a well-organized, creative personal narrative. As I have taught writing, I have found reading, writing, speaking, and listening go hand in hand when composing a personal narrative (Bruning, 2011, p. 299).

In our current society, literacy is defined as the ability to read and write. Though this is a common trait among individuals in our society, it is one that I view unique to every individual who had the opportunity to obtain it. I will retell my literacy journey in a way that encompasses one of my favorite theories in writing, the mono-tale of the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell. This theory states that the Hero’s journey is a pattern in a narrative that forms the basic template of all great stories (Gunn 1).

Narrative pedagogy, or using stories and narratives to teach, is a philosophy that creates an environment for students and teachers to learn complex

The register of language helps children in their early years to develop the language from a limited use of words, to a casual language (characterized by a 400-800 words vocabulary), and finally to talk with a formal language (standard sentence syntax and word choice of work and school). These aspects of language affect the students that live in poverty because they do not have access to formal register at home. The lack of formal register combined with a lack of vocabulary, the knowledge of sentence structure or adequate syntax affects the student to develop a good score and do well in school. Second, the pattern of discourse helps the student to organize the information. In the formal register, the patterns of discourse help the student to get straight to the point. However, the students that have not access to formal register, educators become frustrated with the tendency of these

To understand children’s language learning we have to go beyond language classrooms. Regarding the child as a language learner we have

In the early days in our class our teach told us we are all writers and have a story to tell, at first I didn’t believe her. Until after we were

Scaffold: The author uses this term in order to convey the idea that narrative literacy is a ……………..fundamental structure in order to improve student engagements and lessons.

I have become appreciative and more receptive to the functions of language and how they are incorporated into the development of communication skills. Language register is also an important factor that contributes to a child developing soundly

The main theories of language acquisition perceive that children are capable of developing and maturing whether by themselves or with the support and stimulation from their environment to acquire language. The five

Young children are like sponges; they absorb information like a sponge absorbs water. It is essential for them to be emerged in an environment in which they can absorb positive information so that one day they can become contributing members of our society and have a better future. For this reason, there is a pronounced importance on providing enriching environments for children to learn and develop appropriately. One of the ways that this can be achieved is through a literacy rich environment specifically with the use of story reading and storytelling.

Storytelling is the oral tradition of sharing stories and recounting events of the past. It is an ancient art form and is a dear form of human expression (What is). Most historians and psychologists alike agree that storytelling is one of the many things binding and defining humanity as we know it because everything revolves around storytelling in one form or another. Humans are possibly the only animals capable of creating and telling stories.

Storytelling has been with us since the days of campfire and besieging wild animals. It served a number of important functions: amelioration of fears, communication of vital information (regarding survival tactics and the characteristics of animals, for instance), the satisfaction of a sense of order (justice), the development of the ability to hypothesize, predict and introduce theories and so on.

Storytelling is widely used in the primary sector as Dujmović & Bančić (2014) mention that storytelling is enormously a powerful and practical tool in language teaching, particularly for early language learning (p. 16). Interestingly, Wilner and Whittaker (2010) added that 61.4 % of the teachers reported that storytelling is not only used with child learners but also with adults (p. 15- 16). Following this line of thought, Haven

Teacher stories are often told through narratives. Narratives establish meaning to the teacher story and provide answers about teacher identity. The use of narratives also serves as a conduit for the delivery of teacher knowledge in their content area (Kratka, 2015). According to (Linde, 2001), stories can be used to illustrate immeasurable knowledge that exists within the social relationships of a teacher’s environment. Narratives focus on knowledge created by the experiences that develop a teacher’s personal story. Therefore, we must pay close attention to the daily experiences that dictate our future if we are to gain true understanding of who we are (Clandinin, 2007). Understanding how teacher stories are established requires us to recognize that the process is constantly changing to meet the demands of the professional environment the teacher is exposed to. The teacher story will undergo many changes as new knowledge and experience is added to the narrative (Huberman, 1993). While the narratives a teacher tells are meant to convince others of the teacher’s competence, they must also convince the teacher of their own self worth in order to build positive