Storytelling as a means of fostering children`s engagement in Literacy

Running head : STORYTELLING : HOW EFFECTIVE IT IS AS A TOOL TO FOSTER CHILDREN 'S ENGAGEMENT IN LITERACY

Storytelling

How Effective it is as a Tool to Foster Children 's Engagement in Literacy

By

Institution

Professor

INTRODUCTION

Even as the idea that the advent of sophisticated toys and digital programs have scored over the age-old storytelling as means of fostering children 's engagement in literacy continues to influence new parents storytelling is still considered as the best method by many . What makes it so different from its new

challengers ? How far can it be used and what are the ways to achieve best possible results out of it ? How it has evolved with time and made itself more equipped with the help of modern technology ? This probes all these and more towards determining the efficacy of storytelling , before concluding with an approbatory note

The Journey

In way towards fostering the kids ' engagement in education , storytelling remains the first and foremost tool since the advent of language , where the senior members of the family would web the stories to the children That would subtly form the bond between generations , let alone evoking the ideas of the little , virgin minds to the nuances of the surroundings as well as the world beyond that

It is the keenness of the children to listen to the stories , their eagerness to learn and probe about life and events on earth and beyond gradually made the early storytellers to formulate certain line of action - such as , incorporating certain values and certain do-s and don 'ts pertaining to better living within the folds of fantasy adventure or human-interest stories . This way , the primary concept of keeping children engaged at home to safety gradually took turns towards preparing them for the greater world . This pattern got crystallized from the print era , and the print world continued to dominate freely till it faced competition from the audio and video versions of it

New Bend

Though at the early stages of storytelling , there was not much emphasis on 'literacy learning , i .e , stressing on fostering the ability to read and write among the children , with time , storytelling added this prime responsibility of citizen-building into its fold , which now has become an inseparable part of the society . It is now treated as an extremely important tool to equip children in reading and writing before they are inducted into school , besides preparing them to express their own ideas symbolically or exchange ideas with peers or the adults . Alongside storytelling has to add another responsibility in its bag : that is , to imbibe the computer literacy in them

Current Situation

Since the concept of joint family has been on the wane , in walked the preparatory schools for the children to do the job . Again , with the advent of digital media , the children started having the scope of a storyteller in the audio mediums , and later in the audio-visual mediums as well . Now the technology has come of the age to play the social role...