Stories

I have recently been thinking about oral language and how it fits into language development including literacy.  Last week we watched a video and I was particularly interested in the research on babies and their ability to hear different sounds in language at a very young age.  I am particularly interested in the way that babies start to mimic their mothers or other adults and start to communicate.  I'm intrigued by this so I thought I'd share this little video that my friends and I recorded when we were out for lunch recently.

So, this is baby Drew and he's about 4 months old.  He's sitting across the table from one of his mother's friends who is talking to him...watch his responses : (sorry about all the background noise)

Wow, how sweet is that!  So if from such a young age a child starts to want to communicate with others then what sorts of things are we doing to facilitate the continued oral language development of a child?  

This brings me back to my classroom and my teaching.  In reflecting, I recognize that most days I have several 4 and 5 year old students who come skipping into the classroom with huge excitement ready to tell me the most AMAZING stories!  Sometimes they interrupt when stories are being read aloud to the class because they've been reminded of an AMAZING story.   Their stories are beautiful and can often be the best part of my day!  It's the part of my day when I see so much passion and excitement in my students.  The sad thing is, though, that often another child is crying, or two children are having difficulty sharing something or there is a bee in the classroom....and all of these things mean that I can't focus on this AMAZING story that one student wants to tell me.  And sadly, once the moment is gone, it's lost.  Because time and time again, when I've gone back to the student to ask them to tell me their story, the passion and excitement behind it is lost and more often, the story is forgotten.  

I truly do value my students stories.  They need to be encouraged to use their voices, and to express themselves.  But if a student is continually dismissed or cut off, let's face it, they loose interest and give up sharing their stories.  If they were able to use their i-pads to capture their stories then we, or I alone, could watch the stories at a time that there wouldn't be any interruptions.  Children could work alone or with partners in recording their stories.  They could watch them back with the teacher and even post them to a blog.  Oral stories stored on a blog, or in a storage space (cloud) be saved.  Maybe these stories could become an idea for a written story at another time.  These oral stories may just be a very important part of the student's portfolio. 

After watching this video : 

I realized how important it is to keep connected to all of our stories.  Technological resources that are available and accessible to all individuals can accomplish this.  By keeping connected to all of our own personal stories we will learn to listen carefully and appreciate the stories of others.  I believe that by listening to the stories of others, we will gain understanding, appreciation and learn to truly honour one another as unique and special individuals.

I will end this reflection with one of my most favourite poems of all time.  It tells a story, and it also comments on the lack of appreciation that others have of his story.