Oral Storytelling Summary

The article Oral Storytelling by Doriet Berkowitz is an informational text explaining the benefit of reading aloud to children through only words; not picture books. Berkowitz states on the first page, “It [oral storytelling] gives children an opportunity to exercise their imagination, communicate effectively, enhance their social literacy, and build community in a different way” (36). The author goes on through the article to explain how these skills are modeled during oral storytelling. During an oral story, Berkowitz explains the child-teacher response. When Berkowitz softens her voice and crouches down, the children lean in close, and when she raises her voice in excitement the children’s eyes grow bigger (36). Through this, children are able to grasp a type of empathy and unite, building up their community (Berkowitz, 36). This concept I found very interesting because I did not know how much of an impact oral language could socially have on preschoolers. When I picture this scene, I imagine a group of 3 year olds quietly engaged and in suspense of what their storyteller will say next. I experienced something like this

For instance, Berkowitz enlightens readers on her co-teacher’s “Pinky Sisters” series that she tells to her students (37). The story is an ongoing series in which Veda (Berkowitz’s co-teacher) keeps open ended, and often ask students their ideas on new characters and story lines (Berkowitz, 38). The children are able to have their imagination directly correlated to these stories, which keeps them involved on a daily basis (Berkowitz, 38). This key point is very interesting to me, and I really enjoy how the students asked for a Pinky Sister story everyday. The sparking of their imagination and allowing them to help “write” the story and characters helps them understand early writing concepts, like purpose and the idea that words are read, not