Kids learn best through stories
Empower them to gain knowledge by asking questions
ONE upon a time, in a land not so very different to this one, there was a young girl who was afraid to write. Her handwriting was too wobbly, her words were too small and her worry grew bigger and bigger until she couldn’t pick up a pen at all.
Sadly, in South Africa and in other countries, this tale is a reality for many children.
Early education specialist Sara Stanley has plans to help change this and is working with The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (Praesa) practitioners to craft best practice in early childhood development literacy.
A consultant and international speaker, Stanley advocates for enquiry-based classroom environments through the “extended story curriculum”.
Young children are very quickly placed in a position where they are expected to be the knowers of knowledge.
If they don’t have that knowledge, they are immediately excluded from the learning process. Instead, Stanley advocates for children to be positioned as creators of knowledge: to ask questions of the world around them instead of waiting to be told what to know. “It’s really about empowering children to take ownership of language as a tool to open up worlds,” Stanley suggests. “Play is educational. It gives children the safety and confidence to create and discover.” This takes us back to the power of stories.
“There are many ways to explore a curriculum through a story,” Stanley says.
“It doesn’t take huge resources and it doesn’t detract from the learning experience – in fact, my work shows it significantly amplifies it.”
Stanley encourages teachers to use this natural skill by bringing books alive in the classroom. “Don’t simply read to children! “Ask questions about a story, design activities using the characters or situations, get children to grapple with the complex worlds that can come out of the plot. Even picture books contain big questions: we’ve got to allow children to ask – and answer – them!”
One of Stanley’s favourite moments happened during a project she was facilitating in Langa, Cape Town.
After a day of activities based around a book, the children were encouraged to write a tiny letter to the main character Fufu, the mouse, and post it in a special postbox.
“Some of the children tugged at my sleeve and said, anxiously, ‘I can’t do that because I can’t write!’ I just turned to them and said ‘But mice can read anything – they’re very clever and they know what you mean’. “They shot me such a big grin! “You see, the story-world had given them the permission to try.
“Pressure had been replaced by permission,” Stanley said.
Reading and telling stories with children in their home languages provides them with a strong foundation for language learning and increases their chances of future academic success.
For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign, or to access children’s stories in a range of SA languages, visit: www.nalibali.org