HANDOUT 2.

Background Reading to Session 2

Storytelling/Storymaking

The idea of ‘storymaking’ was initially developed with my colleague Mary Rose, through a teacher
research project based at the ‘International Learning and Research Centre’ in South Gloucestershire,
funded by what was known as the DFES ‘Innovations’ unit. We explored the use of story telling as a
tool for helping children build up a bank of narrative patterns that could then be called upon when
they wish to create their own.

Over time, LEAs and clusters of schools have found that storymaking is a powerful strategy for
improving both boys writing and helping children who struggle with literacy gain success. It is also a
powerful strategy for children for whom English is a new language. The new narrative progression
attached to the framework for literacy identifies the progression in narrative writing alongside
storytelling.

The idea is quite simple. The first stage is for children to learn orally a bank of stories each year –
let’s say ten stories such as ‘The Gingerbread Man’ in Reception and another ten in year one. This
means that they enter year 2, knowing up to twenty stories. Thereafter they might work with one story
every half-term therefore acquiring a bank of about 50 stories across the primary years.

They internalise:
 ‘Big’ patterns that are revisited, such as ‘quest’ or ‘journey’ stories. In this way basic plots can
act as blueprints for the imagination. As Samuel Johnson said, ‘the same images, with very
little variation, have served all the authors who have ever written’.
 The building blocks of narrative – common characters, settings, events, the rise and fall of
narrative patterning;
 The flow of sentences, the syntactical patterns;
 The vocabulary – especially, connectives that link and structure narrative such as ‘once upon
a time, one day, so, next, but, finally, etc’.
 Most importantly, they develop an imaginative world of images that can be drawn upon and
daydreamed to invent new stories.

The stories are taught in a multi-sensory manner. Actions are used to make the tales, especially the
key connectives, memorable. Each story has a story map or board as a visual reminder. Activities
such as puppets, role-play, hot-seating and ‘acting out’ are used to bring the tale alive and make it
memorable. At the start of this work, most of the children in reception classes were unable to tell a
story. In our sample group only 2% of reception children were able to retell a whole story. By the end
of the year, 76% of the children were able to retell a whole story with a 100% able to retell a good
chunk!

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© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
The Storymaking Process.

IMITATION – familiarisation.
 Retelling a story till it can be told fluently.
 Multi-sensory approach, made memorable.
INNOVATION – adapting a well-known tale.
 Substitution, addition, alteration, change of viewpoint and re-sing the
basic story pattern
INVENTION – creating your own new story.
 Building up a story – drawing, drama, images, video, first-hand
experience, location, quality reading, etc.

IMITATION – familiarization

 Listen – join in – retell.

Communal retelling involves everyone saying the same words in the same way we might learn a
song together. Through constant repetition, the children end up knowing the story by heart. This is
crucial for young children, those new to the English language as well as older pupils who have
missed out on internalising narrative patterns. It is great fun, provides a genuine sense of
accomplishment and is inclusive. It also helps children make progress.

Initially, retelling happens as a whole class, followed by story circles and then with partners. The
teacher gradually withdraws so that in the end the children can retell the tale on their own. Move to
group retellings only when the class can chant it without the teacher dominating the retelling. It is a
movement from dependence to independence. If stories can be taped or taught to parents by the
children then families may become involved.

As children develop competency in storymaking and internalise narrative patterns, stories do not
have to be learned word for word. Competent storymakers can launch straight into independent
retelling with their own innovations. They can listen to a story several times, draw a map and work in
pairs, taking turns, to develop a retelling. They will need to retell the story a number of times to refine
the tale and gain fluency.

Making a story memorable.

 Comprehension - you may wish to carry out a range of comprehension activities – booktalk,
response, close reading, DARTs activities, etc.
 When the children know the story well, it may be appropriate to show them a written version of
the story. One boy surprised himself by being able to reread a story that previously he had not
been able to tackle at all!
 Drama helps children get to know the text really well – often having to listen again to and
reuse parts of the text. With older children, drama activities are especially useful for
encouraging a return to the original text to internalise the patterns and interpretation…. Also,
drama can help children begin to generate new ideas for their own writing.

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Literacy Consultants: Talk for Writing Day (Pie Corbett), May 2008
© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
  Writing in role - If you want the children to write in role – or create something new – then it
may be worth combining drama or storytelling, with drawing, plus an opportunity to retell so
that ideas and language can be refined/revised.
 Making the story memorable – if you are retelling ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’ – then bring in a
magic pot, cook porridge…. If you are retelling Red Riding Hood then bring in a red cloak. The
more a story is recreated and represented in different forms, the more likely it is to live as a
memorable metaphor in children’s minds. A flimsy relationship with a story will leave only the
vaguest of traces in their imaginations. Bring stories alive. As educationalists we are interested
in how storytelling might help children cumulatively acquire language and influence writing –
but we must not loose sight of the idea that stories are experiences – not just vehicles for
learning language or the passing on of information.
 Read as a writer - through problem-solving the text. ‘I suspect many writers read books the
way mechanics look at cars, with an eye to what is going on under the bonnet.’ Paul Muldoon.
Looking at stories with a writerly eye, can help children to become more aware of structures
and strategies that writers use to create different effects.
 Using the writing journal - identify the overall pattern/structure, the language features and
other writerly tips and hints. These can be logged on wall charts or examples collected in a
writing journal which acts as a storehouse of all the useful things that they have been taught
that might be referred to when writing – a sort of writing thesaurus. This drives shared writing,
the children’s own writing and self evaluation, as well as the teacher’s marking. This provides
clarity and direction. It also means that the word and sentence level work purposefully
becomes about language usage to create different effects and impact.
 Practise word and sentence features – orally or on mini whiteboards rehearse writerly
techniques, sentence features and spellings, ultimately to be used in the children’s own
writing.

.INNOVATION – developing from known stories on known stories.

The next step is to take a well-known story and adapt it to make it your own. There are various
different changes that can be made. A simple ‘substitution’ might involve changing names, places or
objects. ‘Adding in’ new scenes or extra detail is often a quite natural development. This might be
simply a matter of adding in a few adjectives or embellishing the tale considerably. ‘Alteration’ might
be made to settings, character and key events. The story could be ‘retold from a different viewpoint’
or recast as a diary, letter or news item. For instance, I once saw the ‘Three Bears’ performed as a
rap – and have also seen it rewritten as a ‘break and entry’ thriller in which the main character enters
a house, steals something and is then caught by the owner!

Only move on to innovation when the story is in the long-term working memory – otherwise, they will
struggle to innovate. Each stage needs to be modelled by the teacher so that there is a whole class
innovation. This then sets then scene for staging the children to gradually create their own innovation.

Substitutions
This seems to be the simplest form of innovation. Many children find it simple enough to alter basic
names of characters, places and objects.
Additions
This may make a second simple enough stage. The child keeps the same basic pattern and
sentences. However, extra sentences are added in, embellishing on the original. These might
include:
 simple additions, e.g. one day = one sunny day;
 adding in more description;
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© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
 adding in more dialogue;
 adding in new characters or events;
 adding in extra detail to bring scenes alive.

Alterations
An ‘alteration’ is a significant change that has consequences, usually altering the story is some
fashion.
 altering characters, e.g. so that a good character becomes greedy;
 altering settings, e.g. so that a character journeys through a housing estate rather than a forest;
 altering events but sticking to the basic plot;
 altering the plot structure, e.g. the way the story opens or ends.

Change of Viewpoint
The story plot is used as a basis for a retelling from a new viewpoint: -
 retelling in a different form (text type) – as a letter, diary entry, etc.
 retelling from a different character’s view;
 retelling in a totally new setting, e.g. Little Charlie in a city;
 retelling in a different time, e.g. Three Bears in modern times;
 retelling in a different genre or text type (e.g. as a letter).

Re-use the basic plot

This involves unpicking the basic plot and recycling it in a new setting with new characters and
events.

Moving from Telling into Writing

It is worth noting that the quality of the children’s innovations is in direct relation to the quality of the
class innovation and shared writing. When turning the class innovation into writing, retell the story as
you write. With younger children, write the story as it has been learned. More experienced writers
may use the known version as a skeleton so that as you write the story down you can show the
children how to embellish, drawing on reading and ensuring that the shared writing demonstrates
progress. Use shared writing to teach:-
 thinking about audience and purpose;
 using key strategies, e.g. gathering ideas, organising ideas, transforming plans into writing,
polishing and presenting;
 drawing on the told story and the reading of mentor texts – for the overall structure, sentence and
word features as well as characterization, dialogue, action, suspense, using hooks to intrigue the
reader, etc.
 use the writing journal as a reference.

For younger children and weaker writers this means that when they settle down to write, they already
know what they are going to say. This releases cognitive space. The children are not trying to cope
with the demands of transcription at the same time as composition. Because they already know their
story well, they are more motivated and will put in more effort to transcribe their story. The act of
writing has been made easier because they know what they are going to say. This frees the brain so
that it can concentrate on getting the story down onto the page. This is why some children make
dramatic progress. Teachers need to use shared writing to teach progress.

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Literacy Consultants: Talk for Writing Day (Pie Corbett), May 2008
© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
Writing in front of the children may be a blend of demonstration (I’ll show you) and teacher scribing
(You have a go and I’ll write it down). In teacher scribing, the teacher challenges weak suggestions
and challenges the children to draw on features and examples that will ensure progress. The aim is
to keep on showing them and talking through aspects of writing so that if they then do the same sort
of thing it will help them make progress. Assessment of the children’s writing informs shared writing.

Older pupils – probably year 2 onwards – develop the story at the point of composition. It is also
important to set different story challenges within a class so some may be simply ‘substituting’ whilst
others are embellishing and altering to level 5.

The Story Innovation Process

1. Tell the new story with actions.

2. Draw a new story map or storyboard.

3. Retell the story daily – with the pupils increasingly joining in while the teacher gradually
withdraws.

4. Move onto story circles and pairs.

5. Once the children have internalised the story into their long-term working memory - begin
innovation.
6. Teacher models an innovation and creates a new story map/storyboard.
7. The teacher demonstrates how to use this to retell the new version.
8. Class and teacher retell new version.

9. Teacher leads the children through creating their innovation.

10. Children draw their new map and retell their innovation.

9. Shared writing of class innovation.

10. Pupils write or record their own innovations.
11. Polishing and publishing of stories.

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Literacy Consultants: Talk for Writing Day (Pie Corbett), May 2008
© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
Developing a story

When the children know the basic story and can retell it fluently then they are able to develop the
actual wording. Be careful that they do not embellish a story so much that it becomes too wordy and
the narrative is lost.

A simple ‘story grid’ or flow chart can be drawn to provide a visual overview of each ‘scene’ or main
event. Use this to focus on:
 Description – people, places, objects, creatures.
 Characterisation and dialogue
 Suspense and action
 Crafting the opening and ending

Don’t work on everything at once – just select a focus. Model ideas, to influence the class version of
a story. Then ask children to work in pairs or individually. Some key points of ‘writing knowledge’
might include:

Characterisation
 Name
 A few descriptive details
 How is the character feeling and why, e.g. angry – or what type are they, e.g. bossy or shy
 Show this through what they say or do.
 What is their desire, e.g. she wants a pet
 Develop and change character across the story

Dialogue
 Think about how they feel
 Use powerful speech verbs
 Use said + adverb
 Insert stage direction to show what a character is doing when speaking, e.g. “No,” he hissed,
shaking his head in disgust.
 Use only a few exchanges

Description – people, places, objects

 Use well-chosen adjectives
 Use similes/metaphor
 Use senses and concrete detail
 Show things through the character’s eyes, e.g. she stared at….
 Describe key objects
 Describe settings to create atmosphere
 Describe the weather and time of day

Openings
 Character – Bill stared at the burger in disgust.
 Setting – A fly crawled up the window pane.
 Action – Jo ran.
 Talk – ‘Put that down!’
 Use a ‘hook’ – Usually, John enjoyed walking to school but…
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© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
Endings
 Show character’s feelings – Bill grinned.
 Comment on what has been learned – They knew it had been stupid….

Action and suspense

* Balance short and long sentences.
* Use questions to draw reader in.
* Use exclamations for impact.
* Place character in lonely, dark place
* Introduce an ominous sound effect, e.g. something hissed.
* Show a glimpse of something, e.g. a hand appeared at the door.
* Use dramatic connectives, e.g. at that moment….
* Use empty words, e.g. something, somebody, it.
* Use powerful verbs, e.g. run, jump, grip, grab, struggle.

INVENTION – orally creating a new story

In storymaking schools children are constantly in the process of either learning a story or innovating.
This is a daily ongoing process especially at key stage 1. But they also need to get used to making
stories up from themselves, drawing on their bank of told stories as well as their lives. To do this, hold
regular weekly story inventing sessions. These should be:
- oral;
- guided by the teacher;
- reusing familiar characters, settings and patterns;
- reusing story language;
- an opportunity for new ideas, drawing on a range of stories and life.
It is worth bearing in mind the following advice:
 keep the stories simple - build the end in early to avoid rambling!

Capturing the story

Of course, you may wish to just make the story up and leave it at that. It might be captured in writing,
with a Dictaphone or video. Or, just by drawing: -
 Story map - Story mountain - Story flow chart or Story board.

Start from the basic story ingredients

Begin by discussing the key questions:
 Who – build up a character;
 Where – does the story take place;
 What – will happen. Bearing in mind that you will need something to go wrong – a dilemma or
problem or mystery or exciting event.
 If you get stuck – use a story trigger – have something happen such as a phone ringing, a new
character enters, someone screams…

Using a basic plot

Many schools have identified key plots which the children meet every year – one per half term. In this
way the children become familiar with a basic pattern that may be reused in endless permutations: -

1. Problem/resolution.
2. 2. Warning.
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Literacy Consultants: Talk for Writing Day (Pie Corbett), May 2008
© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission
 3. 3. Quest – a to b, there and back again.
4. 4. Wishing.
5. 5. Lost/found.
6. 6. Defeating the monster, e.g. (Gary had never believed in trolls – or – Gary had always been
afraid of being trapped in dark places).
7. Cinderella.
8. Character flaw (tragedy).
9. Cumulative, e.g. The Hungry Caterpillar.
10. Traditional (myths, fables, etc).

If children are building up to writing it is worth following this pattern.

 Draw your story – making decisions about what will happen;
 Use the drawing to tell the story to a partner, by word of mouth;
 Discuss the story with your partner, taking suggestions for improvement;
 Retell the story with refinements;
 The more you retell aloud or in your head, the better you get to know the story, the more it can be
improved;
 Once the plot has developed, use story grids to work on characterization, description, etc;
 As you write the story, retell it again in your head, tweaking it where necessary.

Pie Corbett. April 2008.

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Literacy Consultants: Talk for Writing Day (Pie Corbett), May 2008
© Pie Corbett 2008. Used with kind permission