Let us Talk Story
Telling it Like it Is
Kevin D. Cordi, Ph.D. --OCIRA April 2018

"Talk Story" is a way that Hawaiians say, let us have a conversation that matters.

I was raised on stories.

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We need to examine the way we teach reading.

Learning to Read is not a Monolithic process but rather,

consists of multiple and differentiated pathways involving

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• acquisition of diverse reading practices
• cultural ideologies ...in social and cultural contexts
• Bloom & Minejong, 2016

Move from autonomous model of learning to read to a social-practice lens

Storytelling as a Social Practice

Stories makes us human

"When a story is read, the primary reference for the communication event is the text...
--Rebecca Isbell

In a storytelling event, the words are not memorized, but are recreated through spontaneous, energetic performance, assisted by audience participation.

Storytelling also helps us
become
Word Dancers

“Once we recognize story structure as a prominent feature of human understanding, then we are led to reconceive the curriculum as the set of great stories we have to tell children and recognize elementary school teachers as the storytellers of our culture.”

K. Egan, The Educated Mind: 1997.
p. 101

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“Information is remembered better and longer, and recalled more readily and accurately when it is remembered within the context of a story.”


Story Proof: the science behind the startling power of story
Kendall Haven, Libraries Unlimited, Westport CT, 2007
p.67.

An 8-year period of telling stories to kindergarten through fifth grade (class) in New Jersey, a one-hour session once a week or once a month, resulted in 1000 teacher feedback reports agreeing that the program “had a major and lasting impact on student behavior and language arts achievement”.

Story Proof, p. 86

We should not monkey around with story...

• or Should We?

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Telling Stories Builds Connections, gives one a sense of belonging.

As teachers, we have daily opportunities to affirm that our student's lives and languages are unique and important...and we do it by giving legitimacy to our student's lives as a content worth of study.
Christensen, 1990, p. 103

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Tell them Mr. Cordi, you have been here

Stories are Gifts

It requires a heart and a hand.

Thank you. Let me know if I can help you tell your story.
Your students are waiting for your gift.
www.kevincordi.com
kcteller@sbcglobal.net