Storytelling is a powerful methodology to develop good teamwork. Also, an interesting tool to share experiences and brings different environments to the classroom.
The activity links the work at school with the family.
Children with special education needs have the benefits of the methodology to express emotions and feelings, also they can have principal roles in the groups by telling familiar stories to their peers.
General goal. Share own family aspects/personal information with peers.
Specific objectives:
The practice will take a total of 3 sessions of 45 minutes distributed in one week.
Previously, the families of the children will take pictures of the favorite pyjama of their child and e-mail them to the teacher. The night before the activity they read together, before sleeping, the favorite tale.
The classroom must be divided into 2 groups. There are going to be three spaces, two for listening and telling stories and the other one with a stage.
Telling tales session
Both groups are going to listen to the favorite tale of a classmate with special education needs. After that, they will draw one of the characters of the tale.
Puppets session
While one group is telling another tale, the others come to the workshop and the stage. They create puppets about the characters of the tale. The teacher has previously printed their pyjamas so each child can paste the puppet with their pyjama.
While the child with special education needs is acting as storyteller the others played with their puppets with pyjamas. The teacher records the production. After the record, the groups change the activity.
Pyjama’s Party session
All the participants must bring their favorite pyjama to school. They dress up and watch the tales that they have recorded. They can play as they were in the tale or as they were at home. The activity finish with a funny dance.
Cell phones and e-mail let the families send pictures of the pyjamas of the children to the teacher.
The digital camera records the children. This digital tool lets children move characters on the stage and record their voices, creating stories that were saved as video files.
A projector will be used to project the images and the music to have a pyjama party in the third session.
Tale books, drawing material, pyjamas.
The final movie is a tale with the characters dressing in the pyjamas of the class members.
To support the inclusion of children with special education needs, the teacher will spread these children in the two groups and give them the role of storyteller. They are going to tell their favorite tale, so it´s going to be easy for them. By seeing their pyjamas the children are going to feel more comfortable and involved with the final production.
The families will read the tales with the children and they are going to take the pictures so they are involved in the activity.
The main strength of the activity is the use of technology, which will make the teamwork more dynamic and attractive to the children. The technology and the drawings will also help the children with language difficulties to express different emotions.
INCLUDED – Digital Storytelling for Inclusion