Professional educators and parents play a critical role in supporting language development opportunities for the children. In the classroom, we believe that oral reading helps strengthen decoding skills and foster reading fluency. Read-aloud stories by adults also play a big part in nurturing a child’s love for reading at an early stage. Young children tend to get easily influenced by adults. Once they see adults display enthusiasm in reading, imitation, and learning take place.
With the theme “Adventures Through Reading Program”, Grades 1 and 2 parents were encouraged to volunteer to be the class’ storyteller for the day. Full anticipation was seen on our children’s faces as they were thrilled and looked forward to this week’s program. Stepping into the classroom and hearing them exclaiming, “Who will be reading a story for us today?” was a heart-stopping moment for us. A sense of pride was obviously seen from some children’s faces, being consciously aware that it is one of their parents who will be sharing a piece of their heart through reading an engaging and meaningful story.
During the storytelling, our volunteered parents passionately delivered stories with their own designed methods. Some parents were resourceful and prepared colorful props beforehand in order to captivate the listeners’ attention and convey stories together with their child effectively. Another notable performance was when our little storytellers memorized and practiced their lines for at least two weeks. During the story process, it was evident that the story was well rehearsed by both parent and child, as they happily shared their favorite story withthe class. Other parents used their golden voices and performed dramatic actions to bring the story alive and interesting.
The uniquely designed program had not only awaken ones’ curiosity and drive in enriching individual minds but also ignited the parents’ desire to instill what storytelling can possibly do to our young learners.
