Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories: Storytelling and Story Acting in the Early Years

227 Pages·2016·1.27 MB·English

by  Trisha Lee

Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter
Stories
Helicopter Stories is tried, tested and proven to have a significant impact on
children’s literacy and communication skills, their confidence and social and
emotional development. Based on the work of Vivian Gussin Paley, this book
provides a practical, step-by-step guide to using this approach with young
children.
Covering all aspects of Helicopter Stories, Trisha Lee shows you how you can
introduce the approach to children for the first time, collect their stories and then
bring their ideas to life by acting them out. Full of anecdotes and practical
examples from a wide range of settings, the book includes:
Clear guidelines and rules for scribing children’s stories, and acting them
out
How to deal with taboos and sensitive issues in children’s stories
How to involve children who are unwilling to speak or act
Supporting children with English as an Additional Language
Links to show how the approach supports children’s holistic development.
Providing an accessible guide to an approach that is gaining international
recognition and featuring a foreword by Vivian Gussin Paley, this book will be
essential reading for all those who want to support children’s learning in a way
that is fun, engaging and proven to work.
Trisha Lee is a professionally trained theatre director, with a wide range of
practical and academic skills. She is passionate about the importance of
storytelling and drama in children’s lives, particularly in the early years. In 2002
Trisha founded MakeBelieve Arts, a theatre and education company offering
innovative, high-quality theatre and education programmes to develop the
creative potential of children aged 2–15.
Vivian Gussin Paley is a retired kindergarten teacher from the University of
Chicago Laboratory School. She has published numerous books about her work,
and has received many awards, including being named Outstanding Educator by
the National Council of Teachers of English in 2004.
Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter
Stories
Storytelling and Story Acting in the early years
Trisha Lee
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Trisha Lee
The right of Trisha Lee to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Trisha.
Princesses, dragons and helicopter stories : storytelling and story acting in
the early years / Trisha Lee.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Storytelling—Study and teaching. I. Title.
LB1042.L 43 2016
372.67’7044—dc23
2015011527
ISBN: 978-1-138-79764-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-79765-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75696-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Bill and Callum, for filling my life with stories …
Contents
Foreword by Vivian Gussin Paley Introduction: The girl with pigtails
SECTION I The how: Helicopter Stories – The four stages of introduction
1 A sense of anticipation: Introducing Story Acting
2 Would anyone like to tell me a story? Scribing a story around the stage
3 Creating a community of storytellers: Private Stories
4 The vital last step: Story Acting
SECTION II The why: Storytelling and Story Acting
5 The enchanted place: Why is story so important?
6 Stories we may not want to hear: Guns, superheroes and taboos
7 Facing the monsters: Solving problems from a safe space
8 Shush, don’t tell anyone: The big secret
9 She Bumped, and she Pow, and she landed, Bang: To scaffold or to model?
10 Onwards and upwards: Adapting Storytelling and Story Acting to new
audiences
Books by Vivian Gussin Paley Bibliography
Foreword
Trisha Lee plays a magical role in classrooms all over the world. With only pen,
paper and masking tape in hand, she can turn any group of children into an
acting company. The children become storytellers, actors, and audience, and their
teachers emerge as scribes, narrators and stage managers: the classroom is
transformed into the make-believe worlds that children love best.
For those of us who worry that technology is stealing away the magic of
childhood, Ms. Lee’s captivating and instructive book will bring relief and
pleasure. She shows us that it is still the children’s own imaginations that unlock
their unique identities and poetic natures. The words come from the children, and
every expression grows in meaning and richness when reimagined inside a script
and acted out with classmates. The power of fantasy to enhance language and
build community is inescapable. Trisha Lee takes us through the process, step by
step, with skill and enthusiasm.
We humans are born knowing how to place our thoughts and images into
stories. Even the shyest three-year-old is eager to dictate a story if it will be acted
out in the company of classmates. How fortunate that an early childhood
classroom is populated by such a variety of characters, enough different types to
satisfy all our dreams. Our superheroes and baby bears, our mommies, dinosaurs
and runaway kittens are just waiting to be invited to step on to the stage.
The child says, in effect: If you let me pretend to be what I want to be while
everyone watches and listens to me, I will give you my story and listen to yours.
To which the teacher adds: If you and your classmates will act out your stories
together, we will help one another reveal who we are and who we want to
become, in a kinder, more generous and thoughtful classroom community.
And yet, haven’t our pretend superheroes been rescuing mommies and baby
bears from monsters all along, and without the teacher’s help? Is it really so
different when these developing plots and characters are dictated, written down
and acted out on a space marked off with masking tape? This is one of the many
questions answered for us in Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories while we
are being entertained and inspired.
Trisha Lee is a persuasive dramatist. Her admiration and respect for the lyrical
imagina tions of her young storytellers and actors make me want to return to a
kindergarten classroom and take my place once again in the theatre of the young.
Vivian Gussin Paley
Chicago, Illinois
Vivian Gussin Paley is a retired kindergarten teacher from the University of
Chicago Laboratory School. She has published numerous books about her work.
In 1989 she received a MacArthur Fellowship, in 1987 the Erikson Award for
Service to Children, in 1998 a Lifetime Achievement American Book Award from
the Before Columbus Foundation and the John Dewey Society’s Outstanding
Achievement Award in 2000. In 2004, she was named Outstanding Educator by
the National Council of Teachers of English.
For more than 15 years Trisha Lee has worked with Vivian Gussin Paley’s
Storytelling and Story Acting curriculum. Through MakeBelieve Arts, she and
her colleague Isla Hill have designed a programme of professional development
based upon this approach.
This has come to be known as Helicopter Stories.
In 2013 Helicopter Stories was evaluated by the Open University. Since that
time MakeBelieve Arts has established Centres of Excellence across the UK and
offers Helicopter Starter and Helicopter Practitioner training.
In the pages that follow, Trisha Lee explores how stories and fantasy play
engage all young children and help them to draw connections and make sense of
the world.