Bongiorno_Cameron_Storytelling reflection (Free choice from Week 11)
Hi again! This week's post will be a reflection on my storytelling experience from week 11 in our course. For this storytelling experience, we were allowed to choose which type of storytelling we would like to do - storytelling with a book (a read aloud), interactive storytelling, storytelling with props, or storytelling without a book. I was excited to have the chance to choose the storytelling type because I could select the best one for me. It was a no-brainer. I was going to do storytelling with a book. From my past storytelling experiences, I found this type to be the easiest and least stressful to perform and record. Now, I just had to carry out the steps to complete this storytelling assignment.
My first and main concern was finding a great book to use for this experience. Since I did not have the luxury of attending a Scholastic Book Fair at my youngest daughter's school like I did the first time, I needed to look elsewhere to find the perfect book. Once again, I headed to Books a Million while my oldest daughter was at her ice skating lesson. I was trying to be efficient and kill two birds with one stone. Yay me! Before I went to the bookstore, I already had in mind some of the necessary criteria for a great book choice for this assignment. I wanted a book that was entertaining, not only to me but also to an audience of younger children, with an engaging plot (Greene & Del Negro, 2010), simple illustrations, and a perfect amount of larger text on each page (UNC-Chapel Hill, 2016). Dr. Brian Sturm, a professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, provided most of these recommendations in the YouTube video "The Mechanics of Reading Aloud" (UNC-Chapel Hill, 2016).
Then it was go time. In Books a Million I immediately skipped over the Board Books section since I wanted my audience to at least be in Kindergarten - thinking I could possibly use this book if I become a media specialist in an elementary school library. I was first drawn to Tap! Tap! Tap!: Dance! Dance! Dance! by Hervé Tullet due to its bright cover with bold illustrations.
When I looked at it further, I realized, however, that it was for younger children. It is also an interactive book where the child actually places their hand in various positions to tap and dance. I just didn't think that this would be great for storytelling with a book since it did not have any plot whatsoever. I also liked the book I Am Stuck by Julia Mills about a turtle stuck in his shell. The pictures were so cute, but I did not think that this book had enough text to engage the audience. Then I came across Kobi Yamada's book What Do You Do With a Problem?.
By this point, I was becoming a little frustrated. How could I not find a good book among this large selection? But I kept going. I was determined and would not give up. I kept thinking "Keep on swimming; keep on swimming" just like Dory. Then I happened upon a book written by Matthew McConaughey - THE Matthew McConaughey. I was hoping that since everything else he does is golden his book Just Because would be as well.
Unfortunately, it did not meet my high expectations. I did not think that the pictures were large enough or that it was very entertaining, engaging, or uplifting. What a letdown! Maybe Matthew McConaughey is not as perfect as I previously thought. Anyway, I kept on looking and looking and looking.
I finally came upon the book We Don't Eat Our Classmates written by Ryan T. Higgins. The cute little drooling dinosaur on the cover and the title caught my eye. After checking the publication date to make sure that it was published after 2013, I quickly read through it, and I fell in love! Not only does it have great illustrations and an engaging plot, but this book also has the perfect amount of text on each page and is very entertaining! It tells the story of Penelope Rex as she begins school for the very first time. After discovering that her classmates are children, she can't help herself from eating them. She is a T. Rex after all. Luckily, she spits them back out (several times) and tries to make friends. Once the class pet, a goldfish named Walter, tries to eat her, she does not want to eat her classmates anymore. After reading this cute story, I discovered that I only needed to create three different voices - one for Penelope, one for her teacher, and one for her father. I thought that those would be manageable, and off I went to purchase the book. Hooray! Hooray!
Once I arrived home, I read the story aloud to my youngest daughter. She loved it! I continued to practice reading it several times throughout the week (Greene & Del Negro, 2010) to become more familiar and comfortable with the text and practice my different voice variations. Before recording the read aloud, I researched the author Ryan T. Higgins. I wanted to include some background information about him as an introduction to the book. I loved that he based this book on how he and his wife felt when their oldest son Griffin was about to start kindergarten. It was so neat that he included his son's name as one of the characters in the book. I also rewatched the YouTube video "The Mechanics of Reading Aloud" (UNC-Chapel Hill, 2016) that Dr. Sturm presented to refresh my memory concerning his advice for a good read aloud. I thought I was ready for a successful storytelling performance and recording.
Well, I was wrong. This storytelling experience was a disaster! In an attempt to mix things up a little, I changed the recording space from my bedroom to my living room. There I struggled to find good lighting. It was either too dark without a lamp or too bright with a lamp. I then moved my computer and camera to the hallway. That was another fail. Finally, I ended right back up in my bedroom where I had done three of the previous storytelling assignment recordings. By this point, I was extremely frustrated because I had wasted a huge amount of time. Once I was finally set up in my bedroom with decent lighting, I tried recording again. I had the hardest time holding the book so that I could read the text and the audience could see the pictures. The book We Don't Eat Our Classmates is shorter in height and larger in width than the book Icky Little Duckling which I read aloud for my very first assignment. I simply needed my arm to be a little longer to better hold the book We Don't Eat Our Classmates. Since that miracle was not going to happen, I just had to stretch really far to grasp the outer edge of the book. With the lighting and positioning of the book in check, I attempted several more times to record my storytelling experience. I finally had to accept that it was not going to be perfect and decided upon the recording to upload to my YouTube channel. I really hope people like listening to my read aloud. We Don't Eat Our Classmates is such a cute book that I want viewers to enjoy it as much as I do!
References
Greene, E. & Del Negro, J. M. (2010). Storytelling:
Art and technique (4th ed.). Libraries United.
UNC - Chapel Hill. (2016, February 3). The mechanics of reading aloud [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54mcQtP6i0k
Nonfiction Picture Books I Have Read:
Weatherford, C. B. (2022). Call me Miss Hamilton: One woman’s case for equality and respect. Millbrook Press.
Pincus, M. (2022). Make way for animals!: A world of wildlife crossings. Millbrook Press.
Pizzoli, G. (2022). Pizza!: A slice of history. Viking Books for Young Readers.
Gilberti, F. (2021). Banksy graffitied walls and wasn’t sorry. Phaidon Press.
Westergaard, A. (2021). A life electric: The story of Nikola Tesla. Viking Books for Young Readers.
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