When I was very young my grand-
father used to tell me stories daily at night. I loved the stories very much and
insisted my grandfather to re-tell the stories; mostly which were about fairies,
animals, emperors and the people from different planets. I still remember some
of them. While listening the stories from my grandfather I had great curiosity
and fun watching expressions and emotions as he elaborated. This practice showed
me an entirely imaginative world where I could see big forests, colorful skies,
beautiful fairies with long brown hair, men with unusual heights, huge flying
saucers and so on. Gradually this story listening embarked my curiosity and
interest towards reading. But I could only had my text books and my siblings’
ones that I used to read many times for my pleasure. This reading taste later
embed in my personality where I could attract towards reading books, novels and
newspaper though I couldn’t as we had no such reading material at my home or at
school. However, I was fortunate enough to had some old newspapers that my
father used to bring sometimes. I read those newspaper with great pleasure and
interest sometimes I tried to translate it to my grand-father also. Later on
that little reading practice provided an immense support and motivation towards
reading in my schooling hence developed my inner skills and explored a learning
world for me.
Reflecting back on my past experiences and learning it becomes very clear that
reading is a fundamental core skill to prepare one for education journey.
Through reading one can learn speaking, writing, vocabulary, spelling and
content. Sound reading skills benefit children to comprehend their subjects and
concepts easily. Unfortunately in countries like Pakistan most of the children
are far behind in reading which significantly results in low academic progress
and lack of motivation towards learning. Teachers and parents use various
approaches to improve reading of young children such as; text book dictation,
vocabulary practice, spelling bees etc. But the best approach is Story Reading
through which a teacher can bring long-lasting outcomes in children’s life.
The basic goals of education is to enable students to gain an understanding of
the world and themselves, to develop appreciation and interests, and to find
solutions to their problems and all it can be possible through reading.
Modern research significantly put emphasis on to improve reading through telling
stories in classroom teaching. “Because of the interrelated nature of the
processes involved in reading and writing, storytelling is an effective
pedagogical strategy that can be woven into instruction to increase students’
competencies in all areas”, (Miller,S& Pennycuff, 2008).It is because story
reading provides opportunity to teachers and students to involve themselves in
different situations and enjoy while reading. It helps develop positive
attitudes towards learning by developing a sense of joy in language that they
often miss in usual classroom. Research shows that even students with low
motivation and with weak academic skills likely to read, write, speak and
participate in the context of story reading class.
Many teachers think that story reading is wastage of time but it does not at
all. Story telling is part of lesson that makes learning more relevant and
contextual. It makes the lesson more powerful and effective through embarking
children motivation towards learning. While reading various events and
characters, the Story capture students’ attention and concentration and creates
fantasy and interest. Young children capture new ideas and concepts more easily
through stories, Hamilton M & Weiss M, 2005. Teacher’s strong engagement in
reading a story book capture children attention and interest and develops the
power of strong imagination for learning. Different words and colored pictures
help young minds to comprehend story easily. Reading a story through expressions
and body language develops strong interaction and connection among the teacher
and the students that develops communication skills. Providing a story book in
children’s hand brings pleasure for reading which eventually promotes an
enabling learning environment in the classroom. If students are encouraged to
read a story and then make it as their own by retelling the story, this make
children creative and problem solvers.
Story reading stimulates imagination. The famous scientist Albert Einstein says
that imagination is more important than knowledge. But unfortunately this part
of learning is ignored in classroom and at home. An expressive told story
captures attention of listeners and brings vivid images in children’s minds.
While reading with complete concentration these images become part of
comprehension.
Thus to produce lifelong learners the parents must develop reading culture at
home and schools. It is essential to choose and provide nice story books to
their children. The story books should be contained on cultural and contextual
having easy language, attractive pictures and must be included with messages of
values and respect for the humanity and the world. While reading and telling the
stories the teachers should involve and engage the students by using methods
such as; individual reading, group reading, discussing and expressing characters
and events to develop curiosity and make the story meaningful and live for
students.