Implementing Story-Acting With Young Learners

Vivian Paley’s book The Boy Who Would Be a Helicopter: The Uses of Storytelling in the Classroom describes how her story-acting method, involving children writing and acting out their own stories, transformed her classroom into a magical world of meaning that engaged every child. After reading Paley’s book, I began practicing this method in my classroom. I noticed the benefits right away but initially struggled with how exactly to get started. Through trial and error, I’ve developed a number of best practices that preschool and early elementary teachers can use to implement story-acting with their students.

What is Story-Acting and How Does it Work?

Story-acting has two critical phases: writing and acting.

Phase 1: Writing children’s stories. In this phase, you write down stories that children tell you. In my preschool classroom, I introduced story-acting at circle time and explained that during center time (a larger time block when children are independently busy) they would each have a turn to tell me a story that I would write down so we could act it out later.

During each child’s turn, write down their story word for word. Then read it back to them and ask if they want to change or add anything. When the story is finished, ask for a title. (For older classrooms, students may write out their own stories—adapt according to your group’s skills.)

Depending on your students, it may be best to introduce story-acting in phases. If your class is shy or doesn’t know each other well, begin by enacting a read-aloud or fairy tale that they already know and love. When they feel more comfortable, introduce the more vulnerable (and exciting) element of creating their own story content. Your group may be ready for this right away—gauge your students’ temperaments and plan accordingly.

Phase 2: Acting children’s stories. Create a “stage” in your classroom. For early learning environments, it helps to use visual markers such as tape or a rug. Gather everyone together and select a story to act. Read the title, author, and entire story out loud as students sit and listen. Then, it is time to act—the author of the story can choose which part they want to play, if any, and then you can assign classmates to fill the remaining roles. Once all the actors are on the stage, read through the story again, this time with the children acting it out.

Tips for the Writing Phase

1. Honor each student’s story and the way they tell it. The student is the author, and your job in this phase is to accurately record their story. You can ask the student to pause while you catch up in writing or for clarification, but resist any temptation to correct grammar or revise the storyline.

2. Ensure adequate classroom supervision. Interruptions were one of the biggest challenges I experienced during this phase. Make sure you have adequate supervision support and that your classroom expectations and routines are firmly established.

3. Limit story length. I recommend a one-page limit per story. This ensures that the acting sessions don’t get too long and allows you to scribe each student’s full story.

4. Invite children to author stories at their own pace. Many children are excited to create and act their own stories, but some may need time before they feel comfortable. Avoid pressuring students—remember, they learn a lot by listening and watching others. Keep offering them opportunities until they are ready.

5. Reflect ahead of time about the possibility of controversial content. Children’s stories, like their play, can include intense topics such as death, violence, or discrimination. While it is impossible to know every issue that could arise, take some time to reflect on how you will handle these scenarios.

Make sure to inform families about your story-acting practice and explain that children often use stories to work through fears and emerging social understandings, and this is normal. Paley sent home a copy of each child’s story for their family, and I recommend doing so once you’ve explained the practice.

Tips for the Acting Phase

1. Teach and model expectations for story-acting roles. Teach the audience to listen, watch, and give a round of applause at the end. Establish and practice an agreement of no body contact for actors to protect everyone’s physical safety. For example, if the story has characters fall on each other, they can fall near but not actually on others.

2. Set up fair and inclusive procedures for taking turns. Drawing name sticks is a fair way to select whose story to act out. Set aside those who already had a turn—this guarantees that you continue to offer a turn to every student.

When assigning actors, go around the circle offering a role to each child until all roles are filled. Children can act out objects as well (such as rocks or flowers). It is OK for a child to choose not to act, but ensure that everyone gets a fair chance. You want inclusion and mixing different combinations of peers. Be prepared for strong feelings if a student really wants their best friend in a role or if a student doesn’t get the role they want.

These are opportunities to listen and discuss fairness. By centering your students’ ideas as authors of stories, you immediately capture their attention and help them make connections with other stories they hear or read. When working with an individual student on their story, you have the opportunity to build the crucial student-teacher relationship. When students act out stories together, they learn to work collaboratively and respect each other’s contributions. Plus, teachers can use story-acting to collect information about students’ literacy skills and interests to inform their lesson plans and communicate with families about their child’s learning.

If you want more support before starting, I recommend reading Paley’s books, exploring Trisha Lee’s Helicopter Stories case studies, and checking out the videos on Boston Public Schools’ Storytelling and Story Acting resource page.