Literacy learning and pedagogical purpose in Vivian Paley’s ‘storytelling curriculum’

Abstract

Vivian Gussin Paley’s ‘storytelling curriculum’ consists of two interdependent activities, dictation and dramatization. It has long been recognized for its impact on young children’s psychosocial, language, and narrative development. As a result of the Bush administration’s educational polices, holistic, play-based curricula like storytelling are rapidly being replaced in early childhood classrooms across America by curricula aimed at specific sub-skills of the reading and writing process. This article provides a structural analysis of what happens when children dictate and dramatize original stories in the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classroom. It highlights the opportunities for literacy learning around specific literacy sub-skills that are available in this holistic, play-based activity as well as the teacher’s role in the process. It also looks at the storytelling curriculum’s relationship to the goals of a ‘balanced’ approach to early literacy instruction, including oral language development, narrative form, and word study.