Story Sacks

Story Sacks

1. Why read to children?

   • Reading to a child is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have. The pleasure it brings to both reader and listener is immense and it encourages reading for pleasure and a love of books from a young age. (Bregaard, 2014)

2. what is story sacks?

   • The words 'Story Sack' very much describe what it is - a sack containing a story (English and machin, 2005)
   • A typical cloth sack, simply or elaborately decorated, contains a storybook, a non-fiction book picking up on the theme of the story- book, an audio-tape of the story, puppets, games, activities and other props and artefacts connected with the story. (english and machin, 2005)
   • large cloth bag containing a good quality young child's picture book with supporting materials to stimulate reading activities. The book is brought to life through soft toys, puppets and miniature people based on the main characters, and artefacts that relate to the rest of the story. A non-fiction book relating to a fiction theme is often included in the sack as well as an audio tape and a language game based on the book (barron and powel, 2002)

3. why use story sacks?

   • they are a fresh approach to enjoying books, how they bring stories to life and how they instil in children a love of books (english and machin, 2005)
   • when children bring the sacks home, the play and activities can last days and the children become really motivated to read. (English and machin, 2005)
   • Similarly, when a whole class of children has access to the sacks in the classroom, Griffiths (ibid) claims that the children's motivation to read in- creases, interest in a book is sustained for longer periods of time, the children learn to listen more attentively and the active interaction and participation in a story increases the children's confidence and self-esteem.
   • They provide opportunities for children and families to construct literacy in different sorts of ways but they also provide a means by which shared discourses about literacy can be developed. They provide for powerful ways of narrating experience and creating the world but they also create contexts in which children and parents can work together to learn about key elements of the dominant discourse about literacy, such as traditional and non-traditional story settings, story structure and sequencing, prediction, dialogue, rhyme, rhythm and subject-specific vocabulary (Barron and Powel, 2002)
   • In story sacks children are clearly participating in a discourse that is strongly connected to official views of literacy and yet they are often able, through the activities offered in the sack such as role-playing and recreating the storyline, to incorporate aspects of their identity into the process. (barron and powel, 2002)
   • Story sacks as a creative activity may provide a method to communicate and develop meanings that arise from children's constructions of their life world experiences and the ways that they account for them (Barron and Powel, 2002)