The Importance of Storytelling

Storytelling benefits not only the listeners, but the storyteller as well. The act of storytelling encourages active listening, builds analytical skills, and increases retention and comprehension. Literacy skills are greatly enhanced. You cannot tell a story without being engaged physically, mentally, and emotionally. Organization, sequencing skills, and creative thinking are all required. This article shares the importance of storytelling for listeners and tellers.

History of Storytelling

Storytelling is a tradition that has survived and evolved since ancient times. The oral tradition has a long history of passing on stories, giving us both entertainment and a record of cultures that have disappeared. The importance of storytelling spans human history. Of course, sharing a story aloud is similar to reading aloud.

Benefits of Storytelling

Today, as in the past, when storytelling occurs, familiar language patterns are passed along, and new language patterns are learned and adopted into the common patterns of speech. When people tell stories, the narrator is given the chance to think and reflect as the story develops. Narrators and audience often relate the story being told to their own lives and experiences. They are then able to consider connections between the story’s theme and their own lives. This opportunity for reflection reveals the importance of storytelling: offering the chance for both narrators and listeners to grow in emotional intelligence, empathy, and understanding of a larger world.

Success for Struggling Readers and Writers

Storytelling, like other art forms, allows children who may not feel competent when reading or writing to excel through an art form that uses a combination of other language skills and expressive arts. Telling a story allows students to use skills of memory, attention, details, and oration. Reading and writing are highly valued, but creating, listening and remembering, understanding and repeating are equally valuable, especially for differentiated learning.

Communication Skills

The importance of storytelling is also reflected in myriad storytelling skills. When students tell a story, they are using a wide range of communication strategies and artistic skill. In the process of creating a story, they are applying knowledge of language structure and language conventions, conducting research, participating in reflective, creative, and critical thinking, and using spoken, written, and visual language. The artistry of language, used in specific order to communicate a story and purpose bring beauty and order to the process. Storytellers are using a combination of skills and processes to create a narrative linked to real or imagined events in a clear sequence. This synthesis of skills results in a product that entertains and informs.

Creating a Classroom Community

Storytelling can also have a positive effect on the classroom community. Stories are effective means of communication, especially when engaging the audience is a priority. There are immediate connections that occur between the storyteller and the audience when a story is told or retold. The author shares a story to which they have given much thought, and the audience becomes engaged in a shared experience that is quite different from hearing a story read aloud. Recent research has shown that “when one person tells a story and the other actively listens, their brains actually begin to synchronize” (Dooley 2010). It is hard to imagine a greater opportunity for building community than through the shared experience of storytelling.

Stories can be used as powerful vehicles to communicate multiple perspectives and to share cultural values. Everyone has a story to tell, and sharing stories provides an effective vehicle for giving voice to both the teacher and the students. The act of sharing stories builds community, strengthens appreciation for one another, and allows many perspectives to be heard. The story form appeals to the human connections that we have and encourages deeper consideration than a non-fiction format or data analysis could offer. When students tell their stories, it is their moment to have their voice honored. Stories provide a powerful platform to address issues such as bullying, racism, and biases. By hearing the voices of others, students build cultural bridges and are given the opportunity to share their own personal stories. This shared experience can be powerful and insightful. Multiple insights and points of view can be heard in a safe and respectful environment when students are able to tell their own stories and listen to others’ personal stories.

The importance of building a strong and trusting classroom community cannot be underestimated. Through storytelling, a solid team dynamic is established and the possibilities for successful teaching and learning increase dramatically. Interestingly, this is like the phenomenon of “entrainment” in music-making. Entrainment, quite simply, is one pulse imitating another pulse. Teachers are often aware that the speed of their speech and actions affects their students. When people are engaged in any of the performing arts such as storytelling, drama, music, or dance, there is potential to have a mutual influence on one another both emotionally and physically. Storytelling is the entrainment of oral communication. The classroom community that develops from shared stories is one that will move together and work in synchronized coordination within the community.

Storytelling is beneficial for the narrator, who is given the chance to use creative and analytical skills to share a story. Storytelling benefits the listener by giving them the opportunity to listen to a story unfold, to hear a new perspective, and to see the world through new eyes. Both the narrator and the audience are given the chance to grow together in community as shared experiences and observations blend with new ideas and fresh perspectives in a well-told story. The importance of storytelling for both the storyteller and the listener cannot be understated.

This article is excerpted and adapted from Integrating the Arts Across the Content Areas, 2^nd Edition, by Lisa Donovan and Louise Pascale, Shell Education, 2022.

Dooley, Roger. July 29, 2010. “Stories Synchronize Brains.” Neuromarketing: Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet (blog). Accessed June 11, 2012. http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/storiessynchronize-brains.htm.