REFLECTION

By: Wan Ahmad Fayadh bin Wan Ibrahim

In this assignment, we were required to conduct a story telling session with Year
1, 2 or 3 students and our group was given Year 2 Pintar which was chosen by our
lecturer from Teaching School. This story telling session was successfully held on the
19 of September 2012 which took place at Micro Room 1 and 2. We were divided into
five groups and my group was the first group which consists of Linggatharani, Saidatul
Atikah and me, Fayadh. Each group is required to record the storytelling session and
the evaluation was done by the group members themselves. It was my first time ever
doing a storytelling session and it was a very great experience for me. This is because I
was never introduced to this kind of method of teaching before, so it is a good practice
before I could really implement it in a real primary classroom later. The story that I had
chosen for the storytelling was The Tortoise and the Rabbit .
In my storytelling session, there were some strengths and also weaknesses that
were noticed by my peers and me after watching the recorded video. One of the
strengths in my storytelling session was the story that I selected was easy and
interesting. The level of language used in the story was appropriate with the students
level of proficiency which makes them easier to understand and respond. Furthermore,
the students were also already familiar with the story introduced which makes them
easier to understand the plot of the story and able to respond towards the questions I
urged them. But, there were also weaknesses in my storytelling session. One of the
weaknesses in my storytelling session was my time duration did not reached the
acceptable time length which was only 6 minutes and 30 seconds. I also found it difficult
to grab the student interest during my session whereby they felt boring and quite
blurred. Other than that, my props were quite unpractical whereby it was not quite stable
and distracts the student from listening to my story. During my session, I also forgot
some lines in the story which causes me to stop a few times during the storytelling
session.

So, in order to improve my presentation in storytelling session, I should have a
longer dialogue between the characters. This is because from the storytelling session
that I had done, I noticed that the dialogues of the characters which were the tortoise
and the rabbit are short and simple should be a little bit longer so that the storytelling
session will obey the appropriate length which is 7 to 10 minutes. . I should also need to
do more practice so that I could remember effectively and try to practice recording the
time taken for the storytelling session before conducting it. Other than that, I should add
up more actions and gestures so that it could grab students attention and interest
during the session. It is important for teachers to capture their attention so that they will
pay full attention towards the story and they may also respond or give their opinion
about what they feel of the story. Besides that, I should do props which are easy to
manage and practical during the storytelling session. This is because it is quite difficult
to do all sorts of thing during the storytelling, so it is easier if the teacher uses simple
and practical props so that the session could run smoothly.
After conducting this storytelling session, I had gained many experiences and
knowledge about the art of storytelling and it is very beneficial for me. One of the things
that I learnt is about the techniques and aspects that should exist in delivering a story
telling. For example, it is important for teachers to have eye contacts with students while
storytelling, have variation in tones to indicate different situations in the story, good
enunciation and suitable gestures or facial expressions when delivering the storytelling.
Other than that, I also learnt that it is significant to obtain students interest and attention
during while conducting storytelling session. This is because the key of success of a
storytelling session is the students impression towards the storytelling, either they
enjoyed it or not. Teachers must use be flexible during the storytelling session because
not all that we planned will run smoothly, so, teacher could modify their way of teaching
on the spot without damaging the smoothness of the session. For example, the students
suddenly became sleepy, so the teacher must try to attract the students attention with
an alternative way to solve the problem.

Storytelling is very significance in the teaching and learning process especially
for primary school students. This is because there are many benefits that are profitable
from storytelling compared to an ordinary teaching and learning process in a classroom.
One of the importance of storytelling is that it could link to other subjects in the
curriculum which is also known as cross curriculum whereby there is the integration of
other subject such English, science and mathematics at the same time. It is good to
integrate other subjects at one time such as killing two birds with one stone whereby it
could save time and work for teachers. Other than that, the usage of stories in the
teaching and learning process is also considered as bibliotheraphy for the students.
Bibliotheraphy means to aid or heal students problem through the usage of stories. The
selection of stories is very important so that it meets with the issues or problems faced
by the student. For example, usually in stories, there is always a happy ending no
matter how hard the situation is, so this is good for the students to know that there is
always hope in our life. Storytelling also develops student critical thinking and broadens
their vocabulary through listening to the stories told by the teacher.
As a conclusion, this task has shown me many important criteria and aspect
which is carried by storytelling. From my point of view, nowadays, storytelling plays a
significant role in the teaching and learning process in primary school. It is due to its
effectiveness and functions which is much more practical for teachers to teach various
learning objectives at the same time. Hence, it is important for teachers to learn how to
develop their storytelling skills and use it in a primary classroom because it is unique
way of teaching especially for English teachers.