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Chelsey Morden
EDUC 4735
Thursday May 14th, 2020

Story Vine Reflection Paper

A story vine is a traditional African way of oral storytelling. The story teller braids

material (cloth, yarn, fabric, etc.) together and then attaches artifacts to the braid. These artifacts

represent the pictures for their chosen story as it is recited orally. As the teller makes their way

through the story, they will point at or touch the artifact that has significance to the action or

information of the story. I looked up Marlene McKay after she was mentioned in class, and came

across sample pages from her book Story Vines and Readers Theatre: Getting Started. McKay

(2008) places story vines under the theory of social constructivism (p. 1). Constructivism

describes this oral literacy strategy perfectly as students are constructing their own knowledge.

The information and way to interpret their own story and then turn it into a vine is completely up

to them. The teacher should always model the strategy prior to the student’s diving in, in order to

scaffold the learning process. It is also best to choose a book that is familiar to the students as

this will help when reciting it orally.

Marlene McKay explains how the strategy of story vines hits all six of the stands for

English Language Arts: reading, listening, writing, speaking, viewing and representing. Students

are learning and building on major skills such as summarizing, sequencing, increasing their

memory skills and becoming a critical reader (McKay, 2008, p. 7). More specifically, students

are developing necessary oral language skills. Tompkins (2019) states that oral language

provides a foundation for literacy learning (p. 39). Through oral language, students are learning

how to express emotions, build confidence when speaking, and learn new vocabulary. Story

vines are also a great strategy that can be used for English Language Learners. When teaching
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ELL students, English is learned best when it is in a meaningful context, but also when the

learner is able to relate the word to an object or picture (Tompkins, 38). This strategy is marrying

the language with a visual which can be considered one of the conclusions of story vines.

What I was most excited about when creating my story vine, was getting to share one of

my favourite books, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This is a reading level of grades 1 to 3.

I loved it growing up and still love it now. It has so many emotions and themes that are easily

understandable to children. Recognizable words such as “boy”, “happy”, “love”, and “tree” help

make this classic story practical at any grade level with varying cognitive abilities. The plot line

is repetitive, which aids in comprehension. One challenging aspect of this strategy was trying to

narrow down what events I wanted to turn into artifacts. I found it more difficult to convey the

talking between the tree and the boy without overwhelming my vine. After some thought and

many times reading the book, I used objects that were repeated throughout the story that made it

easier to retell each time. Another challenging aspect of this task was fluency and articulation. I

was getting frustrated with this while practicing retelling my story vine several times. I kept

making mistakes, missing lines and stumbling at the beginning. This can show how difficult

these skills are to master for anybody of any age. It was good to put myself in the shoes of my

future students preparing for this presentation. What I found really worthwhile about this strategy

is being able to interpret this story anyway I wanted and make it a very personal story vine. I

think an activity such as this, really plays to the interests of the students and allows them to be

creative. This strategy also helps to build confidence in oral skills for myself as well as my future

students.

The activities that can be implemented using a story vine are endless. For this specific

assignment, it was retelling a familiar story, one that I picked from my own childhood. This is a
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great way to get to know what students enjoy reading, by having them pick their own book and

working through the task. Story vines can also be used as a tool to assess oral language skills and

reading comprehension. It can be a way for myself as an educator to keep a running record and

conduct ongoing assessments. Story vines can be easily differentiated for students in a

classroom. This can be done through using books of varying reading levels, challenging students

to think deeper about their artifacts as well as using story vines beyond a story book. McKay

noted some great ideas, as long as working on oral language skills is the focus. Her 3 examples

were teaching a recipe, bringing classmates through a “how-to” process and understanding

events in history (McKay, 2008, 32). These alternate activities can be used cross-curricular in

math, science and social, just to name a few, and can be used in conjunction with other cultures

such as FNMI history.

I loved being introduced to this strategy and the different ways it helps to develop oral

language skills in children. One of my favourite materials to use in the classroom is picture

books and I definitely look forwards to presenting it to my future students.

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References

McKay, M. (2008). Story vines and readers theatre: getting started. Winnipeg: Portage & Main

Press.

Tompkins, G. E., & Rodgers, E. (2019). Literacy in the early grades: a successful start for preK-

4 readers and writers (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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Criteria

1. I demonstrated my ability to choose 1

exemplary literature.

2. I ensured that the literature was appropriate 1 2 3 4

to the developmental level of the student.

3. I used creative, easy to manipulate and 1 2 3 4 5

thoughtful images related to reading.

4. I practiced the retelling several times to 1 2 3 4 5

ensure I captivated my audience. It was
well-organized, easy-to-follow, with
authority in voice and presence.
I received very positive feedback from my
TOTAL: 15/15
peers on my story vine. They noted the
relevance of using emojis for children
today. As well as picking story that was
easy to follow and I had it very well-
rehearsed (memorized).