Storytelling Strategies for Reaching and Teaching Children with Special Needs - Paperback

by Kendall Haven (Foreword by), Sherry Norfolk (Editor), Lyn Ford (Editor)

This book supplies stories, essays, lesson plans and specialized storytelling strategies to help teachers "level the playing field" for all learners and better serve children with special needs.

More than 57 percent of the over 6 million American children with disabilities are in inclusive (i.e., general) classrooms; "self-contained" classrooms serve children whose disabilities are either more severe or disruptive. As much as 20 percent of the children in an inclusive classroom are identified as "disabled," with the highest percentage of these having learning disabilities. While most classrooms have at least one child with a disability, teachers often have little or no training in educating and caring for these children. The need for resources that support educators working with children with disabilities or social/emotional difficulties is clear.

This book fills this critical need, supplying school and public librarians, classroom and special area teachers, and storytelling teaching artists with storytelling strategies for reaching and teaching children with special needs in inclusive classrooms, self-contained classrooms, and public and school libraries. These full-text stories, essays, and lesson plans from experienced storytelling teaching artists provide educators with a wide range of adaptable storytelling and teaching strategies for specific disabilities and enable storytellers to discover news ways to perform their storytelling magic. The book also offers compelling real-life anecdotes that demonstrate the impact of these strategies in inclusive and self-contained classrooms; presents an introduction to the skills of storytelling, why they are useful, and how to use them; and includes suggested modifications for a wide range of disabilities as well as detailed resource lists.

Author Biography

Sherry Norfolk, an award-winning storyteller, author, and teaching artist, performs and presents nationally and internationally.

Lyn Ford is an Ohio Alliance for Arts Education and Kennedy Center's OSBCI teaching artist and the author of two Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award-winning books: Affrilachian Tales: Folktales from the African-American Appalachian Tradition and Beyond the Briar Patch: Affrilachian Folktales, Food, and Folklore.