Experience Stories: A Powerful Tool for Literacy
A great way to motivate your child to read, or to listen to you read aloud, is to write experience stories together.
You might be saying to yourself…
I don’t know how to write a story.
How can a child who can’t read write a story?
The truth is, experience stories help children learn to read (and to learn the structure of a narrative) because the events of the story are known to them. They help children develop oral and written language skills because the stories are deeply personal and meaningful.
Experience stories can give them practice in understanding a story while they are working on skills like decoding (learning to read by translation the letters into sounds and words) and help them develop fluency.
What Is an Experience Story?❓
Experience stories are literally stories drawn from your children’s own experiences, hence their catchy name. Unlike storybooks or classroom texts, these stories are rooted in the real-life events and activities of your children, which makes them highly relatable.
These stories are simple, short, and often written in the first person, helping children connect the written word to their own lives. Teachers or parents typically write these stories down, often with the child’s input, and then use them as reading material
This approach is supported by research, which shows that children are more motivated to read when they can connect the content to their own lives.
Any activity is good material for an experience story – a trip to the zoo, an outing at the grocery store, a visit with friends– all make good material for an experience story.
Anything you have done on any day can be turned into an experience story.
All you need to do is to recount the adventure. Write it down, and ask your child to fill in the blanks.
Building a Story 🏗️
Today we went to the _______________. We saw ________________. It was _____________ and _______________.
Think about all of the examples that work in this basic scaffolding.
We went to the zoo. We saw an elephant. It was big and loud. 🐘
We went to the store. We saw fruit. It was red and yellow. 🍎🍌
We went to the park. We saw friends. It was hot and fun. ☀️🛝
Of course, the story can be a little more complicated than these three sentences, but the basic premise still holds. If you want to give it a try, follow this process.
Story Steps 👣
Creating an experience story is easy. You don’t need to be a pro, and there are no special tools required. Just follow these steps.
Choose a Memorable Event: Ask your child to select something memorable and recent. It could be a family outing, a visit to a friend’s, a school activity, or even baking cookies together.
Talk About the Event: Discuss the event and invite your child to recall details. Ask who, what, where, and when questions. Invite them to describe the experience including how they felt and anything that was important. Ask them to use sensory details – How did things look, smell, sound, feel, or taste? This conversation will help children develop oral language skills which are crucial for literacy.
Write the story together: As the child tells the story, you write it down in simple sentences. Prompt them for sensory details to develop the descriptions. Help shape the story by including words such as first, next, then, and finally to help your emerging reader understand chronology and the structure of narrative. This collaborative writing helps children understand the relationship between oral and written language. They also feel a sense of accomplishment.
Read and Revisit: After writing the story, read it together with the child. This repetition reinforces the connection between spoken and written language. You can also encourage the child to illustrate the story or even act it out. Repetition reinforces learning and improves reading fluency. You can point to the words as you read, and you can pause at words, asking your child to “read” them. They may not know how to decode the word, but they may remember the words because they supplied them for the story. This shared reading experience will help them engage with the book and give them a sense of accomplishment and connection to the story. .
Create a Collection: Over time, compile these stories into a personal book or journal. This not only provides a growing library of familiar reading material but also gives the child a sense of pride and ownership in their learning
Easy right? Just try it once, and see how your child reacts. You may just be surprised that you have a budding author, and that these simple and personal stories become among some of the most beloved in your home library.
Happy writing!
