Listening to Nysia: Storytelling as a Way Into Writing in Kindergarten

This article invites the reader into a storytelling session in an urban kindergarten classroom in Boston. Writing begins for these children with the oral telling of personal stories. The author reflects on a tape-recorded session with a particular child, letting the reader in on her thinking as she listened and tried to draw out the child’s story. She considers how her response may have influenced the teller and reflects on how her responses addressed aspects of craft that are usually associated with written text. She suggests that by creating space for children to build on what they bring to school at five years old–their words and their experiences–we can help them to begin to craft stories, even before they are able to put their stories down in words.