Preschoolers’ Participation in Drama During Story Time Supports Free and Prompted Story Recall

• In Event: Engaging Teaching and Learning in and Through Drama

Abstract

The ability to encode, retrieve, and retell a narrative is a critical skill for young children’s future learning and academic success. Drama-based instruction (DBI)—an approach to teaching and learning that incorporates elements of drama into literacy activities—is a promising instructional strategy for early educators that can support preschoolers’ emerging narrative comprehension skills. DBI can support these skills by providing opportunities for students to observe and participate in drama. This study examined how DBI story time supported narrative comprehension and recall for 43 preschool students. Observing both facilitated drama opportunities and participating in drama themselves differentially supported student narrative retelling and prompted recall of a story they heard during drama-based story time.

Authors

• Lauren van Huisstede, Arizona State University

• Jenny Millinger, Childsplay Theatre Company

• Katie Bernstein, Arizona State University

• Scott C. Marley, Arizona State University

• Theresa Moen, Arizona State University

• Sepide Pazhouhi, Arizona State University

• Melissa Pierce-Rivera, Midwestern University

• Michael F. Kelley, Arizona State University

• M. Adelaida Restrepo, University of South Florida