Page 133 - Reading Nest - The Supportive Literacy Environment Handbook

Storycrafting

Storycrafting is a notion invented by Finnish researchers studying child’s language and culture
and used by Monika Riihelä, Liisa Karlsson and their colleagues to denote a particular work
method with the goal to create a safe and inspiring situation for a child to narrate a story. Thus

storycrafting is establishing a favourable situation for storytelling.
At the heart of storycrafting is giving the child security that their story matters, the adult is
entirely dedicated to the child from start to finish of the story, values the teller by writing their
story up, trusts choices made by the speaker and respects the rights of the author (child).

Creators of the method consider it a general means for promoting man’s identity and

communication. “This method can be used at any time and anywhere and anybody’s stories can
be written if they only wish to tell something. Listening to and writing up old people’s stories
has also found keen support. Adults might use it mutually, and arrange situations for listening
to each other. Facilitating storytelling and writing them up is a method tested in practice and

considered useful, which in addition to other aspects also fosters equal dialogues and allows
people to find time for themselves.” (“Lapset kertovat ja toimivat“). This collection, however,

focuses on preschool and primary education, and thus we focus on communicating with
children.

Storycrafting is not a didactic technique used once or a few times, it is a way of working or a

communication practice where a child can at any time approach an adult to whom they are
accustomed to telling stories to, and this adult opens up to the child, adapts to the child’s level

to note the stories down. Differences arising from cultural background and traditions of
upbringing should be born in mind here. There are countries, nations and educational
institutions where a child’s desire for self-expression and ability are traditionally treated with
respect, where child’s potential is believed in and the child is not, so to speak, trained to learn

the correct answers. An education specialist who follows the principle ‘I teach – you learn’ and
then checks what was acquired, does not have much use for storycrafting.

In the Estonian experience, children might not say much in the first instance, some only make
one utterance. Trust in the adult appears when a confident link is created and the storytelling
situation is experienced several times. When the teacher (trainee, researcher etc.) approaches a

child with the aim of collecting material, the child may see through this intention and in a way,
oblige the adult.