Storytelling Improves Literacy Skills

Storytelling is about using children’s learned literacy skills to break down barriers to their imagination and when done the right way storytelling can profoundly improve literacy rates.

Based on the Gold Coast, Shane Davis, the Founder of English literacy learning platform LiteracyPlanet, says storytelling is foundational to sparking enthusiasm for reading and improving literacy skills, coming to this conclusion after years of research, development and story creation.

The team at LiteracyPlanet uses its edtech platform as the vehicle to deliver storytelling that teaches literacy skills while making it fun and engaging.

“Our ultimate vision is to inspire a lifetime of learning. When a child is involved in their own development, they have a greater propensity to want to continue learning. It’s that cycle we’re creating through meaningful and fun content.”

Davis explains that while it’s important to teach the fundamentals of literacy – phonics, sight words, spelling, comprehension, and reading – a child’s motivation to read is the key.

“The real magic happens when children are given content with which they can connect. And most importantly, once they connect, they relate to the content and this gives them the drive to return to it, to continue. To want to learn more.

“Children with a higher level of comprehension skills will take more from what they read, improving their understanding of their world. And through different inference, interpretation and written skills, children will draw their own meanings and conclusions. It’s imperative to build students’ literacy skills so they can make more meaning of their reading material,” Davis says.

“Children are great at imagining things and verbalising them. What we’re trying to do is take that and give them the tools to communicate what they’re seeing and imagine that in written format, so that others can make meaning from it also.”

LiteracyPlanet lets children build and use learned literacy skills in a structured, curriculum-aligned program, but also extends them beyond curriculum requirements by introducing them to how they can start creating their own stories. This transition from concept learning to concept application is vital.

“The English language can be used in so many different ways to be creative – that’s what I love about it. There’s room for all types of imaginations in education.”

The platform’s newest iteration Storyverse has opened up a world of storytelling, with layers of characters, fantastical settings and crazy storylines. Shane’s son, Jason, is behind Storyverse’s characters and stories.