Teacher-friendly storytelling resources to support a love of reading beyond Book Week

Claire Halliday
Claire Halliday

Before Children’s Book Week 2023 had even begun, the associated teaching resources on offer from Story Box Library had been downloaded more than 7000 times.

For the founder of this unique business, Nicole Brownlee, it’s a reminder of how much her idea has grown since that first day she was volunteer reading in her child’s prep classroom in suburban Melbourne, and wondered why the teacher was playing a video of a storyteller with a thick US accent to the Australian students.

Diverse Australian voices matter

Since its launch in 2013, Story Box Library – intended for use as a complementary digital form of delivering the precious experience of being read aloud to, in order to improve children’s lives – has been committed, Ms Brownlee says, to celebrating the diversity of Australian voices, with stories that explore cultural and gender diversity – and value that extends beyond Book Week.

It’s a commitment that has seen its online storytellers deliver quality Australian picture books, read by well-known actors, sporting heroes, singers, identities and, of course, authors and illustrators themselves. Scanning the list of storytellers who have already appeared includes singers and performers Vika and Linda Bull, Nick Cave, Tim Rogers, Jane Clifton, Dolly Diamond and Missy Higgins, as well as newsreader Peter Hitchener, actors Noni Hazelhurst, Nadine Garner, Shane Jacobsen, Lisa McCune and Nazeem Hussain, authors Anita Heiss and John Marsden, as well as AFL player Colin Garland, comedian Dave O’Neil, and holocaust survivor Kitia Altman.

- Advertisement -

The site currently has more than 480 stories available to watch and listen to, Ms Brownlee told EducationDaily. A growing library of Auslan titles – there are currently 30 available – is another important focus.

“We are on track to celebrate our 500th story mid-next year,” she says. “We are committed to providing a diverse and inclusive library and one of our main priorities is to champion stories and storytellers who represent the voices and experiences of people who have long been missing from children’s literature.”

The recent launch of a brand-new companion resource, Story Tools, landed in time for their busiest time of the year – Book Week – and is a series of video lessons designed to teach students the best tools and tips for building a great story, presented by Australia’s most popular and visionary children’s book creators.

Resources to connect stories with the Australian Curriculum

Nina Perkinson is Story Box Library’s Education Resource Developer and says that, across the past two years, endeavouring to simplify the Classroom Ideas that accompany each story into a “user-friendly format” has been an important priority.

- Advertisement -

“They include discussion prompts, activity suggestions and ready to use story response templates for students to use independently,” Ms Perkinson told EducationDaily. “With such an extensive range of Classroom Ideas available, we have recently created a dedicated Resources section that includes advanced search filters to help educators navigate the extensive range of resources available. Filters allow them to drill down further to find story related to specific (e.g. resilience, self esteem, community, family, seasons, NAIDOC,  etc).”

For educators who may dive most deeply into what Story Box Library offers during Book Week, these resources enable the stories to be an active and engaging part of every classroom’s schedule throughout the school year.

Creating a collection of more than 25 ready-to-use Story Response Templates that provide different thinking tool frameworks for students to record and organise their ideas related to stories has been another innovation welcomed by educators using the storytelling resource.

“These are intended to be used flexibly with the stories – helping students to apply critical and creative thinking skills such as analysis, inquiry, inference, evaluation, reflection and idea generation,” Ms Perkinson told EducationDaily.

Examples of some of the templates that enable teacher to make the most from the site – both during Book Week and beyond – include Character Profile, Author Study, Venn Diagram, Plot Summary, Postcard Template, and many more.

- Advertisement -

“A dedicated set of Book Week resources are also created each year, to support educators with exploring a selection of the shortlisted stories in the class and in the library. These are designed to be engaging and accessible for different levels of primary-aged students,” she says.

Resources for teachers, by teachers

Thematic lessons linked to the Australian Curriculum, called Units of Work are another helpful resource for teachers – and are written by teachers, including Ms Perkinson.

“They include lesson plans – each centred around a different story related to the particular focus theme, along with activities and templates,” Ms Perkinson told EducationDaily. “Current units include – STEM, Families, Emotions; Wellbeing and Natural Disasters.”

The ability for subscribing school to access titles via the Oliver V5 platform by Softlink, the main school library management system used across Australia, is a new development that follows support from the Department of Education NSW and will make it even easier for teachers and children to integrate story reads into focused learning.

To help educators focus on how Story Box Library can be used in the classroom, Ms Perkinson says regular, free online professional development days provide practical examples to demonstrate the different features and available resources.

- Advertisement -

“We endeavour to highlight the many learning opportunities that different stories can offer, by including these in our resources in creative and engaging ways,” she says. “Having a choice of activity ideas and supporting templates enable teachers to be able to use these resources flexibly to best support their students learning needs.”

Choosing a book

“The books are chosen in a number of ways,” Ms Perkinson told EducationDaily. “We receive submissions from publishers of new releases and we evaluate those and choose titles we feel fit with our library. Additionally, we try to film as many of the CBCA Book of the Year shortlisted titles in the Early Childhood and Picture Book categories as possible, as well as some from the New Illustrator and Eve Pownall categories.”

Sometimes, she says, “we start with a storyteller and then look for a book that particularly complements that person”.

“We feel so lucky to be able to work with such an extensive range of quality children’s literature,” Ms Perkinson says. “Stories are such a valuable introduction or jumping off point into exploring and discussing different topics, as well as modeling key text and language features. And, of course, fostering a love of reading and storytelling among children.”

Share This Article
Claire Halliday has an extensive career as a full-time writer - across book publishing, copywriting, podcasting and feature journalism - for more than 25 years. She lives in Melbourne with children, two border collies and a grumpy Burmese cat. Contact: claire.halliday[at]brandx.live