When children first arrive in Reception, it’s difficult to imagine them creating their own stories by the end of the year, especially those children for whom English is an additional language (EAL). 

It is, however, a requirement of the Early Years framework to retell stories, so working on this area, alongside creating stories, gives children a firm foundation to support them to write stories as they move into Year 1 and beyond.

The key to unlocking this, I believe, is developing children’s oracy, imagination and sequencing skills - and based on research and my own experience, I’ve refined a method to do this. 

As you start planning for the term ahead, you might consider the following steps.

Autumn term

I begin in the first term with a limited selection of simple books, with basic plots (limited characters, settings, problems, and a resolution), which are revisited regularly. 

I use three to four books per half term, and our readings of these texts follow a set sequence:

1. When we first read a book, the focus is on reading for enjoyment: I use minimal questioning, and we review our favourite events in the story.
    
2. On the second read, I highlight tricky or new vocabulary. It helps to have the vocabulary displayed alongside an image, or a video clip, ready to explain a concept. At this stage, for EAL children, ideas can be clarified in the home language.
    
3. By the third read, the children are beginning to know the story quite well. They can join in with repetitive language and predict what will happen next. At this point, I pose comprehension questions, giving thought to Blank’s Levels of Questioning developed in 1978 for differentiation: simple questions begin with “who is this?”, “where is the witch?”, and “what is happening here?”.
    
4. On the fourth read, I recap the text briefly, discussing events and using the language of sequence, showing the picture prompts, so children have visible cues. This is a time to clearly discuss the key events, the problem and the resolution. Inference questions, such as “why do you think the girl ran away?”, can be used at this point if they haven’t been already. During this read, a simple story map can be created. I like to do this as a class, with the children drawing the pictures.
    
5. For a final read, the story should be dramatised. The children can use the story map or pictures to role-play the story. Expression and recalling repetitive phrases together as a class is a focus at this stage.

In addition, once per week, I read a book with a clear plot and target language that has been specifically designed for learning English. An excellent scheme for this is Mouse and Me! published by Oxford University Press. These stories model two children completing role play and acting out different scenarios, such as meeting a family of hedgehogs, shopping, identifying clothes and repeating patterns. As we talk through the book we:

1. Look closely at the images, especially noting the repetitive language, which changes a little with each story, such as “one rainy day, one sunny day”. With openers such as this, we look at the window displayed and discuss what we see and whether we can predict what comes next.
    
2. Read through these stories once, identifying the key language, problem and resolution.
    
3. Act out these stories as a class, with the children speaking the repetitive texts and dramatising the text.

Spring term

I spend the beginning of the spring term looking at story structures and retelling stories, as many of my children often haven’t spoken English at all over the three-week Christmas break.

Once the understanding of stories and story structures is more developed, I introduce Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1991) helicopter stories: here, the children tell the teacher simple stories while acting them out. These stories often are very simple, as they are just experimenting with the concept of story-making.

Summer term

In term three, to support the children’s understanding of story structure, inspired by the Tales Toolkit resource, I provide them with a sheet with symbols for the key components of a story: character, setting, problem and resolution. With modelling and discussion, the children learn to draw out each part of their story onto this story structure sheet, with the teacher scribing.

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This is particularly helpful for quiet children who lack confidence, as they can contribute to drawing the stories and sharing basic ideas, inspired by the picture prompts. 

In general, the stories children create at this age usually centre around “baddies” and “goodies”, with a conflict and resolution that, more often than not, will involve the baddies going to jail.

When stories lack variety, I return to the toolkit approach, giving children a different setting, character, problem and resolution to what they are used to. For example, when we were following a “living things” topic, I introduced adult penguins, in Antarctica, with a lost egg - the children acted this out and developed their own different endings. 

Jess Gosling is an international teacher and author of Becoming a Successful International Teacher, available through her website. She can be contacted via her website or Twitter @JessGosling2