Why Speaking Stories?

We are committed to providing innovative literacy materials to language learners and late or reluctant readers of all ages and in many countries. Our approach empahsizes:

  • The quality of the story
  • The educational soundness of the material
  • A web-based presentation that makes these stories both trendy and accessible

We designed speaking stories to provide multi-sensory learning and differentiated instruction. They combine sound, image, and text to support many learning modes and to reinforce the student’s learning. Speaking stories offer an opportunity to bring expressive, imaginative, and kinesthetic material into the classroom. And they can be used as a springboard to drama, as mentor texts for writing, and as inspiration for creative writing.

In fact, teachers can use speaking stories in their classrooms to teach these skills:

  • Reading
  • Literary devices and structures
  • Comprehension
  • Intonation
  • Grammar
  • Language conventions
  • Orthographic conventions
  • Idioms or slang

We think one of the great advantages of speaking stories is that they teach content and language simultaneously. No matter the age or culture of the language learner or reader, their stories should be compelling and intellectually stimulating — we want to create stories with depth and complexity that will empower readers in some area of their life.

Give Them What They Want to Read

We designed speaking graphic stories to meet a specific need. We know from an informal survey of teachers of language arts, literacy, English Language Learners (ELL) and foreign language, that:

  • There is a lack of age and culturally relevant ELL and literacy materials for older learners.
  • Expressive use of language is a vital component of language learning.
  • Many teachers create their own supplementary language or literacy materials from pictures, photographs, magazines, drama, and movies.
  • Most teachers want materials that are interesting, appealing, and relevant to their particular students.
  • Many teachers want materials that speak to as many different learning styles as possible.

We believe there is an unmet need for language and literacy materials for the older ELL, foreign language, literacy, and reading student. By “older” we mean middle school, high school, college, university, adult literacy, and adult basic education.

Teachers are looking for age and culturally appropriate language materials for older students, and in particular for materials that the students are eager to read. Speaking graphic novels give students what they want to read in a form that meets their language needs.

Speaking graphic stories can make difficult content area subjects accessible to students with limited language and vocabulary. Graphic stories lend themselves to content areas such as language arts, foreign language, and history. But speaking graphic stories could also be adapted to scientific content areas, and even chemistry, physics, and math — engaging visuals and a good sense of story line can produce a very unique set of teaching materials.