While teachers’ contributions to story acting vary from class to class and even from story to story, both research and our experience indicate that educators do more( and in our view, should do more) than simply read the text, assign roles, call the actors to the stage, and watch the acting. In a September 2011 interview with Young Children editor Meghan Dombrink-Green, Paley suggested that teachers play an important role in probing children’ s ideas during story acting. She gave the example of a teacher observing a character’ s persistent barking during story acting and asking,“ I wonder why the puppy’ s barking so much?”( 91). Paley also suggested teachers might elicit ideas from children about how to manage logistics, asking questions like“ How can we make room in the spaceship for another ninja?”( 91).
In our collaboration with teachers, we recorded and analyzed videos of story acting( Pesco et al. 2022), noting the various scaffolds that teachers provided( see“ Scaffolds for Story Acting” on page 67). Overall, we found that they offered diverse support but did not take over. By intentionally scaffolding children’ s stories while creating space for their ideas and agency, the teachers stayed true to the spirit of story acting.
How to Get Started
While the logistics of story dictation and story acting are relatively simple, the practices rely on teachers being keen listeners and observers. We suggest that educators think about the curriculum they follow and their pedagogical practices to determine how these practices could complement or expand upon them. It also may be helpful to consider recruiting one or more colleagues to try out the practices and share their experiences.( The teachers we worked with found this very helpful.) Above all, educators are called to remember and follow in Vivian Paley’ s footsteps: To approach children’ s stories with curiosity and remember that story dictation and story acting are intended to be lively and fun!
Further Readings
Teachers can deepen their knowledge about story dictation and story acting by tapping into the following resources( see reference list for publication details).
› Storytelling in Early Childhood: Enriching Language, Literacy and Classroom Culture, by Teresa Cremin and colleagues. 2016. This book explores how story dictation and acting impact children’ s language, literacy, interactions, and classroom life.
› Princesses, Dragons and Helicopter Stories: Storytelling and Story Acting in the Early Years, by Trisha Lee. 2016. This book provides many tips derived from Lee’ s hands-on experiences as director of MakeBelieveArts, a UK organization that promotes Paley’ s approach.
›“ Story Telling and Story Acting: Family Engagement,” from the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood. bpsearlylearning. org / storytelling / family-engagement. This segment focuses on how to involve families in story dictation and story acting.
›“ Storytelling and Story Acting with Vivian Paley,” from Kentucky Educational Television. ket. org / program / storytelling-and-story-acting-with-vivian-paley / storytelling-and-story-acting-with-vivian-paley. This video features Vivian Paley as she helps kindergartners act out their stories.
About the Authors
Diane Pesco, PhD, formerly associate professor in the Department of Education at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, retired in 2025. This article is inspired by Diane and Andréanne’ s collaboration with teachers in initiating story dictation and story acting in their classrooms and research emanating from that project. diane. pesco @ concordia. ca
68 Young Children
Spring 2026