How do your students become successful and descriptive writers? I get this question all the time. Do you want to know my secret? The one thing that plays the greatest role in helping young learners improve their writing skills is the art of storytelling. The power of storytelling became clear to me when I was teaching kindergarten. Telling personal stories is how my kindergartners learned how to write a story. I continued to practice storytelling with all of my students, even in upper elementary grades. You may not realize it, but we are all storytellers. We typically think about events in terms of beginning, middle, and end. Every part of our day is a story! Giving opportunities to storytell in your classroom is a great way to teach your students important skills that will transfer to their writing. If storytelling seems intimidating for you, don’t worry! I’m going to give you actionable strategies that you can implement as soon as TODAY. In this episode I share: -The many benefits of storytelling -Steps to take to get this practice up and running in your classroom -Simple ways to make storytelling interactive -The importance of asking questions and how it translates into more descriptive writing -Suggestions on what to do if you feel like you aren’t a natural storyteller -What a prop box is and how I use it SHOW NOTES: theliteracydive.com/podcast-episode52 Resources mentioned: -Free Writing and Conversation Prompts -Creative Writing Picture Cards -Monthly Writing Prompt and Journal Bundle Connect with me: -Check out my TpT Store -Subscribe to my E-mail list -Instagram Posts -Blog Posts -Facebook Posts -Watch my YouTube channel  If you are enjoying The Literacy Dive Podcast, please follow, leave a rating, and a helpful review! It is much appreciated and thank you for listening!