Barbara A. Sasso
Language is learned in the heart, outside of text. Throughout almost all of human history storytelling and poetry existed exclusively in spoken word as performance. The best stories feel like home because they retain the variations of language that imbue our souls. Language, especially the living, artistic language that is the vernacular is often best expressed in an oral form. And without being written down, Standard English is set free again in storytelling, which can be effectively used to include students who have learning disabilities. Students will understand that writing and reading are simply the encoding of a living art, and that without these, the art still thrives.