A Teacher’s Guide to beginning the Art of Storytelling As inspired by Karen Gallas

From Karen’s book Imagination and Literacy…  “Imagination and learning, when paired, can lead to joy, ecstasy, and encounters with the sublime, and that is what education ought to be about”

What is Storytelling (according to the National Council of the Teachers of English)  Storytelling is relating a tale to one or more listeners through voice and gesture. It is not the same as reading a story aloud or reciting a piece from memory or acting out a drama—though it shares common characteristics with these arts. The storyteller looks into the eyes of the audience and together they compose the tale. The storyteller begins to see and re-create, through voice and gesture, a series of mental images; the audience, from the first moment of listening, squints, stares, smiles, leans forward or falls asleep, letting the teller know whether to slow down, speed up, elaborate, or just finish.

The Storyteller has a Relationship with the Audience  Each listener, as well as each teller, actually composes a unique set of story images derived from meanings associated with words, gestures, and sounds. The experience can be profound, exercising the thinking and touching the emotions of both teller and listener.

 This website has lots of information for teachers, librarians, storytellers, children’s authors, parents, kids, and more—all from award-winning author Aaron Shepard.

High-tech Storytelling tory.cfm?ArticleID=5602  “Storytelling used to be something kids did huddled around a campfire or sitting Indian- style, books in hand, in a semicircle on the classroom floor. But as computers and other high-tech gadgets proliferate in schools, a new form of the art has emerged: digital storytelling, where a combination of multimedia tools-- including graphics, audio, video, animation, and web publishing--are called upon to bring the story to life.”

163.shtml  This wesite has a wealth of information for teachers about storytelling festivals, exploring cultural roots through storytelling, games for teaching storytelling, etc.

plans/index.html This website includes a collection of storytelling activities-developed by storyteller/author Heather Forest for her storytelling workshops with students, teachers, and librarians- can be expanded by educators into various academic areas.

eachers.html Establishing a “Story of the Day” program is one of the best ways to start storytelling in your classroom, and this website will tell you how.

elling_tips_for_teachers.htm  This website has Storytelling tips for Teachers These tips are taken from the May 1991 issue of Instructor. The article is called “A Teachers Guide to Storytelling”. 