Storytelling Checklist
Hand in this form with
your paper. Due after your telling.
Name: _________________________________ Story: _______________________
What is the source of this story?:
_____________________________________________________
Time: 3-5 minutes: ___________
In no more that 2 ˝ double-spaced pages describe why you
chose this story and why it appeals to you.
In the remainder of the paper discuss the topics below. Concentrate on those areas that you utilized
in your performance, Reviwe the
storytelling handouts and pages 17-20, 85-87, 125, 132-136, 141-144, and 267-8
in Gangi to assist your response.
Selection
Consider the appropriateness of genre, time, place, and audience
Purpose
Reason for telling (Was your objective successful?)
Preparation
Study, plan practice, skill
Presentation (Indicate type of presentation and if audience participation was planned)
Verbal – Vocal variety, pitch, volume, tempo, tone, articulation, projection
Nonverbal –posture, breath, eye contact, gesture, movement (patomine/mine)
Materials – Books, art, music dramatic aids (propos, costumes, set, lights), instruments, objects, handouts, displays, etc.
Evaluation of performance
Storytelling
Encounters from the text
Storytelling, I should add, although it consists of no more than the voice and presence of the storyteller, is not at all the same as a lecture. A good story transports the listener, making the world of the story as real as any personal experience can be. Thus I classify storytelling as an experience of the imagination and the spirit, an engagement of all the senses, rather than a mere reiteration.
n
Joseph Bruchac, x, Gangi
In 1924 Sara Cone Bryant wrote, “Always remain suggestive rather than illustrative… The storyteller is not playing the parts of his stories: he is merely arousing the imagination of his hearers to picture the scenes for themselves.” In the 1950s, Ruth Tooze said, “Tell your story simply, directly, sincerely, using few gestures… Storytelling is not dramatization. It is shared vital experience in which words are the means of communication in which words are the means of communication. There are not specific gestures anyone can teach you to use in expressing joy or sorrow or anger. Your face will show what you feel.” In the long run, more children will hear more stories if you do not pressure yourself to give a dramatic performance, unless that is part of who you are and it is your style. “I now know what at first I refused to believe,” says Reed, “that the meaningful story, quietly told to quiet listeners, is the true heart of storytelling.”
INSTRUCTOR’S NOTE: THERE IS
Sources of Stories: Personal, cultural, Oral History, Written, or Heard
Workshop: p. 132-36
Aids:
Pantomime, p. 3, 155-56
Movement/Dance p. 155-57
Read aloud, p. 26
Props:
Shawl, p. 42
Objects, p. 135, 165
Art
Music
Vocal, p. 85-90, p. 90 (call and response), p 135 (tandem storytelling), p. 181-83
Instrumental, p. 87, 135 background
Drama (presentational), p, 109-114
Oral interpretation, p. 203-205, 217, 230, 244-45
Costume/Set,
p. 126