Two of our storytelling 4th grade veterans met me at the main library downtown to tell their tales as part of a librarian's workshop on creating a storytelling club in your library. Who else could convince librarians but the students themselves. They were both amazing.
We were practicing a game strategy that we use in our club to facilitate emotions from your face and body.
The students brought back their homework on their index cards, using our Bare Bones graphic organizer to tell the folktale In the Dark Dark Wood. My focus in our second club meeting was using eye contact when telling our story. We know that typically students who are presenting in a classroom setting tend to look directly at the teacher and the teacher only when trying to relay information. As long as we are smiling at the presenter, that child will continue to look only at you. I have fun modeling a short story at the beginning of the session only looking and telling my story to one child. I even sit down by this child to continue my story. The other 29 students aren't sure how to take this since I haven't said a word about my focus yet. Once I'm done, I ask for a quick reflection from the entire group and possibly how I should have been telling my tale. Kids are so smart - they get it! I remember what Elizabeth Ellis once told me in one of her marvelous storytelling workshops. She pointed out that most folks tend to look either to the right or to the left when telling a story or presenting based on which eye is our dominant eye. We also tend to focus on smiling, happy faces that seem tuned into what is happening. So, I briefly talk about making sure our heads pan the audience every once in a while and it's ok to not look directly into everyone's eyes. I look a bit over everyone's heads so not to get distracted. Our procedure of telling our tales:
1. Try to place students in groups of 4 - 5 in which one person is the leader making sure everyone has a chance to tell their story. If you have sponsors, they can help monitor the groups.
2. One student at a time tells their story standing up in front of the group, trying out their eye contact with everyone in that group.
3. The listeners have been asked to applaud the teller when done but also to have listened to give out affirmations and tips to make the story even better. No negative comments allowed.
4. When each group has completed telling their tales, either with their bare bone index cards or not, then one student from each group is nominated to tell in front of the entire club - totally voluntary.
Our 2nd meeting, most of the students did not feel confident telling their stories without their index card. I had to remind the kids that practicing their stories is very important - it's like smoothing a rough rock in a river. The more you practice a story you love, the smooooother it becomes.
1. Try to place students in groups of 4 - 5 in which one person is the leader making sure everyone has a chance to tell their story. If you have sponsors, they can help monitor the groups.
2. One student at a time tells their story standing up in front of the group, trying out their eye contact with everyone in that group.
3. The listeners have been asked to applaud the teller when done but also to have listened to give out affirmations and tips to make the story even better. No negative comments allowed.
4. When each group has completed telling their tales, either with their bare bone index cards or not, then one student from each group is nominated to tell in front of the entire club - totally voluntary.
Our 2nd meeting, most of the students did not feel confident telling their stories without their index card. I had to remind the kids that practicing their stories is very important - it's like smoothing a rough rock in a river. The more you practice a story you love, the smooooother it becomes.
 Four of our storytellers helped me tell scary stories at the Guadalupe State Park Halloween Trick or Treating Event on Sunday, Oct. 28th. These girls were amazing and told to audiences of about 100. |  This is Avery telling a story she found on her own! |
Our Third storytelling session was the Tuesday before Halloween so we had some digital fun with our school's ipads and our voices. The students homework was to "polish" those Dark Dark Wood stories by telling them without their index cards. Most of the kids stepped up to the plate and did an outstanding job telling their tales in those groups of 4 -5. The next piece of our club meeting was a blast:
We had downloaded the free app called Voice Record Pro (but there are so many others that are also free- you choose) onto our ipads. This particular app is very easy to use, press the REC button to begin recording, the square button to stop, and the arrow button to play. The student tellers were elated and horrified at the same time to hear their own voices tell the story. We talked about how important our voices are when we are storytelling. It's important to vary our "tone" of our voice, to be quiet at times, to shout at times, and to be silent at times - pretty powerful stuff.
Here's the app information if you are interested in trying it out:
Description Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length with configurable quality.
Recorded voices are in standard AAC/MP4/M4A format. They can be converted to MP3 and can be saved in various places like:
- Export to and import from Google Drive™
- Export to and import from DropBox
- Export to and import from Microsoft® SkyDrive
- Export to SoundCloud
- Export to FTP server
- Send to other devices via Bluetooth
- Download directly to PC using built-in web server via local WiFi connection
- Convert to a movie clip and export to Photo Albums
- Post as a Movie Clip on Facebook
- Export to other apps on your device that can handle the audio file
- Import from other apps
- Send Audio or Movie by email
- Add notes to records
- Add photo to records
- Add bookmarks to record
Description Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length with configurable quality.
Recorded voices are in standard AAC/MP4/M4A format. They can be converted to MP3 and can be saved in various places like:
- Export to and import from Google Drive™
- Export to and import from DropBox
- Export to and import from Microsoft® SkyDrive
- Export to SoundCloud
- Export to FTP server
- Send to other devices via Bluetooth
- Download directly to PC using built-in web server via local WiFi connection
- Convert to a movie clip and export to Photo Albums
- Post as a Movie Clip on Facebook
- Export to other apps on your device that can handle the audio file
- Import from other apps
- Send Audio or Movie by email
- Add notes to records
- Add photo to records
- Add bookmarks to records
We had downloaded the free app called Voice Record Pro (but there are so many others that are also free- you choose) onto our ipads. This particular app is very easy to use, press the REC button to begin recording, the square button to stop, and the arrow button to play. The student tellers were elated and horrified at the same time to hear their own voices tell the story. We talked about how important our voices are when we are storytelling. It's important to vary our "tone" of our voice, to be quiet at times, to shout at times, and to be silent at times - pretty powerful stuff.
Here's the app information if you are interested in trying it out:
Description Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length with configurable quality.
Recorded voices are in standard AAC/MP4/M4A format. They can be converted to MP3 and can be saved in various places like:
- Export to and import from Google Drive™
- Export to and import from DropBox
- Export to and import from Microsoft® SkyDrive
- Export to SoundCloud
- Export to FTP server
- Send to other devices via Bluetooth
- Download directly to PC using built-in web server via local WiFi connection
- Convert to a movie clip and export to Photo Albums
- Post as a Movie Clip on Facebook
- Export to other apps on your device that can handle the audio file
- Import from other apps
- Send Audio or Movie by email
- Add notes to records
- Add photo to records
- Add bookmarks to record
Description Voice Record Pro is a professional voice recorder. It allows you to record voice memos and on-site sounds at unlimited length with configurable quality.
Recorded voices are in standard AAC/MP4/M4A format. They can be converted to MP3 and can be saved in various places like:
- Export to and import from Google Drive™
- Export to and import from DropBox
- Export to and import from Microsoft® SkyDrive
- Export to SoundCloud
- Export to FTP server
- Send to other devices via Bluetooth
- Download directly to PC using built-in web server via local WiFi connection
- Convert to a movie clip and export to Photo Albums
- Post as a Movie Clip on Facebook
- Export to other apps on your device that can handle the audio file
- Import from other apps
- Send Audio or Movie by email
- Add notes to records
- Add photo to records
- Add bookmarks to records
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