CREATING A STORYTELLING CULTURE by Will Coleman
Extracted from Scene 2008- 09 September Issue 1
CREATING A
STORYTELLING
CULTURE
By Will Coleman
Tell the story
The importance of telling stories
It is perfectly possible to convey the
surface features of a story by reading
from, or indeed “sharing”, a book.
However something fundamentally
different and potentially far more
powerful can happen through telling
stories. By telling a story you retain the
flexibility to respond to audience
reaction – “an interpersonal event
shaped by those who participate”.
Fairy tales are the result of the process
of generations of storytellers
responding and shaping tales to the
subtle requirements of generations of
children. Whilst the telling of stories in
class cannot exactly recreate the one
to one experience of storytelling by
parents, grandparents etc. we know
that many children today miss out on
this vital interaction at home. So, as
teachers, we can but do our best,
once more, to step into the breech and
open up for children the symbolic and
ultimately therapeutic world of fairytales.
We are all experts already
Every day we sift, shape and
connect our experiences together in
order to relate them to others.
Gossiping and swapping anecdotes
are universal habits that rely on exactly
the same processes as storytelling.
Many of us are particularly skilled at
telling stories of awkward predicaments
we have got ourselves into or near miss
disasters. We have a whole catalogue
of formal elements we routinely use e.g.
…I couldn’t believe my ears…, ...you’ll
never guess what happened…, ...I was
gobsmacked… etc. Thinking about
storytelling as passing on a piece of
gossip can help demystify the art of
storytelling (practising storytelling will
improve your gossip skills too).
Know your tale
You do not have to learn your story
word by word (you might as well read
it from a book). But you do have to
have a clear grasp of the structure of
the plot. There are many different ways
to get this depending on your preferred
learning style. Try drawing a cartoon
strip adding in extra characters and
even speech bubbles around the main
action points (storyboarding). Have
your storyboard to hand as a memorynudge when you tell your tale. Or, you
might prefer to list the decisive plot
points in order. How about acting out
the whole story to yourself (in private)
playing all the characters yourself so
that it’s easy to recall who goes where
and does what? Plan your opening
sentence and final sentence word for
word and then let the rest flow!
Action and dialogue
It can be useful to choose a simple
physical endowment for each
character in the story e.g. shoulders
held back, nose wrinkled up, eyebrows
raised… When using direct speech a
subtle attribute such as these will
differentiate between characters
without having to go into full-blown
“acting”. Similarly, try using gesture
and action sparingly; let the children’s
imagination do the work. An
understated physicality means that you
have always got a little in reserve to
“top” what has come before.
What’s in the bag?
If you have a relevant prop or
musical instrument try putting it inside a
box or bag. Create interest and
anticipation by looking inside or feeling it
but don’t reveal it. How long can you
“Cornwall’s coat of arms bears a shield of 15 bezants
(gold coins), which represent the ransom raised for the
release of the Duke of Cornwall, as captured by the
Saracens during the Crusades
12 | Scene | 2008-9 September Issue 1
delay the moment of production?
Handle any object with care, endow it
with status, even a bit of crumpled
paper can assume magical significance.
An object that appears after it has been
referred to in the story somehow lends
the whole story a veracity. This can be
an effective way to end the story.
Play to your friends
When telling a story catch the eye
of a pupil you know to be responsive
and give them a friendly twinkle. Now
find another friendly face and smile at
them. Slowly accumulate “friends”,
keeping them topped-up with regular
twinkles until the whole class is on
board. Resist the temptation to expend
your energy and reward the behaviour
of any restless or inattentive pupils by
trying to “win” them over. Rather, give
extra attention to whichever of your
friends are nearest to the squirmers.
It’s amazing just how contagious being
part of a good time can be.
Share it around
Mentally quarter your audience,
choose a child in the first quarter and
deliver the first sentence or phrase of
your story directly to them. Choose a
child in the next quarter and give them
the next sentence or phrase. Carry on,
delivering each subsequent chunk to a
new child in a new chunk of audience.
Do not “short change” anyone but let
them have a full phrase-worth of eye
contact each. Avoid sweeping eye
contact, communicate clearly with one
person at a time
Be open to feelings
Rather than some tremendous feat
of acting prowess, all you, the
storyteller, need to do is to be open to
feelings. This includes recalling the
feelings that the stories evoked in you
when you were young as well as the
meanings they may have for you as an
adult. If you are sensitive to the reasons
why a child may derive personal
meaning from a story, then the child
feels understood and affirmed.
Don’t explain the ‘meaning’
Fairy tales are not concerned with
“150 years ago, leftover scraps of meat or fish were mixed with root vegetables to make the traditional
filling for the Cornish pasty. The pasty is worth £150 million a year to the Cornish economy.”
providing useful information about the
external world; rather, they offer
suggestions about how to deal
constructively with inner experiences.
Through contemplating, fantasising
about and role playing fairy tales
children can work through their deep
anxieties and hidden hopes without
feeling exposed and isolated. Whilst it
is important that you actively
participate in children’s experience of
fairy tales, allow them to do their own
internal work; never make a child feel
that you can see inside them.
Don’t know your tale
Once you are working within the
symbolic world of fairytales there
comes a point when you feel brave
enough to create your own story in the
form. You can always hold the plot of a
known tale in the back of your mind.
This is actually the sort of creative task
we expect of children but you are
going to do it with an audience! Ask
the children what they want in the
story – they will have subconscious
ideas, themes, hopes and anxieties
that they need to explore. Like so
many activities, the more you do it the
easier it gets and the benefits in terms
of your relationship with the class and
their engagement with story (and
therefore text) are immeasurable.
Look over your shoulder
What do you do if you are
improvising your way through a story
and start to find yourself floundering?
Don't feel that you need to come up
with some amazing new idea to grab
everyone's attention. Look back at
where the story has been and bring
back characters or ideas from earlier on.
Reincorporation is one of the most
satisfying and essential components of
storytelling. It is only when all loose ideas
are tucked back in that we instinctively
know that the story has ended.
When and where does
storytelling happen?
The ability to tell a good anecdote is
highly valued in society. Children need
to learn what to include, what to leave
out and how to shape their news. To
give everyone a chance to be heard use
‘Listening Partners’ to swap
gossip/news every morning. Then ask
partners to nominate someone to tell
their news to the whole class. When
asking for feedback from the class,
focus on the way in which the news
was shared rather than just the content.
E.g I liked the way Tamsyn shared how
she felt as well as what happened…
The storytelling corner
Many classrooms have a book
corner with cushions and books on
display. Widen the book corner’s brief
to become “The Storytelling Corner” or
let the role-play corner be “the
Storytelling Cottage” for a while. Mount
a display of professionally recorded
storytelling CDs alongside the
children’s own recordings and have the
CD player (and headphones) available.
When setting oral tasks for group work
allow them to work in this space.
The storytelling chair
If no room is available for a whole
“Storytelling Corner” then
obtain/decorate/appoint a special
“Storytelling Chair”. Treat the chair with
some reverence and ceremony and it
will soon confer high status upon
whoever is working from it. It will help
children see their peers and
themselves as Storytellers.
Display
Conventional opportunities for
displaying the outcomes of Storytelling
related work are manifold. However, do
not underestimate the power of display
in augmenting the quality of work in
progress. Displays such as “What
makes a Good Listener?”, “Useful
Phrases for Beginning a Story”, “Words
and Phrases that Show Time Passing”
etc can be referred to explicitly during
aural work and keep the targeted
Learning Objectives in focus.
Who is telling whom?
Ensnare everyone into your
classroom storytelling web. Make sure
classroom assistants are empowered
to contribute regularly, twist the
caretaker’s arm, pressurise key
parents/grandparents (especially of
children needing self-esteem boosting),
and don’t let the head teacher off the
hook. Older children will jump at the
chance to prepare and tell stories to
younger children. When that has been
successful, reverse the convention and
get the younger children to prepare
and tell stories that they believe the
older classes would enjoy.
Events
Staging a storytelling event for
parents and friends is a wonderful goal
to aim for at the end of a unit of work.
Find a local professional storyteller to
contribute – perhaps they might help
the children in the preparation as well.
Keep the contributions short and
varied. Use ‘Tableaux’ alongside
‘Scene by Scene Retelling’ to involve
all children. Consider living dangerously
and including live ‘Hot Seating’ or
playing ‘Whatever Next?’ games in
front of an audience.
Which stories to tell?
Our own remembered stories
As a class, brainstorm all the
stories that we already know. You will
need some discussion about what it is
to “know” a story – use
‘Storyboarding’ to dredge details and
pivotal plot moments out of the
memory. Create a bank of titles –these
will be incredibly useful later on as a
“plot bank”. The telling and retelling of
‘known’ stories is immensely useful in
honing storytelling skills and gaining
understanding of narrative structure.
Our own created stories
As we remember, adapt and create
our own stories they can be added to
the class repertoire. ‘Publishing’
children’s writing is a well-known
method of raising the perceived status
of their written work. Do the same with
oral work; once a story has been
‘shaped and polished’ give it the
honour of being recorded and added
to the class story-bank.
Multicultural tales
It is highly desirable to use stories
from a wide variety of world cultures as
well as from a range of cultures closer
to home. Celebrating cultural diversity
of all kinds strengthens the self-esteem
of those children who identify with
particular cultural motifs. It also
prepares all of us to expect
enriching experiences from all
the different types of people
we encounter through life.
No longer deputy head teacher at
Treyew Primary School, Will now
describes himself as a ‘freelance
human being’. He lives with his
wife Susie, and hordes of children
in the parish of Lanlivery, ‘the belly
button of Cornwall’. Details of Will’s
book Brave Tales, Developing
Literacy Through Storytelling can
be found on page 18
Scene | 2008-9 September Issue 1 | 13