For Teachers

Storytelling can impact many areas of the curriculum and provide an effective tool for the entire school to use. For example, storytelling and:

Language Arts: Storytelling helps students develop a sense of plot, theme, and character. Storytelling makes clear the importance of types of language and usage, such as descriptive language or dialog. Storytelling develops listening skills and reading comprehension, and can introduce students to great works of literature and drama.

Creative Writing: Storytelling develops the skills of analyzing and constructing plots, details and descriptions, and characters.

Social Studies: Folktales and legends provide windows into other cultures, as a way of studying those cultures, as an intriguing introduction to a unit on a culture. Storytelling allows students to compare and contrast different cultures by comparing how they handle similar stories. Stories communicate details of a culture--food, dress, habits--in a compelling and memmorable fashion, as well as convey information on geography and settings.

History: Storytelling recreates times, places, events and people. Storytelling can bring history to life in a compelling and intriguing fashion, making sense of events and experiences that seem dull or confusing in a text. Working on their own stories teaches students how to conduct proper research.

Communications/Public Speaking: Storytelling helps students learn to remember, organize, and present oral material. Students learn how to interact with an audience. Storytelling builds listening skills and stage presence.

Math and Science: Many stories sharpen problem solving skills, demand analytic thinking and logic. Stories can explain scientific principles and ideas in a clear, understandable fashion. Storytelling can present the explanations other cultures have offered to make sense of the natural world. Storytelling offers math story problems that actually make sense.

Theater: Storytelling builds stage presence. Storytelling hones performance skills such as voice and movement and techniques of character developement.

Suggested Workshops: Workshops, programs, and residencies that Alan has used in classrooms include:

• Basic Storytelling
• Folktales From Around the World
• Description and Detail: Creating the Castle
• Shakespeare's Stories
• American Stories
• Puzzle Stories
• Historical Stories: Researching and Developing
• Oral History
• Storytelling Resources for the Classroom

To talk to Alan about presenting a workshop for your class, call him at 412-521-6406, or email him at alanirvine@aol.com

Page last updated 12/19/04. Site design by Kevin Riley