ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines five essential aspects to effective storytelling in the classroom, both in the specific telling of tales and in general teaching. These are the unmediated text – moving from reading to telling; narrative in storytelling and teaching; story recall and memorisation; selecting and adapting material; and storytelling in performance. To provide a meaningful experience of storytelling and foster the classroom community of storytellers, the characteristics of dialogic storytelling are present. Storytelling can be a means of valuing the range of cultures represented in the classroom and building a bridge by which pupils can negotiate their way between dominant and minority cultures. All cultures have their own histories, myths, legends and stories, which are passed on through the generations. In telling a story, rather than reading it, the teacher models the purposeful, sustained, creative and organised use of their own oral language: a combination unique to storytelling and some improvisational forms of poetry.
