Stories through the Millennium

A project from the Birmingham Libraries Young Readers UK Festival, administered by Graham Langley, Storyteller The seven selected stories can be viewed on the Stories through the Millennium home page

GUIDANCE NOTES

These notes are intended to help any adults using the stories with children. If you are a parent, nurse, teacher, youth leader, carer, etc you will find ideas here to help you to read or tell the story confidently. Stories stimulate the imaginations of children so there are ideas to use after the telling to deepen and broaden their experience of the story.

We will be including some of the children's responses and presentations at Young Readers UK in 2000 so let us know how you and the children get on.

PREPARE YOUR STORYTELLING PLACE

Every one loves to be told a story. You can make this an enjoyable occasion for both you and the children. Sharing a story is a personal and intimate activity. Children like being close and snuggly. If there are only a few children bundle them onto a settee or on some cushions. Sometimes an enclosed space is a good setting, like a tent or under some bushes. Being close together like this means you can use a natural, comfortable voice.

If you have a large number of children like a classroom or scout group, again bring them in close together. Their closeness will help them share the story with each other as well as with you. Sitting on the floor works well. If they are little you may sit or kneel on the floor with them. Or you may prefer a small chair. It is useful to be slightly higher than the children. A few rugs, blankets or cushions may help but "who gets the cushions" can sometimes become an issue so you need to make a judgement on this beforehand.

BE INFORMAL

Try not to make the storytelling too formal. You may like to seek unusual spots for the telling like the tent or bushes already mentioned. Camp fires or late at night in the holiday caravan both work well or you could enliven a car journey. Look for unusual or unlikely places to tell the story such on a mountain peak or on a ferry or plane journey - then please tell us about it.

TELLING OR READING?

CHOOSING YOUR MATERIALS

Think about the needs of the children, their abilities and ages.
You don't have to use all new material every time you do a session.
It's good for children to hear stories more than once. It helps reinforce them.
Only use stories that you enjoy.........if you enjoy it, they are much more likely to.

NOTES ON READING THE STORIES

Most of the basic rules and techniques of reading stories to children are simple, basic common sense. However if people are new to the task of reading and sharing stories or nervous about doing it in a new situation these techniques can be overlooked. The following tips may be useful.

PREPARING YOUR STORIES

Read the stories through to yourself, to make sure you have grasped the sense of the story and you know how it flows.

STORY READING TECHNIQUES with groups

Get them well settled down before starting, let them wriggle around and get comfortable before you begin.
If possible sit slightly higher than the children
Always make sure you keep them within the triangle of your eyes ....... if you can't see them you don't know what they are doing and you can't make that essential eye contact.
Read the story slowly and clearly.
Use appropriate volume and expression in your voice.
Change the pace and tone of your voice.
Pause is important. You can use it for anticipation or reflection.
Use a variety of voices for different characters only if you feel
comfortable in doing so.
Invite the children to participate in the story which allows a break from reading for a moment.
Encourage them to talk about the story. You may ask direct questions. This is all part of process of developing and extending child's language and imagination.

NOTES ON TELLING THE STORIES

One of the advantages of storytelling is that you can have eye contact with the children at all times. Your eyes keep the story alive and this helps maintain contact and control over a larger group. You can use your own pace and own language to share with the children.

LEARNING A STORY TO TELL

To tell a story it is not necessary to learn it as a script. Stories live in our minds as images and it is these images that we recall when we tell a story. Fixing these images is much easier than fixing and learning a text and it allows us to use our own language and share the language with the children.

Once you have chosen a story, read it through a couple of times.

Put it to one side and jot down about ten chapter heading, in sequence, for the story as you remember it. You may find that by using this list as a memory aid it is enough to enable you to tell the story.

Make a story map, story board or cartoon strip using the chapter headings. You can be as elaborate as you like but matchstick people and scribbly bits are just fine. This is for your own use and helps fix the images in your mind.

Add any essential words like names, repeated or important phrases etc.
Add one major turning point in the story.
Add words to describe the emotions of the characters or the general mood of the story.
Add an opening phrase and an ending phrase.

You are now ready to tell the story. Keep your list or story map near you if you are worried. Rely on your own language and talk directly to the children. If you make a mistake or miss something out you can correct it later. Listeners find this very acceptable.

DO NOT HURRY IN YOUR READING OR TELLING

Pause at times to ask the children what they think a particular place or person is like or how they thought it felt, etc. Use enough voice to make sure the children can hear but you can use volume and other devices to add to the drama. You can even be a little playful. Have fun and let yourself be part of the telling.

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