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For me, storytelling is a wonderful thing, very precious to my soul because I really feel joy seeing that I can influence in good people souls and lives.

or Teaching Without Pressuring the Teacher to Teach or the Child to Learn

Stories and songs are natural teachers and create natural paths to literacy.
Stir a child’s imagination with stories, songs, and poems, and you feed the roots of learning. Once memorized, a single sentence from a piece of prose, a song, or a poem, creates a model for many hundreds of sentences to come.

The linguistic significance of these models looks deceptively simple, but every sentence or stanza, no matter how short, is packed with grammatical and syntactic models. Let’s take a closer look at one simple stanza from my song, Bug in My Hand:

There’s a bug in my hand,

and it climbed on my nose,

and it played a bass drum,

bum, bum, bum, bum.

Here are a few of the grammatical (syntactic) structures in this one short stanza.

there’s: non-referential ‘there’ and subject-predicate agreement
a bug: noun phrase with singular indefinite article ‘a’
in my hand: prepositional phrase, including possessive ‘my’
and: coordinating conjunction
it: referential pronoun in place of the noun ‘bug’
on my nose: prepositional phrase with parallel structure to first prepositional phrase
a bass drum: noun phrase with adjective-noun combination

These are only a few of the syntactical structures that have been used to build this simple stanza. Memorized in a state of play, every one of the patterns illustrated above and those not mentioned become models for linguistic development and literacy in the future.

What a wonderful tool, especially when working with reluctant learners. (See my blog entry: On reluctant learners)

Reluctant learners are afraid, moody, and often angry. So as not to fail, they don’t try. They play every trick in the book, from daydreaming and disrupting class to acting out. Eventually, if not helped, they may turn into problem kids.

But what if a teacher could turn these reluctant learners around? What if a teacher could teach these reluctant learners without them knowing they were being taught?

Stories, songs, and poems are the key. And they not only work for reluctant learners. They also help to reinforce proper syntax in the minds of even the best of students.

I often talk to educators about ‘giving the gift’. Excite young people to the wonders of stories, songs, and poems and you will be giving everyone of them a ‘gift’, the ‘gift’ of literacy, a ‘gift’ that lasts a lifetime.

Max Tell, a.k.a. Robert Stelmach, the International Troubadour, sings and tells stories from the heart. http://maxtell.ca/content/

Press Play to hear Nothando Zulu speaking on participation on the Art of Storytelling with Brother Wolf.

Nothando Zulu writes..
Participation, Participation, Participation...

I began telling stories as a member of an acting ensemble in 1976, presenting storytelling as a major part of our repertoire. We worked primarily in park and recreation centers and schools. As members moved away or went into other fields, we evolved into‐ and I cofounded ‐ the Black Storytellers Alliance (BSA) in direct response to the demand for storytelling to deliver the inspirational and cultural lessons embodied in our stories.

Early on I encouraged members of the audience to share the storytelling space by becoming a part of the story and one of the characters in the story. On many occasions, I was unable to use all the audience members who wanted to participate! It was wonderful to have so many trying to join in the storytelling process and reinforces oral storytelling as a powerful medium. Therefore, I decided to use a kind of birthday system for who I would choose:

• I start with participatory stories in mind
• I ask the audience who had a birthday in the prior month
• Depending of the number of positive responses, I decide on the story to
present.

One example is Ananse and His Six Children. If I receive more than six positive responses, I make some twins or triplets and sometimes quadruplets! I may use the age of the participant to determine the specific role of each participant. In the story Ananse and The Moss Covered Rock, Little Miss Bush Deer has to be at least a third grader, to understand and answer “No” to each of the questions asked by the Ananse character. When the participant is younger, (s)he may miss the concept and answer in the affirmative.

Audience participation is fun and most effective when the storyteller has extensive experience with audience inclusion.

Breif Bio
Nothando Zulu is a Master storyteller who has been sharing stories with audiences for over 30 years. She shares stories that entertain, educate, motivate and inspire. She has performed at many venues locally, nationally and internationally. She draws from an extensive resource of colorful, often funny characters whose antics and follies leave audiences pondering their own life’s lessons. As Director of Black Storytellers Alliance, she and her husband with the help of the Board of Directors has produced a three-day storytelling festival celebrating the art of Black storytelling called, “Signifyin’ & Testifyin’” (now in the 17th year). Nothando is also a wife, mother, grandmother, community and political activist who believes in the power of stories.

Read more about Nothando Zulu on her website http://www.yourfavoritestorytellers.org/nothando-zulu.htm
and on the Black Storytellers Alliance Website http://www.blackstorytellers.com/

Press Play to hear Eric Wolf speak how you can support the Art of Storytelling with Children.

For Immediate Release Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Art of Storytelling with Children is an internationally recognized podcast listened to in 142 countries worldwide with over 50,000 total lifetime downloads, 13,000 distinct listeners, and 8,000+ downloads in the last thirty days. With over 88+ storytellers interviewed on the show this website is rapidly becoming the worlds première source for teaching storytelling online. Through this encyclopedia of storytelling techniques a listener can improve their communication skills and get a complete storytelling education.

Heather Forest, Elizabeth Ellis, Judith Black, Jay O’Callahan, Andy Offutt Irwin, and many other storytellers are interviewed on how to use storytelling techniques in performing for and teaching storytelling to children. The Art of Storytelling with Children has draw guests from all over the world and created an amazing storytelling education resource of storytelling techniques that is unmatched on the World Wide Web. All episodes available right now online for immediate listening and download in the commercial lower quality version for easier down load.

Individuals wishing to pre-purchase this commercial free ipod can pay $338.55 till July 27th. On July 27th the price for a preloaded ipod with 85 shows will increase too $394.65. The Apple Ipod allows listeners to scan easily to any point in each of the 85 hour long shows.

Eric Wolf is the host and producer of the Art of Storytelling with Children show witch is dedicated to supporting the teaching storytelling worldwide by providing access to storytelling techniques and a grounded storytelling education for anyone.

For More Information go to:
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/category/press-release/

For a Full List of Episodes go to:
http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com/past-guests/

For more Information Contact:
Eric Wolf (937) 767-8696

Press Play to hear Ed Stivender speak on the 5 Fool proof Rules for Successful Storytelling on the Art of Storytelling with Children.

In reviews of his performances, Ed Stivender has been called “the Robin Williams of storytelling” and “a Catholic Garrison Keillor”. Now, Ed — Philadelphia native, Shakespearean actor, banjo player, teacher, theologian, Mummer, dreamer, juggler, and raconteur — has put together a program in which he shares the techniques that have made him one of the most honored and sought-after storytellers of our day.

Since 1977, when he left his day job as a high school teacher in Connecticut and turned to storytelling full-time, Ed has fabulated his way around the globe –appearing in schools, churches, coffeehouses and theaters, as well as at major storytelling festivals. He has been a featured performer at the National Storytelling Festival, the Cape Clear Island International Storytelling Festival in Ireland, Graz Festival, Austria and our own Philadelphia Folk Festival. Ed enjoyed narrating: “Paddington Bears Special Day” with the Harrisburg Symphony, “Ferdinan the Bull” with a violinist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, and “Peter and the Wolf” with the LaGrange Symphony.

In the Spring of 2005 Ed worked with a group called Historic Philadelphia Inc., which has had colonial re-enactors in the historic district, that expanded to include a project called “Once Upon A Nation”.
Ed worked with them as a consultant/writer/trainer, helping them develop short historical stories to be presented throughout Independence National Historic Park on thirteen storytelling benches. He trained the tellers during their three week training, “Benstitute”, and did some paperwork summarizing and suggesting. Ed also wrote a theme song for them.

The National Storytelling Association inducted Ed into its Circle of Excellence in 1996.

Ed has strutted in the Comic division of the annual Philadelphia Mummers Parade since 1982. In 1994, he received the Mummers’ Most Original Character Award for his one-man Vatican-American String Band, and in 1996, he was Captain of the first-prize-winning Kingsessing Morris Men and in 2006 he won first prize for Most Original Character.

Ed is the subject of a chapter in the book Storytellers by Corki Miller and Mary Ellen. Snodgrass, a story in Chicken Soup for the Romantic Heart and is the author or two books of tales: Raised Catholic, Can You Tell? and Still Catholic After All These Fears. He has also released a video and several recordings of his performances.

To Book Ed Contact:
NANCY CLANCY
26616 Willowmere Drive E-35
Millsboro, DE 19966
[email protected]
302.947.9515

For More information on Ed Stivender
Business Cards

Ed Stivender at August House

Amazon Raised Catholic

Press Play to hear Elaine Wynne who is a clinical psychologist speak’s on uses healing stories with children on the Art of Storytelling with Children.

Elaine Wynne was a Storyteller first. Stories flowed freely around the kitchen table and from an Anishinabe/Irish man who lived on the farm where she grew up. She told stories to her young children and then in the early 70’s finished a degree in Storytelling and Image Development for Non-Profits. She began to perform as a storyteller and then in 1982 got a degree in the Psychology of Human Development (Storytelling and Healing as a main focus) and became a Licensed Psychologist.

She worked six years at Mpls. Children’s Medical Center and developed a story called “The Rainbow Dream”, used by children and adult cancer groups for many y ears. Later, her work using storytelling to teach self management to 2-5 year olds with asthma (with Daniel Kohen, M.D.) was published in the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and in numerous medical and psychological journals in Europe. R esearch on using stories and games as teaching methods showed significant reduction in emergency clinic and hospital visits over a two year period.

Elaine has performed and taught storytelling (and storytelling as a healing art) in Norway, Sweden, England, Ecuador, Japan, and Singapore, as well as in numerous places around Minnesota and the US. Last year, she presented a performance workshop at the 12th annual Pediatric Emergency Management of Humanitarian Disasters in Cleveland. She won Grand Prize with her husband (Storyteller Larry Johnson) at the Tokyo Video Festival for a storied exchange between children in St. Paul and London. She and Larry conduct and teach about Cousin Camp which they developed with their 13 grandchildren.

You can read more about her in this cool article in the Daily Planet

Press Play to hear Elaine Wynne who is a clinical psychologist speak’s on uses healing stories with children on the Art of Storytelling with Children.

Elaine Wynne was a Storyteller first. Stories flowed freely around the kitchen table and from an Anishinabe/Irish man who lived on the farm where she grew up. She told stories to her young children and then in the early 70’s finished a degree in Storytelling and Image Development for Non-Profits. She began to perform as a storyteller and then in 1982 got a degree in the Psychology of Human Development (Storytelling and Healing as a main focus) and became a Licensed Psychologist.

She worked six years at Mpls. Children’s Medical Center and developed a story called “The Rainbow Dream”, used by children and adult cancer groups for many y ears. Later, her work using storytelling to teach self management to 2-5 year olds with asthma (with Daniel Kohen, M.D.) was published in the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and in numerous medical and psychological journals in Europe. R esearch on using stories and games as teaching methods showed significant reduction in emergency clinic and hospital visits over a two year period.

Elaine has performed and taught storytelling (and storytelling as a healing art) in Norway, Sweden, England, Ecuador, Japan, and Singapore, as well as in numerous places around Minnesota and the US. Last year, she presented a performance workshop at the 12th annual Pediatric Emergency Management of Humanitarian Disasters in Cleveland. She won Grand Prize with her husband (Storyteller Larry Johnson) at the Tokyo Video Festival for a storied exchange between children in St. Paul and London. She and Larry conduct and teach about Cousin Camp which they developed with their 13 grandchildren.

You can read more about her in this cool article in the Daily Planet