Topic: Storytelling

10-second review: Why tell stories instead of reading them? Telling folk tales (rather than reading them) enriches and entertains in an unforgettable way.

Source: CM Kirkton. “Once Upon a Time… Folk Tales and Storytelling.” 1025.

Comment: For those of us who are not gifted storytellers, reading aloud to even older students can have a magical effect. The teachers that many students remember are those who read aloud to them. Dickens, a gifted reader, was supposed to have said when he observed his listeners crying, “That is power.” I, too, remember reading aloud the story, “Two Soldiers” by William Faulkner, looking up and seeing the students crying. If you can’t tell stories, at least read to them aloud. And they don’t have to make you cry. They can make you laugh. I remember reading the many anecdotes about the Brooklyn Dodgers that I read to one of my classes. They howled when the manager asked the runner why he didn’t slide into home plate. “What, and bust my cigars?” [in his back pocket]. RayS.