Diana Schcolnicov

The workshop has been organised into three  modules

Module 1: The spontaneous narrator. We all have a story to tell

Aims:  To produce and analyse the retelling of  true-to-life stories about themselves or members of the family,  anecdotes etc

·      .To recognise the narrative structure of a story.

·      To discover aesthetic clues to make the story poetically significant through the use of expressive language.

·      To do breathing , relaxation and concentration exercises

 ·      To “feel” the space

Módule 2 Different types of stories

Aims: To analyse different types of narratives and their dramatic structure

·         To explore different texts: folktales, fairy stories, fantastic stories, modern stories

·         To do exercises for socialisation, to accept and enrich somebody else’s proposal.

·         To do improvisations

·         To discover body language.(mimic, facial expression, etc)

·         To practise eye-contact and be alert and “in the moment”

·         To learn how to use and take care of the voice and to appreciate the textures produced by the voice. To explore sounds.

·         To explore the use of different story props: illustrations, visual aids, realia, puppets, masks, etc

Módule 3 Project work: From text to telling

Aims: Integration of modules 1 and 2

·      To select a tale for storytelling

·      To sequence the story as a map, an outline or a flow chart .

·      To simplify the plot into a story skeleton and then, using personal imagination, flesh it out as a retelling

·      To hold face to face storytelling sessions

·      To devise activities pre and post retelling

Time administration and activities

Módule 1:

This module will take approximately six weeks. The students will work on improvisations of real or invented stories individually and in groups. They will explore spontaneous speech and improvisational language. Special attention will be given to oral language from the lexical and phonological point of view.

The exercises or games for concentration and relaxation will be varied., in pairs, small groups or as a whole group.

Module 2:

This module will take approximately eight weeks.

The students will read different kinds of stories. There will be reading aloud sessions, exploring the stories’ structure and formulaic expressions Then they will learn  to adapt the written stories for retelling, paying special attention to the elements to take into account in that translation. This will be supplemented with exercises to explore different approaches to the texts and acting out different characters in the story.

In groups, the students will devise activities to do before, during and after the stories.

Módulo 3

The last two weeks will be devoted to evaluation. The students will choose a story to tell using the tools they have acquired. The elements to be evaluated are the following:

Overall impression and management of time and information, non-verbal resources,  tone, rhythm and diction.

·         The Storytelling Handbook. A guide  for primary teachers of English. Edited by Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster. Penguin English.1991

·         Andrew Wright: Storytelling with Children Oxford University Press. 1995

·         Rodari, Gianni. Gramática de la Fantasía. Introducción al arte de inventar historias. Ediciones Colihue/ Biblioser, 2005

·         Juan Jesús Zaro and Sagrario Salaberri: Storytelling. Handbooks for the English Classroom. Heinemann.1995

·         Cuentacuenteros y Cuentacuentos: De lo espontáneo a lo profesional. Volumen 2. Compendio del 5° al 9° Encuentro Internacional de Narración Oral. Editado por Fundación El Libro, Instituto Summa- Fundación Salottiana, ALIJA Asociación de Literatura Infantil-Juvenil-Argentina.

·         http:// www.storyarts.org

·         http://www.storynet-advocacy.org