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The focus of these pages is Beavers, the junior section of Scouts Canada. |
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Preparing and Telling Stories
Let's give credit where it is due. Much of this material is from a booklet prepared by John Shipside, for a Beaver Leader's Sharing Day, November 1997. I've taken some liberty of adding to it. Thanks John, for opening my eyes so I can awaken the imagination of a child.
Learning the Story
- Start with a story that you are eager to learn. When you finish reading a tale and jump up with excitement, that's the tale you want to learn and tell to others.
- To learn a story you need to be able to concentrate. Try to find a place away from interruptions. You may find you need to pace and talk aloud to internalize the story.
- Read the story out loud, listening to the language as you read. Highlight passages that are memorable or especially lovely. Note any chants or songs that need to be kept intact to retain the story.
- Memorize key bits of the story such as the chants and songs. Don't worry about getting it exactly the same as the original as long as you are consistent within the tale as you tell it.
- Note the story's basic structure; the flow of activities. Once you understand the structure you can find your way if you get lost.
- Put the book down and tell the story aloud. Tell it in your own words. Only check the text if you forget.
- After you tell yourself the tale, check to make sure you covered all the key bits.
- Tell it through once more trying not to stop. If you get lost, improvise and keep going. Most times you are the only one who knows the structure of the story. So, if you forget, and don't tell anyone, nobody knows.
- Find time in your daily routine to tell the tale out loud. Repeat it to yourself in the shower, as you drive to work, or during your lunch time walk.
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Telling the Tale
- Create some atmosphere. You don't want distractions behind you such as a clock, a door someone might come through, visual clutter, a window the Beavers can see out, or worse of all, a grimacing child. Move the Beavers to a rug in the corner of the room. Outside, gather them in a corner with a fence, or use a tree as a backdrop. Use a prop box, a storytelling apron, coat or vest. Surround yourself with the real thing. Tell a story about dogs and cats at a veterinarian's, tell Hansel and Gretal while on a hike, revel in the exploits of Smokey, the fire dog at the fire station, use books at the library or in the book store, and if you are fortunate enough, take your Beavers to a story tree.
- Do not begin the story until the Beavers are settled. Are they comfortable, and are you comfortable? Make sure they are sitting so you can establish eye contact with them all.
- Introduce the story. Your audience is ready. You are ready (we hope). Pause. Look your audience over and gather them together as you begin.
- Pick up your audience with your first words. They bridge between the world of conversation and the other world of the story. The crossing has to be made magically and deliberately.
- Don't just recite the story or perform the story. Communicate it, and keep in tune with your audience. Speak to them. Draw verbal pictures. Look into their eyes. Read their responses. Speak directly to the inattentive Beaver, and if possible, to each Beaver at some time during the story. Since you've carried the Beavers off to a story realm, they are your responsibility. Watch them, and respond to them.
- At the same time, tell the story!! Live it. Don't be afraid to Growwwl, or use a whiny voice, or use your hands and feet to accent a moment in your story.
- Pace yourself. Do not rush through the story. Read more slowly than you would normally speak. Remember your audience is trying to understand what you're reading. Give the audience spaces to breathe — to contemplate the story as you tell it. Play with the pacing. Make use of suspense. Use short pauses to keep them guessing. Provide rushes of excitement and activity.
- Revel in the beauty of the language. Roll lush words around on your tongue. Give each gorgeous phrase its due. Enunciate. You are interpreting the language, just as a musician interprets music.
- Dance the story. Let the story tell you how to move. There are two common mistakes of storytellers: keeping the body too rigid, and leaping around the room and gesticulating wildly out of control.
- Rest quietly after telling the tale. Let your audience drift back from their dream world to reality at their own pace.
Each of you has a teller inside — a voice eager to share those tales it loves. Relax. Embrace your audience. Let the storyteller out.
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Defending the Story
There may come a time when someone attacks your choice of story material. In some homes witches and devils are taboo, fairies and elves are abhorred. Some adults object to the anthropomorphism of animals (giving them human traits). To give in to these parents would be to eliminate nearly all the folk tales dealing with fantasy.
Some parents may object to scary stories because their children get nightmares. Many psychologists defend the frightening tales, insisting that children need to hear such tales to work out their own fears.
Just keep in mind that to some parents the very act of reading a story about fairies to children puts you in league with the devil. Sometimes the only way out is to exclude that child from the story time. Better to banish one child, than to deprive the rest.
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Last updated: March 19, 2000
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