Active strategies for effective story telling

Active stratigies for effective story telling can be summarized in a few simple but effective means. The methods below are designed to make your story time fun and effective.

• § Choose your books properly. There should be matching between the book and the child. Many a time people tell the story to young children but much to their dismay they could not get the interest of the child, why, because they chose the wrong book. You have to pick the book that are interesting, with beautiful colored-pictures, and as much as possible don't use long stories for very young children. They have a lesser attention span.

• § Take time to read the story and know its content. Making sure that it is not putting certain people to lower class; regardless of race, color, disability, and physical features. Making sure also that it will not offend certain religion, practices, or belief (esp. if your story telling to kids not your own). If you are not in agreement with the book, you might as well disregard it rather than read it to the kid and debate it.

• § You need to read the book ahead of time. You can focus better on telling the story rather than reading it and trying to understand the whole thing. If you read ahead of time you can have a better concept on how to do the whole story in a much effective, fluent, and dramatic way. Expressions are better defined if you know the story well ahead of time.

• § If you will be telling the story to a number of children during the day, it is best if you can have props. Props are very effective. It creates more life to the story. It creates an atmosphere of interest to the whole story, suddenly it becomes interactive. It is as if the story came to life. Children usually giggle to see costumes and make-ups. You can use puppets, stuffed toys, life-size costumes, masks, and some variations to lighting effects as your props. The thing is use your creativity.

• § Use expressions in telling your story. You can use a sad face when you are in the saddest portion of the story, a big smile or a happy face during times of hope, a thrilling face during the climax, and an expression of excitement and relief during its end. These expressions are crucial because it makes your hearers feel the story; without it the story becomes dead and boring.

• § Use different voices for different characters. Like a small voice for a tiny mouse. Or a big voice for bears or giants. This gives life to the characters. Practicing this one needs no special skill everybody can do this. The more you use it the more skillful you become to make different voices for a number of characters. Don't worry it's ok to repeat a certain voice to a character of the same features or size. For example the voice for a mouse and a bird, you can use the same voice for both of these characters (if you have difficulty changing it).

• § If you're telling the story during the day, it is best that the children could see the pictures when you tell the story. Children are more visual especially during the day. They appreciate the character if they could see it (that if you are just sitting and using a minimal set of props).

active strategies for story telling...Continued......