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The Art of Storytelling

Everyone holds stories that deserve attention. Our daily communications with others and our understanding of history rely heavily on storytelling and storytellers. The value we place on our stories and the stories of others depends on us.

What do you know about storytelling? What do you want to learn about storytelling? How can you use storytelling to enhance the teaching and learning of history and the social sciences in your classroom?

Use the following suggested strategies and applications to build your skills as well as the skills of your students to better understand, share knowledge, and enjoy the studies of early American history. You'll find that storytelling is not always a one-person "show," but an exciting method of engaging students in their research and studies. You, as the teacher, are not responsible for mastering the art of storytelling before inviting your students to do so. Start with the stories you possess and the stories that your students possess, and then build on those stories and build on your skills as storytellers.

Keep your students' imaginations alive, and help students paint a vivid picture of early American history in their minds as we all share the stories of the past to help us understand our present. Good luck!

Learning the Story: Steps and Techniques for Teachers and Students

  1. Big Ideas – Start with the big ideas and build your stories around them
  2. Overheads – Use these to help you and your students tell a story. The illustrations from a story may help you remember the storyline.
  3. Props and/or Costumes – These are not always necessary, but in many cases, simply a hat/cap or artifact may help you tell your story, and may help the listener focus.
  4. Section and Picture – This is a good technique to use to help students retell a story or prepare to tell a story. After reading or listening to a story, ask students to identify the main parts/sections, in sequential order. Divide the class into small groups so that each group has a main part/section to work on. Using butcher/chart paper, ask students to work in their small groups to illustrate those main parts of the story. When done, display illustrations in sequential order and invite a representative(s) from each group to stand before the class to retell the story. While referring to the illustration, encourage students to retell the story from their memory, imagination and collective work with their small group. Let them r know that you are not expecting a "perfect" retelling of the story as they read or heard it.
  5. Storytelling in Groups / Group Storytelling – As with the above activity, offer opportunities to tell stories as a group. Also, invite students to share/tell stories in pairs or small groups to lower anxiety and build skills.
  6. Interactive Storytelling – Look for ways to engage your listeners so they actually become participants in the story. Pattern stories work well since students usually pick up on the repetitive line(s) or story sequence. Solicit their assistance in providing background sounds, standing in as characters, etc.
  7. Storytelling Exercises – Use every opportunity to build your students' skills as storytellers. Even a few minutes each day to play with inflection, body language, facial expression, colorful language, etc. will benefit your storytelling. Students love to talk... let them talk by giving them a purpose, topic, rationale, motivation, etc. Build these kinds of opportunities into your class:
    • Sharing
    • Talk arounds
    • Choral reading
    • Dramatic exercises
    • Book talks and literature circles
    • Socratic seminar
    • Capturing stories (use journals or post-its to capture and store those great ideas that pop-up during class)
  8. Storytelling Environment – Build a positive, inviting, conducive environment for storytelling that lowers anxieties and nurtures the development of all storytellers with:
    • Exposure to good, plentiful literature
    • Integration of social studies, language arts and visual and performing arts
    • Opportunities for discussion and constructing meaning of the curriculum
  9. Tell It Your Way – Personalize a story. Make it your own.
  10. Seven Steps to Storytelling:
    1. Select a story you want to tell.
    2. Learn the structure and block the story.
    3. Visualize the settings and characters.
    4. See the action taking place as if you're watching a silent movie.
    5. Tell the story aloud, using your voice to project the images you've visualized.
    6. Learn the story by heart, not word for word.
    7. Practice telling the story until it comes naturally.

Selecting the Story

There are many places to find stories to use, adapt, etc. You may have to look no further than your bookcase, textbook, and newspapers.
  • Picture books
  • Anthologies
  • Collections of myths, legends, fables, folktales
  • Autobiographies
  • Primary sources
  • Textbooks
  • Newspaper and magazine articles
  • Family stories
  • Oral histories and/or personal interviews
  • Poetry (in tandem, too!)
  • Personal journal entries
  • Photo albums
  • Videos, films, TV shows, baseball games
  • Artifacts to build stories around
  • Postcards

Using the Story

  1. Introducing an era, concept, theme, culture, etc.
  2. Contextualizing information
  3. Reinforcing, internalizing information
  4. Integrating the curriculum
  5. Addressing multiple intelligences and learning styles
  6. Teaching cultural awareness
  7. Comparing and contrasting myths, legends, stories
  8. Identifying and teaching multiple perspectives
  9. Teaching history through authentic oral tradition
  10. Bringing history and historical figures to life!
  11. Exhibitions
  12. Reward
  13. Evaluation
  14. Fun!

Beyond the Story: Practical Applications in the Classroom

Listening and Speaking Skills:
Retelling; discussion and interactive strategies; interviewing; coaching peers; cooperative learning
Writing Skills:
Response journals; letters to characters or authors; original stories; oral history notes; editing stories
Reading Skills:
Reading; selecting; blocking and learning stories to tell; coaching peers; editing stories; accessing online resources
Social Studies Skills:
Identifying speaker, characters, era, geographic, and historic context; using primary and secondary sources; using and creating artifacts and costumes; addressing multiple perspectives; understanding chronology
Visual and Performing Arts Skills:
Dramatics; identifying and using appropriate music; creation of backdrops, costumes, artifacts, etc.; dance; movement; voice control
[NOTE: For an example of an eighteenth-century story, see African-American Storytelling: "The Jackal and the Dog".]


This article was written by Emily M. Schell, History-Social Science Coordinator, San Diego County Office of Education, San Diego, California.