Your role is to empower them to become the "Directors of the Theater of the Mind."

That is, in fact, what storytellers are. Just as a film director makes decisions about the cast, the setting, and the script, the storyteller gets to make decisions about characters, setting, plot and motivation in the stories that he or she tells. Listeners form images in their minds of the characters, setting and action in the story. As students progress as tellers, this process becomes conscious and creative. What follows are step-by-step lessons to create a class full of storytellers.

What follows here is an eight to ten class lesson plan to teach children the basics of storytelling. If you don't have time to spread out a unit on storytelling, you might want to shorten some steps and combine them into fewer classes. For instance, you can combine Classes One and Two by eliminating the "Instant Storyteller" exercise. You can eliminate Class Three by making that task an assignment. You can combine Classes Four and Five, and Classes Six and Seven. Use your creativity and flexibility to make the steps work for you.

class one | class two | class three | class four | class five | class six | class seven | class eight