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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Telling One Story Five Ways - Conclusion

This is the last of a series of posts about "Telling One Story Five Ways."

"The Fisherman and His Wife" has been presented five ways - as a board story, using stick puppets, using props, as a draw and tell story and as a cut and tell story. Once I wrote my version of the story, I only needed to make minor changes to fit each of the different formats. Although I enjoyed the creative challenge of telling one story five ways, the reason I did so was to show that stories can be easily adapted to various formats and to encourage storytellers to try something different. If something does not work one way, I change it to something that does work. By doing so I am no longer limited to what is available when I plan my programs. I make changes all the time. I change stories so that I am comfortable telling them. I change stories to increase their appeal to my audience. This viewpoint has actually made my programs more creative and I've had positive feedback from my audience. It has certainly made planning my family storytimes much easier! Presenting the program is also more fun especially when I come up with something as over the top as "Sam and the Acorn."

Of course there are more than five ways to tell a story. I chose these five because they are the formats I use the most. Sometimes I mix formats. I use props and stick puppets when telling "The Birds and the Trees" and I use board figures and props when telling "The Most Wonderful Egg in the World."  "The Fisherman and His Wife" could also be performed by storytellers such as those done by Beyond the Book Storytimes or it could be adapted for Readers' Theater with students performing.

Now I must say farewell to the humble fisherman and his overachieving wife. I hope that their "stories" have inspired you. Now I must start thinking about my summer family storytimes. My library is doing the CSLP program, "Dig Into Reading." So far I have only a couple of stories, "Mole's New Hole" and a vegan version of "Herman the Worm."

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