A Storyteller's Story Techniques in oral telling

Primary, secondary adult
by David Heathfield, Exeter, UK

"From the stories we hear as children we inherit the ways in which we talk about how we feel, the values which we hold to be important, and what we regard as the truth. We discover in stories ways of saying and telling that let us know who we are… We not only thrive on stories; we also survive by telling them, as history, discovery and invention." Margaret Meek, On Being Literate (1991)

I hadn't really thought about doing that

The first time I told stories without text in the classroom was soon after a local well-known storyteller was invited to the school where I was teaching EFL to adults and teenagers in Devon. Without modifying the language he used very much for his overseas audience, he entranced groups of students from barely elementary to advanced levels. The communication was not just verbal, it was physical, emotional and certainly very powerful. Students were developing their listening skills in a way that appeared new and exciting and yet which was so old and familiar.

I could do that

Soon after that I started incorporating the telling of folk stories and personal anecdotes into courses I taught. At first I felt a little uncomfortable, "Do my students really want to listen to the sound of their teacher's voice? Are they going to see the value of this?" As long as the aims were clear and they could see how the story was integrated into the course, the answer to both questions seemed to be "Yes". A little while later Geoff Fox, a fellow actor who teaches storytelling at Exeter University, ran a workshop, which provided me with some of the basic tools described below.

What stories?

I'm not going to define what a good story for telling is. Suffice to say that stories I've told in class have been factual, fictional and somewhere in between, traditional and modern, from many cultures and times and often personal anecdotes and fantasies.

Where from?

I've told stories that have first come to me in different forms, ones I've read, heard, created and experienced. Many of the stories I've told come from short story books in my local library, but increasingly I get stories from the web. Newspapers and magazines are another source if I'm looking for a real-life up-to-date shocker.

How I choose a story off the page

Personally I tend to look at the shortest stories first. I skim the story to see if the plot grabs me in some way. Usually some strong images of the main protagonists will appear in my mind, often their posture rather than their features or colouring. In my case I'm usually looking for stories with universal appeal for children and adults. I particularly go for stories from the oral tradition, partly because I love them and it's exciting to keep them alive, partly because I personally feel less comfortable making my own version of a story which an author has published in their own name.
At the end of this article is the story of The Boy who went to the North Wind in the exact words I found it on a website dedicated to Norwegian culture: oaks.nvg.org.

How do I make the story my own?

If the story appeals to me, I'll read it through a second time pretty quickly to get more mental pictures and a couple of key phrases which I like before cornering one of my sons or my wife and forcing them to hear this great new story raw, inaccurate and unpractised. Personally I need an audience, but that's just the way I'm made. Others seem happy just to tell it to themselves. On this first telling I make things up and forget key events so it might not make complete sense (lots of wonderful traditional British and Irish stories make no sense whatsoever!). Then I need to go back to the text and reread it, not too thoroughly, because I don't want that version to have too much influence on my own telling of the tale. I might look for a simple prop which I can use to engage students' interest at the beginning or produce to give an element of surprise at a dramatic moment later on. As I practise telling the story a second time, I might focus on direct speech. I find the posture, expressions, mannerisms and voices of one or two of the characters. I also feel the characters' emotions. I use sound effects and mime, especially for repeated actions (such as the knocking on the door of the North Wind below). At intervals through the story I might repeat a phrase or rhyme accompanied with a gesture which students can join in with. The important thing is not to overdo any of these things. Hinting at something with a subtle action is usually more effective than a huge, exaggerated gesture. I don't want to break the spell of the storytelling experience.
Varying the volume, pitch and tempo of my voice draws the audience in. All sorts of imaginings are sparked off in students' minds by leaving questions about secondary characters unanswered, e.g. "and what became of the innkeepers after he left, we'll never know. The story doesn't say…" (see below). Then I practise the beginning and the ending again, as I want to make an impact.

The Norwegian Story site can be viewed here.

Preparation before the class

Depending on my aims, I prepare in different ways. I might ask myself these questions: Am I there simply to entertain or am I leading into another activity? How far am I going to take into account these students' listening skills and vocabulary range in English? How far am I going to substitute more familiar vocabulary? (e.g. Shall I change "meal" to "flour" or "grain" in the story below). If I'm going to pre-teach a couple of lexical items, shall I use visual images or will that have too much influence on the students' own mental pictures during the story? How many are going to be there? How shall I lay out the space? Can I create an intimate atmosphere by adjusting the lighting or playing some atmospheric background music before starting?

The first telling

The first telling is the most exciting. The audience senses that something new is being created. It really doesn't matter if I go off track. There is no right and wrong in storytelling. If I get stuck, I'll pause and visualize the scene in my mind's eye. My students might be doing the same, although I was made aware at a recent NLP workshop that Mario Rinvolucri led that no two students will be experiencing the same story in their heads at the same time. Everyone creates their own version, just as when we read.

Retelling

Every time I tell a story there will be something new, either prepared or spontaneous, otherwise I'm in danger of the story becoming stale. The important thing for me is to hear the story from my audience's point of view. If they're hearing the story for the first time, then it's a new story I'm telling.
I told the story of The Boy who went to visit the North Wind two weeks ago to an Oral Communications Skills class of mixed-nationality students on Masters programmes at Exeter University. It was very different from the one printed below, albeit with the same plot, and when I told it to my two pre-school British-Irish nephews yesterday it was another version altogether. Next week I'm planning to tell the same story at a party for British adults with learning difficulties and it'll be a new story all over again.

What students get from my storytelling

It's not just that I like stories. The pleasure I get is in the responses of students when they are drawn in and the way in which stories unite us all. When I am planning a course, I'll look at how and where a story will best support the students' learning: presenting and practising narratives and/or sequential linking devices; developing lexical fields, e.g. if the theme is weather, I'll add a few more related items to the story below; global listening skills and/or focusing on connected speech. Follow-up activities can incorporate all or any of the four skills in manifold ways.

A couple more of my storytelling experiences

1 As an EFL teacher I've often incorporated stories into school celebrations e.g. Christmas. If my class like a story I've told them, pairs or small groups dramatise short scenes with dialogue. At the school show, each narrator takes their turn to tell part of the story (no script!) and pauses for the actors to bring the scene to life.

2 Before I go to the theatre, especially to see a Shakespeare play, I want to have a pretty good idea of the plot so that I can follow it. Students need this input even more than I do. Before taking students to a production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, I invited them to a 30-minute introduction to the plot and characters. I picked out one significant quote for each of the principal characters and wrote each one out in large print on a separate piece of card. As I introduced each of the characters, I invited a volunteer student to the front and gave them a label with the character's name to stick on their chest. I described the character to the class and briefly outlined their position in relation to the other characters and their desires. Once all the characters were introduced and standing at the front, I told a drastically abridged version of the plot as a story, referring to the students as the characters and handing the quote to the character to hold up and display as it came up, e.g. Petruchio "I will be master of what is mine. She is my goods, my property…". Once I had read and explained the quote to the class, the student in question was ready (with a little support) to improvise in character answers to a couple of questions from the other students. After the theatre trip, students commented how much they were able to follow having had the storytelling introduction. This seemed much more effective for these students, who were not on a literature course, than reading a synopsis.

Spontaneous Storytelling

Many years ago I read the book Impro by Keith Johnstone. On reading it again recently I realized how much his chapter on improvised narrative skills has influenced me. I find it very exciting to create a story with a class within a very simple framework. Once the scene is set and the central characters are established, events can take the story off in infinite directions. Ensuring that characters and events are reincorporated into the story as it approaches its conclusion will make it complete. With input from the students, the story seems to have a life of its own. Having established that all contributions from other students must be accepted, I often hand the role of storyteller to a volunteer. Frequent checking and recapping avoids misunderstandings.
Students often need time to pause and think when spontaneously creating a narrative, so playing an extended piece of instrumental music, from a film soundtrack for example, can support the storyteller and the process. The choice of music does of course influence the nature and the mood of the story.
Once the story is complete, I often ask groups to improvise new stories within a similar framework. I also encourage students to develop their story by dramatising key moments. This leads to a performance usually within the class and occasionally even to other classes. Some spontaneous storytelling activities are described in my teacher resource book, Spontaneous Speaking (2005, DELTA Publishing).

The boy who went to the north wind

(from website oaks.nvg.org and click on Fairy Tales)

ONCE upon a time there was an old widow who had one son; and as she was poorly and weak, her son had to go up into the safe to fetch meal for cooking; but when he got outside the safe, and was just going down the steps, there came the North Wind puffing and blowing, caught up the meal, and so away with it through the air. Then the boy went back into the safe for more; but when he came out again on the steps, if the North Wind didn't come again and carry off the meal with a puff; and more than that, he did so the third time. At this the boy got very angry; and as he thought it hard that the North Wind should behave so, he thought he'd just look him up, and ask him to give up his meal.
So off he went, but the way was long, and he walked and walked; but at last he came to the North Wind's house.
"Good day!" said the boy, and "thank you for coming to see us yesterday."
"GOOD DAY!" answered the North Wind, for his voice was loud and gruff, "AND THANKS FOR COMING TO SEE ME. WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
"Oh!" answered the boy, "I only wished to ask you to be so good as to let me have back that meal you took from me on the safe steps, for we haven't much to live on; and if you're to go on snapping up the morsel we have there'll be nothing for it but to starve."
"I haven't got your meal," said the North Wind; "but if you are in such need, I'll give you a cloth which will get you everything you want, if you only say, "Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kind of good dishes!""
With this the boy was well content. But, as the way was so long he couldn't get home in one day, so he turned into an inn on the way; and when they were going to sit down to supper, he laid the cloth on a table which stood in the corner and said,
"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kinds of good dishes."
He had hardly said so before the cloth did as it was bid; and all who stood by thought it a fine thing, but most of all the landlady. So, when all were fast asleep, at dead of night, she took the boy's cloth, and put another in its stead, just like the one he had got from the North Wind, but which couldn't so much as serve up a bit of dry bread.
So, when the boy woke, he took his cloth and went off with it, and that day he got home to his mother.
"Now," said he, "I've been to the North Wind's house, and a good fellow he is, for he gave me this cloth, and when I only say to it, "Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kind of good dishes," I get any sort of food I please."
"All very true, my darling, "said his mother; "but seeing is believing, and I can't believe it till I see it."
So the boy made haste, drew out a table, laid the cloth on it, and said,
"Cloth, spread yourself, and serve up all kind of good dishes."
But never a bit of dry bread did the cloth serve up.
"Well," said the boy, "there's no help for it but to go to the North Wind again; "and away he went.
So he came to where the North Wind lived late in the afternoon.
"Good evening!" said the boy.
"Good evening!" said the North Wind.
"I want my rights for that meal of ours which you took," said the boy; "for as for that cloth I got, it isn't worth a penny."
"I've got no meal," said the North Wind; "but yonder you have a ram which coins nothing but golden ducats as soon as you say to it -
"Ram, ram! make money!"
So the boy thought this a fine thing; but as it was too far to get home that day, he turned in for the night to the same inn where he had slept before.
Before he called for anything, he tried the truth of what the North Wind had said of the ram, and found it all right; but when the landlord saw that, he thought it was a famous ram, and, when the boy had fallen asleep, he took another which couldn't coin gold ducats, and changed the two.
Next morning off went the boy; and when he got home to his mother, he said,
"After all, the North Wind is a jolly fellow; for now he has given me a ram which can coin golden ducats if T only say, " Ram, ram! make money! ""
"All very true, I dare say," said his mother; "but I shan't believe any such stuff until I see the ducats made." "Ram, ram! make money!" said the boy; but if the ram made anything it wasn't money.
So the boy went back again to the North Wind, and blew him up, and said the ram was worth nothing, and he must have his rights for the meal.
"Well," said the North Wind; "I've nothing else to give you but that old stick in the corner yonder; but it's a stick of that kind that if you say -
"Stick, stick! lay on!" it lays on till you say -
"Stick, stick! now stop.""
So, as the way was long, the boy turned in this night too to the landlord; but as he could pretty well guess how things stood as to the cloth and the ram, he lay down at once on the bench and began to snore, as if he were asleep.
Now the landlord, who easily saw that the stick must be worth something, hunted up one which was like it, and when he heard the boy snore, was going to change the two, but just as the landlord was about to take it the boy bawled out -
"Stick, stick! lay on!"
So the stick began to beat the landlord till he jumped over chairs, and tables, and benches, and yelled and roared,
"Oh my! oh my! bid the stick be still, else it will beat me to death, and you shall have back both your cloth and your ram."
When the boy thought the landlord had got enough, he said -
"Stick, stick! now stop!"
Then he took the cloth and put it into his pocket, and went home with his stick in his hand, leading the ram by a cord round its horns; and so he got his rights for the meal he had lost.

Meek, M. (1991) On Being Literate
Johnstone, K. (1981). Impro, Methuen
Recommended story resource website: oaks.nvg.org and click on Fairy Tales

Profile

David Heathfield teaches, runs workshops for teachers and works as an actor/facilitator and interpersonal skills trainer. His book Spontaneous Speaking: Drama Activities for Confidence and Fluency will be published in 2005. He'd love to hear about your responses to this article and your experiences of storytelling on nizmat33@hotmail.com

Please check the The Creative Methodology For The Classroom course at Pilgrims website.