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Other Lesson PlanFor ages:
High SchoolShows:
Description
Teach your drama students the art of storytelling, using activities from the book The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling, by Rives Collins and Pamela J. Cooper. Each student learned a story to perform for an elementary school class. Following are the steps to took in making each story the studentʼs own.
Materials
- Students need to find their own stories
- Posters and markers to make story boards
Full Lesson Plan
1) To begin, each student chose a story that spoke to them. Itʼs important to think about the teller as well as the audience when choosing the correct story.
2) Each student read his or her story to the class. For homework, he or she was asked to read the story at least two more times.
3) The next day in class, each student developed a memory graphic to aid in remembering the story. This can take many forms, but the form we chose was a story board, outlining the most important parts of the plot.
4) When learning their stories, the students were encouraged to memorize the first and last lines so that they always had a place to start and a solid finish if they got off track.
5) The students practiced telling their stories in pairs, using only the memory graphic to aid them. Each time they told, they were encouraged to add voices, movement, etc. to the story to bring it to life.
6) Finally, students were able to tell their stories in their own style with no help from the book or memory graphic. We presented them to second and third graders.