Tell It Together - Foolproof Scripts for Story Theatre

Educators seldom have the luxury of working with kids one-on-one to develop storytelling skills - most work with their students in groups - large and small

So it's Story Theatre to the rescue!

School librarian and storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith calls this art form a "near-perfect vehicle for teaching folks of all ages how to tell stories"

In Tell It Together, McBride-Smith briefly discusses her approach to Story Theatre (she describes it as Readers Theatre on steroids). She even shows readers how to develop their own scripts -- on their own or as a class project

But the real heart of this book is eighteen tellable stories scripted for groups of performers to tell together

The scripts call for five to fifteen cast members and are designed for third to sixth grade students, though many are appropriate for older students

Kids will love these fun and funny stories, including "Bill Eraphon and his Horse Peggy Sue" (McBride's Texas-style retelling of the myth of Beleraphon and Pegasus); many familiar trickster, fool, and tall tales, some with refreshingly non-traditional twists; fractured fairy tales; and scripted adaptations of contemporary favorites such as Joel and Alice Schick's Santaberry and the Snard

Barbara McBride-Smith says learning to tell stories should be active, energizing, open-ended, and painless for the learner and the teacher

Here's how to do it