Assignment Description:
Each student will find, adapt, and tell a story from Drummond Library. Prepare for your storytelling by finding stories, learning the events in them so that you can tell them spontaneously, and making them your own by adapting the story you find to your own voice and telling style. We will discuss this process extensively in the first several classes, so come prepared to take notes and ask questions.
Tips on Selecting Stories to Tell:
Think carefully about your storytelling goals in your story selection. Pick stories you love to think about and love to tell, because that enthusiasm will come through to your audience. Folktales, picture books, personal stories, and digital storytelling will all be defined in class.
Folktales are typically the best place to start. They come from the oral tradition and are therefore stories you can retell in your own words without being in violation of copyright. Folktales have been honed by repeated telling, and the moment at which they were captured in
print represents only one of many ways that they have been told orally, so they are generally amenable to oral adaptation again.
Each of your stories *must* fit the requirements below in both content and length:
Story #1: Folktale or children's picture book (3-10 min)
For each story you tell, there are two assignment components:
1. Write your “Stories Told in Class” assignment and hand in on the day of your telling. Details are available below.
2. You will be telling (live, without notes). Stories must fit the required genres and time limits (see above), so rehearse with a timer.
“Stories told in class” assignment must include answers to ALL of the following:
Information About the Story:
1--Title of story (as found in a text source or your own title for your adaptation)
2--Sources where found (in MLA citation style, which you can find online). More than one source is preferable, but only one is okay if it’s a rare story, i.e. not a story like Cinderella for which there are many versions readily available.
3--Summary of story (one paragraph or a brief outline of story events)
4--Cultural origins information and research: source notes in the text, information in the story, information found in other sources about the story, etc.
5--Audience (potential age level and audience settings: school, library, museum, etc.)
Information About Your Adaptation:
6--Why did you choose to tell this story?
7--How will you adapt this story to make it your own?
8--How will you go about learning this story? How will you be practicing?