1) Students will see storytelling modeled by a professional storyteller.
2) Students will be introduced to the idea of storytelling as an oral tradition and as a profession.
3) Students will develop an appreciation of stories and reading.
4) Students will observe how to add expression to a story by using variety in voices, facial gestures, body language, eye contact, pauses and volume.
5) Students will learn to communicate and share their own stories.
National Standards to which Once Upon A Song! and From Lit to Skit are in alignment with Language Arts Standards for grades K-6 for oral storytelling:
Kindergarten:
Reading Comprehension
2.2 Use context to make predictions about story content.
2.3 Connect to life experiences the information and events in texts.
2.4 Retell familiar stories
Literary Response and Analysis
3.1 Distinguish fantasy from realistic text
3.3 Identify characters, settings, and key events
Listening and Speaking
1.0 Students listen and respond to oral communication
Grade One
Reading Comprehension
2.0 Identify text which uses sequence and/or logical order
2.2 Respond to who, what, when, where, and how questions
2.5 Confirm predictions about what will happen next in text by identifying key words
2.7 Retell the central ideas of simple expository or narrative passages
Literary Response and Analysis
3.1 Identify and describe the story elements of plot, setting, and characters, including the story's beginning, middle, and ending
3.3 Recollect, talk, and write about books read during the school year
Listening and Speaking
1.1 Listen attentively
2.2 Retell stories
Grade Two
Literary Response and Analysis
3.2 Generate alternative endings to plots
3.3 Compare and contrast different versions of the same stories that reflect different cultures
Listening and Speaking
1.1 Determine the purposes for listening
1.8 Retell stories, including characters, setting, and plot
2.1 Present stories that move through a logical sequence of events and describe story elements
Grade Three
Literary Response and Analysis
3.2 Comprehend basic plots of classic fairy tales, myths, folktales, legends, and fables from around the world
Listening and Speaking
1.1 Retell, paraphrase, and explain what has been said by a speaker
2.2 Plan and present dramatic interpretations of experiences, stories, poems, or plays
Grade Four
Listening and Speaking
1.2 Summarize major ideas and supporting evidence
1.3 Identify how language reflects regions and cultures
1.9 Use volume, pitch, phrasing, pace, modulation, and gestures appropriately to enhance meaning
Grade Five
Reading Comprehension
2.2 Analyze text which is organized in sequential or chronological order
2.3 Discern main ideas and concepts presented in texts, identifying and assessing evidence that supports those ideas
Listening and Speaking
1.3 Interpret speaker's verbal and non-verbal messages, purposes, and perspectives
Grade Six
Listening and Comprehension
1.1 Relate the speaker's verbal communication and non-verbal messages
1.2 Identify the tone, mood, and emotion conveyed in the oral communication
1.7 use effective rate, volume, pitch, and tone, and align non-verbal elements to sustain audience interest and attention
1.8 Analyze the use of rhetorical devices for their intent and effects (e.g. cadence, repetitive phrases, onomatopoeia)
Other elements of Language arts that are enhanced by storytelling:
Listening Skills
Vocabulary
Distinguishing main idea
Sequencing and predicting
Determining theme
Reading fluidity and expression
Idiomatic speech
Cultural knowledge
