Storytelling

Reviewed By Hollie Scargall

I found that the website "Storytelling" located at http://www.planetsme.com/storytelling.html was energetic and full of straightforward, information.

The first sentences of this site grabbed my attention "What are Americans most scared of? In second place is death. In first place is public speaking." This is what everyone seems to think of when the word storytelling is told.

This site comes from Planet Esme, an award-winning, registered school librarian site. The homepage gives links for Jim Trelease books and a link called "Free Spirit" which has books for helping children with special needs or in difficult stages. The home page gives links for many books, resources and ideas.

The storytelling site gives you the educational benefits of storytelling and the differences between read-a-louds and storytelling. What I loved about this site was that it tells you how to teach children to become storytellers. You can scroll down the one long, continuous page or use the Quick Session Links. I like the ideas given for beyond storytelling. I especially liked the idea for your own storytelling festival. For more performance ideas, there is a wonderful link called "Poetry Power." There is a story bibliography to help get you started.

The one thing that I didn't like about this site was that there was not a "top of page/bottom of page" button. There is a place where you are asked to send your e-mails about success stories and pictures to post. I clicked on that link to see if it gave the e-mail address, but it went straight to my e-mail and I didn't like that aspect of it.

There is a link for Amazon.com and a search box located at the bottom of the page. There is a link to Home, Planet Esme, where it tells about the entire Planet Esme site. There is a link that tells about Esme and the people responsible for the web design. I liked the home page as well as the storytelling page.

Reviewed By Donna Sears

This website is maintained by Esmé Raji Codell. She is an author, children's literature specialist and award winning speaker. She graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern Illinois University in 1992, and is certified in the field of K - 8 Elementary Education with an endorsement in Language Arts.

The primary focus of this website is to inform and provide instruction in the area of storytelling. The site contains 10 lessons, all based on children's literature. It is a well planned site with various links to additional sites. The only advertisement is at the bottom of the page for Amazon.com

One of the best attributes for this site is a lengthy storytelling bibliography. It provides the author, title and a very short synopsis of the story.

Another nice feature of this website is the closing activities it provides. Touring for students and the culminating story festival are excellent ideas used to wrap up this unit on storytelling.

All but two of the links work in this site. The links are appropriate for the area being discussed. I could not locate any information on when this site was last updated.

The topic has in-depth coverage. The author covers everything from providing benefits of storytelling to the difference between read aloud and storytelling. The different lessons provide the objectives of the lesson, activities used when students are with the instructor and activities when students are on their own time.

The site is very easy to read with black font on a pale yellow background. The links are blue when new and change to red once visited.

This site is very useful for first year teachers, new librarians, or parents. It provides a wealth of information. Visit the home page and find more useful links and information there.

This site is found at: http://www.planetesme.com/storytelling.html

Reviewed By Carol "Janie" Samfield

The site Storytelling is run by Esme Raji Codell who is certified in K-8 Elementary Education with a Language Arts endorsement. She has been a speaker for the American Library Association, National Education Association, and the International Reading Association and has appeared on television and radio shows. She taught school for five years and has five years experience in selling children's books. This is a commercial website, and Esme advocates literature-based learning and integration of subjects. Her homepage Planet Esme is a Registered School Librarian Web Page and has received the Informed Site Award for 2001. It also is an Education World Graded A Reviewed Site.

I was unable to find a date for updating on the website, however most of the links were active. I was surprised that the link to the National Storytelling Network home page was not active.

The address for Esme was given as well as several email links. On Esme's homepage Planet Esme there is a link to get information to book a performance by Esme.

Information gathered from other sources is properly attributed. The site talks about other books, storytelling websites and publishers.

This website gives step-by-step directions on teaching kids how to tell stories. The author attributes much of her approach to the book Children Tell Stories: A Teaching Guide by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss. The site was informative and easy to understand. It led kids through warm-up exercises, mapping the story, mapping the characters, playing games to improve techniques, practice and the performance. Esme's storytelling model has no information about its being published.

I enjoyed this site and I think teachers and librarians would find it helpful in learning the art of storytelling.