Teaching with Story : Creating Connections in the Classroom Through Storytelling

Anne Izard Award and Storytelling World Award winner

This invaluable resource book includes everything teachers and librarians need to know for using storytelling in their classrooms. It covers a range of topics known as the 7Cs including recommendations for using storytelling to enliven the curriculum, ways to develop literacy and language skills, models for building character, techniques for learning to tell stories, tips for teaching creativity and ways to build community.

It even includes ready to tell tales with useful tips for "tellers" along with valuable references for teachers. It also correlates storytelling activities with the Common Core Standards.

Award-winning author, Margaret Read MacDonald offers multiple storytelling resources. Teaching with Story is the perfect handbook to incorporate storytelling into any lesson. 

Although Dr. Margaret Read MacDonald lives in Seattle, she travels the world telling stories and conducting workshops for educators. Her expertise as a world renown storyteller along with her Ph.D in Folklore, her 30 year career as a children’s librarian, her passion for stories and in-depth knowledge of the oral tradition makes her uniquely qualified to write the authoritative book on using storytelling in the classroom. She puts this range of skills to good use in collaborating on this book with her daughter and son-in-law who are also well regarded storytellers and classroom teachers. When she isn’t working with other educators, she is busy turning her “found” stories into popular, award winning picture books that are enjoyed by children of all ages. Last but not least Margaret has also written a number of resource books and folktale collections that are used in libraries and schools throughout the world.

Jen and Nat Whitman began their teaching careers in Washington state and have taught at international schools in Hong Kong, Germany, and Thailand. In addition to their years of classroom experience, like Dr. MacDonald they are also professional storytellers. They have also presented workshops on the use of storytelling in the classroom at educational conferences for the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS), and for the Association of German International Schools (AGIS).

Currently, Jen Whitman is a Kindergarten teacher at the International School Bangkok, recognized as one of the premier international schools in the world. Jen has focused her teaching career in early childhood settings, teaching Grades K-2 for over fifteen years. She has used storytelling in her classroom for as long as she has been teaching and continues to look for new ways to bring storytelling into her classroom.

Nat is currently serving as the Elementary School Librarian at the International School Bangkok. Nat was an elementary teacher for 12 years, teaching primarily grades 2-4, before shifting roles to become a school librarian four years ago. Nat has been using storytelling techniques in the classroom and in the library throughout his career. Nat completed his Master’s of Education through the University of Western Australia and he focused his Master’s thesis on the effects of storytelling on writing in 2nd grade students.