The Perfect Story
From Nursery School to Nursing Home
By
Marilyn A. Kinsella
Welcome to the Perfect Story workshop. The following pages will highlight stories that storytellers have found successful for telling in five different age groups. They will give hints for telling to the age groups, earmarks of a good story. and a bibliography of stories and websites. Although this workshop is called "The Perfect Story," I will leave perfection to the Creator and humbly propose that this workshop will help you choose the right story, for the right time, for the right audience. When I first began storytelling, I was told that any story could be told to any age group. And, to a great extent, that is true. That is why a section is called "Earmarks of a good story." This will enable a teller to adapt a story normally told to one age and adapt it to tell to a younger or older audience. It will also give parents and teachers a guide to selection good books to read or stories to tell.
This paper is divided into 7 parts
Part One: Telling from birth to 2 year old
Part Two: Telling to 3-5 year olds
Part Three: Telling to 6-9 year olds
Part Four: Telling from Young Teens to Adults
Part Five: Telling to Residents in Nursing Homes
The last two parts include a synopsis of a workshop I offer using the ideas in this paper and some of the versions of folktales that the participants have written.
