Storytelling Lesson Plans

Students explore Aboriginal storytelling traditions through the spoken word and through visual culture. They listen to stories of the Dreamtime told by the Aboriginal people and investigate Aboriginal storytelling in contemporary dot paintings.

Students explore an important moment in the course of American History through critical listening. Students analyze the lyrics of one work by the Dixie Chicks. Students have a better understanding of the way music can mirror social events and become storytelling devices in the future.

Students investigate the art of storytelling and make Native American storytelling dolls. In this storytelling and Native American lesson, students discuss the art and purpose of storytelling. They examine listening skills and make clay listening dolls.

Young scholars experience oral traditions in storytelling from a variety of cultures. In this storytelling lesson, students watch short video about oral traditions and of two cultural stories. They look for commonalities and differences in the stories. They examine how oral traditions are passed down and complete an associated worksheet.

Students explore narrative traditions and storytelling from Alaska, Hawaii, and other cultures. In this storytelling instructional activity, students think about how everyday events can become stories.  Students view "The Voyage of Kealoha" video and complete interactive computer activities.

Third graders explore cultures that use clay figures in the art of storytelling. They discover the importance of cultural history being passed through generations. Students form their own storyteller from a clay figure.

Students create an autobiography and a family hisstory using an outline and interviews. Students present their family history and autobiography to the class. Students design and produce a symbolic representation of their family storyteller to be displayed in class.

Students read and discuss an article about Olga Loya, a modern storyteller. They watch a videotaped performance of a story and then create a storytelling experience for a story of their choice to share with the class.

Fourth graders analyze the contributions of Appalachian storytellers. In this North Carolina history lesson, 4th graders use provided Internet resources to research the lives of selected storytellers and compare their own lives to the lives of the storytellers as they write biographies for the storytellers.

Students experiment with multimedia storytelling. They tell a story about their families clarifying the setting, characters and the script, and set their story in a multimedia format. They use digital pictures, and music to accompany their story after watching a segment of American Family.