In order to make story-telling most effective, the story-teller
should bear in mind certain conditions that are imposed by those
who listen.
1. _Know the story._ Know it well enough to tell it in your own
language, and in the language of the children who hear it. Know it
well enough to amplify, vary, improve, make all kinds of excursions
and side incidents, and yet return easily to the main body of the
story.
2. _Tell the story._ Do not read it. The speaker is free and
unbound by book or words; the reader is held by the formal page
before him. The stories in this book are condensed, too condensed
for reading and need the addition of words to make them of the
right consistency. Those words should be the narrator’s own; the
story then becomes the narrator’s story and not the author’s, and
that is as it should be.
3. _Act the story._ Do not be afraid of the dramatic side of
narration. Imitate all the sounds that belong to the story, such
as the winds blowing, the thunder rolling, a bear growling, a dog
barking, etc. Change your voice to meet the requirements of youth
and age. Throw yourself heart and soul into the spirit of the
narrative and do not be afraid to take all the parts, and to act
each one in turn.
4. _Impress the story._ Remember that the story is the main thing
and that the moral point is secondary. Do not make the story a
sermon, and do not dwell severely upon its ethical features. If the
story is amusing let it be without moral value. If it is historical
let it remain so. Generally speaking you can bring out the moral
features in a few words at the close. Children do not like too much
sermonizing.
5. _Use the story._ If the story lends itself to dramatization, by
all means let the children act the parts; if it is a good language
exercise, let them tell it or write it in their own words; if it
can be illustrated let them draw pictures on the board or at their
seats; if it can be used for handwork in any way, let them make
what they can.
6. _Enjoy the story._ Make it worth while for pupils to be punctual
in order to hear the story; recur often to past stories when
occasion recalls them to mind; let the imagination play around all
the incidents so that the mind will be filled with those images
that have been the joy of childhood since the world began.
Augusta. Ga. LAWTON B. EVANS.