“What Happens Inside Your Head When You Are Listening to a Story?” Children Talk About Their Experience During a Storytelling

Abstract

This paper is part of an ethnographic study of storytelling in a school in which I spent five months in a grade four/five classroom. There I listened for all the stories told over the course of the day. Children talked about movies and being sick. They traded rumors and hearsay about local events such as a road accident or “the sniper in Washington.” Their teacher, Linda Stender, also told stories. She shared her experiences, illustrated a point, explained a math problem, or just got attention for a subject. Linda Stender is a “professional” storyteller. She was a member of the Vancouver Storyteller's Organization and attended storytelling festivals, workshops, and conferences. In her classroom, about once a week or less, she gathered the children and told them a story from memory.