Storytelling gives kids a voice, a way to be heard

By Jessica Thompson
Staff Reporter
jessica.thompson@doverpost.com

Went to the bakery. Bought some cookies and cake. They smelled great.

“I knew I was going to have a really good day,” said professional storyteller Michael Forestieri to camp participants at the Appoquinimink Boys and Girls Club. Short of hearing crickets, one camper said “Cool!

Forestieri searched the room for applause, maybe accolades. However, none of the nine- and 10-year-old campers in the session seemed to think this was a good story.

After all, this was Friday, their last day of a week spent with Forestieri and the campers are confident, communicative and clear on what makes a good story.

“What does this need?” Forestieri asked the group.

“Details!” came the reply from his audience of 11.

“Right. If I did it again what do you smell, hear and see?”

“You see the chef,” one camper said. “Hear the clock” and “the plop of the dough,” come more responses. Feelings of hunger, warmth and description of the other customers who are in the shop are other suggestions.

Throughout the week of July 17 to 21, Forestieri passed along what he has spent the last 15-plus years doing. The Bear resident is an ordained minister and has found storytelling to be a powerful tool in teaching all ages and also passing along valuable lessons.

“With PSP [Play Station Portable], and TV, kids have no inter-social skills,” he said. “Storytelling develops communication and friendship for all kinds of kids. It really levels the playing field when you bring together a group and knock down walls.”

In addition, it gives kids a voice and shows them there’s something valuable inside of them, Forestieri said. It also helps develop communication skills, public speaking and gives them a safe environment in which to do it.

“Respect has been a big issue this week,” he said. “It’s been a quick week but it’s given them a taste of this.”

As a culmination for the storytelling, each participant had the opportunity to get up in front of the group and tell his or her story. There were tales of “Wimmicks” who walk around with yellow stars and gray dots, liking lima beans but not eating them because no one else did and the “Library Dragon.”

Lessons of acceptance, self-confidence and being true to yourself drip from each camper’s story. At the end of each story, the teller receives stars and wishes from the audience.

Forestieri, who has always been heavily involved in the performing arts, started storytelling when he visited his wife’s middle school class and saw the students looking totally “vacant behind the eyes.”

“I was just like, ‘Honey, we gotta go do something,’” he said. Since then, the storytelling programs have caught on and Forestieri has traveled all over the area and world, encouraging this form of expression. He works with all ages, church groups, and community groups, as well as organizations like the YMCA and Boys and Girls clubs.

“The best part for me is when their eyes are really wide,” he said. “I love what I do and a lot get it once they learn it and that makes it worthwhile.” If they gain a little character in the process, that’s not bad either, he said.

“Storytelling is this whole thing behind the eyes of your audience,” he tells the group. “It’s 25 percent words.”

So, as for the bakery story, Forestieri tried it one more time, and this time added facial expressions, voices and details – lots and lots of details.

“As I laid my hand on the glass and pulled on the steel door, I stepped into the warm bakery and I smelled the fresh baked crusty French bread and Mmmm! Coffee,” he said.

The near silence at the beginning of the session was replaced by watering mouths and glazed over eyes as all the campers thought of the five-tier wedding cake Forestieri described, the cannolis and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies.

“You’re making me hungry,” came the response from just about every member of the group.

ISSUE DATE 08/03/06