Books

Books By Marni Gillard

These are available from the Story Studio. Please email, write or call for information.

Picture of the cover of the book Storyteller, Storyteacher

Storyteller, Storyteacher: The Power of Storytelling for Teaching and Living

(Stenhouse, 1996)
Winner of a 1998 Ann Izard Storyteller's Choice Award for storytelling resources.

Marni Gillard has told stories to preschoolers, middle schoolers, and college students, and elicited their tales in return. She's heard triumph and trauma tales from prison inmates, senior citizens, and both preservice and veteran teachers. She's witnessed repeatedly that we teach ourselves how to live by telling our stories. In this book she shares the lessons she's learned about child-centered teaching and telling. Storyteller, Storyteacher includes:

The important difference between reading aloud and storytelling. How children can learn from the natural storytellers in their lives. How to retrieve early memories. How to choose the “right” story to tell. Strategies and reasons for the use of visualization. A perspective on performance anxiety and reluctant tellers. How less-competent readers and writers find a safe and success-strewn path to literacy through oracy. How oral stories help build community from the first day of school.

This book speaks to the soul of the experienced but often weary teacher and shines a light of encouragement on the path before the beginning teacher. It honors the important work of parenting and of listening to children in and out of school. It invites us all to look to our stories for lessons about educating our children and ourselves.

You can read comments about this book by readers and reviewers.

An excerpt from this book is available on this site.

Picture of the cover of the book Give a Listen

Give a Listen: Stories of Storytelling In School

edited by Ann Trousdale, Sue Woestehoff, and Marni Schwartz, 1994 (NCTE, Urbana, IL).

What exactly is "storytelling" - ancient art or everyday conversation, teaching tool or survival technique? Give a Listen demonstrates how it's all of these. In this collection, teachers from elementary through university levels tell tales of rediscovering the power of oral storytelling for themselves and their classrooms. One student shares a tale of immigration, while another leaves listeners laughing over life's minor catastrophes. In both cases, social walls come down and a classroom community becomes stronger.The telling of stories changed these teachers and their students in profound ways. Give a Listen gathers their voices together in a resounding chorus in praise of storytelling.