An Evaluation Form for Students to Fill Out--with Responses

After a residency at a school I sometimes offer students the chance to evaluate their experience. This evaluation serves me in designing future programs. It can be useful for the teacher to keep as well.

Storytelling Evaluation

Please help me assess what you've learned about storytelling by putting your thoughts and feelings into writing.
Thanks for your help.

1. What story(s) that you heard me tell will stay with you? Why?

2. What did you learn about storytelling from watching and listening to me: either about how to tell stories or why telling personal stories is important.

3. What story(s) did you tell to a partner or to the class?

4. What did you learn about yourself, about your classmates, and about storytelling in general through this unit?

5. Where are some places you might be able to use storytelling for fun, to enhance your learning, to be helpful to society?

6. Anything else you want to share with me about your experience before I go?

Comments by 7th graders

I really thought it helped a lot that Mrs. Shogan and Mr. Simon told stories before us to show us techniques.

I like the way that everyone is a little scared when we start, but we relax eventually.

Storytelling is a way for people to communicate with each other. It's also a way we can enjoy ourselves. It isn't easy to do. I learned that the story I told held a lot of my beliefs in it.

Storytelling has taught me that anything someone has told you should be valued. You could have helped bring stories to a close because I noticed that a lot of stories ended very abruptly.

I think storytelling is important because it takes us back to before movies, television, radio, and even plays. People used to tell stories by passing them down from family to family to generations. I appreciate storytelling because it comes from the teller's heart and voice. It shows how much the teller puts into his or her story when she tells it. A good storyteller clears one's mind.

Everyone heard stories for the first time or heard stories from a different point of view or a different version. I think storytelling is important. It is fun, new, and exciting. I liked storytelling because it was fun, new, and exciting. It was fun hearing the other stories. I think that we will all remember this. We might not remember all of the stories specifically, but we will remember doing this. I thought it was great, but it would have been better if we had more cushions, and if Mr. Simon didn't leave. Storytelling will always be in our lives.

I learned that telling a story with a timeline is easier than telling it out of your head. I've learned that storytelling doesn't work without an audience. I think a story can only be a story if people listen to it. If they don't, it is just an idea in your head. You can only tell a story with an audience.

It changes after it goes through people.

I think this story is trying to teach you that if you look really deep down inside someone, you can find the real them. Also, not to judge people by what they look like. I now feel that I can get up and talk without being nervous. I got nervous but I appreciated that everyone was listening to me.

I did not learn anything from using the time line. I just thought it was a big nuisance. None of the ideas worked for me because I had already memorized the story, and I know props and everything. I understand that Mrs. Shogan says this is a dying art. What I don't understand is why. I can't see how people could not enjoy hearing stories. They are so relaxing. It was fun just listening to stories all period. I think we should do another unit on them.

I found out there are two ways you can tell a story--you can tell it by telling the story and acting it out or by telling the story using very descriptive language. I think I would like to tell my story just by using descriptive language just like Mr. Simon used. I have come to understand that storytelling can be fun, but at the same time be serious.

I learned that when you love a story, you'll tell it with more passion than if you hated it.

I think that storytelling isn't always fun, and that people change things to make them more fun--intentionally. Even some things that are fun sometimes are not always fun to do at different places or times in your life. And that things change over time, and also change isn't always for the best. I chose this story because it cried out to me.

I think doing this unit taught us how to appreciate something we always have had--but now we enjoy more than we ever did. I think that it was very, very hard for some people and easier for others to tell their story to the class. For me, this was a fun unit, and if I could, I would do it all over again. When we were doing this unit, I enjoyed coming to English class--not just because it was easy but because it was so much fun. I think that the significance of storytelling is to teach us about what happened in the past and also what could or is going to happen.

I learned it is easier to tell a story if you love it--you feel more light-hearted and free in your telling. Also, I incorporated some of the ideas from the original story I heard, but also made my own changes. In the actual telling i learned you can change the total genre of the story with tone of voice and subtle changes in the story.

Storytelling is something that takes a lot of work and concentration. The art of storytelling is leading the audience into a different world, and passing on the story to them, so they can possess the story in their own way.