Residencies

“We have worked with a number of artist-in-residence - Angela is the best of the best! She filled our school with a new sense of adventure and wonder about the world.”
Denise Buckman, Educator - Grantham Village School, NH

“Angela’s depth of content, organizational skills, selection of stories, materials & awareness of students’ developmental abilities, make her an excellent teacher of storytelling.”
Susan Peterson, Niguel Hills Middle School, CA

Residencies vary widely, from an annual or seasonal performances to one session in- class workshops lasting anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour or a day or short term and long term residencies with multiple consecutive visits. All residencies are custom designed with each client’s time frame, budget, residency focus, targeted grade levels and curricular needs in mind. (See notated references listing.)

All sessions are balanced, with each “lecture” segment interwoven with modeling, exercises and collaborative large group, small group and individual work. Each segment and class builds sequentially upon the other, increasing personal comfort level, class sharing, interaction and community, skills and techniques. Modeling of story technique, story work, exercises and participant tellings occur during each class session.

While the basic process and “how to techniques” remain constant, the longer the residency, the more attention & practice may be given to the various exercises & telling techniques: variant & cultural - time & historical comparisons; reworking-rewording-rewriting; practicing & polishing; the practice and challenge of increasingly complex stories; imaginative additions such as of the incorporation of universal props, simple costuming, percussion, wind instruments or folksong and the opportunity of participants performing for younger classes, peers, the student body, in the community or if the residency culminates with a “Family Night” event.

“Students were so captivated you could hear a pin drop. Preparing for their own Folktale Festival, Angela incorporated her wisdom about storytelling techniques into her web of storytelling, leaving the students inspired, guided and ready to tell to the fifth graders.”
Kimberly Cashin, Mountain View Middle School, Goffstown, NH

“Very knowledgeable in curriculum, Angela allowed storytelling to become a natural extension to what the teachers were already doing.”
Susan Sponeman, Director, The Teacher’s Center, CA

“Enjoyable & entertaining, Angela truly knows the topic of storytelling and how storytelling can be easily incorporated into the classroom curriculum and benefit the reading achievement of all students.”
Beth Simpson, Pond & Peak Reading Council, NH

Updated 2/12/2011