When a teacher sits in front of the class and reads a book to the whole group the act has often been called storytelling. But is it? According to the National Storytelling Network, storytelling has five qualifications listed below in bold.

Storytelling is Interactive

When a storyteller shares a story with an audience, the audience is drawn into the action by imagining the story as it unfolds and is directed by the storyteller’s words. Often, the audience is required to respond in one manner or another. The storyteller is influenced by the reaction that the audience provides.

Storytelling Uses Words

Whether it is spoken or signed, the words are an integral part of the process. The audience requires the words to guide their imaginations to understand what they are being told. Even though stories can be communicated with dance, music, or mime, they are not truly storytelling in the NRN’s truest definition. They do not require words.

Storytelling Uses Actions Such as Vocalization, Physical Movement and/or Gesture

This one is pretty self explanatory. When a story is shared with others, it is often accompanied by movement of the body or simply variations of the tone of the voice. The inflections with which the words are spoken lend a lot of information to the story. The same words can be spoken so that they can have a wide variety of meanings.

Storytelling Presents a Story

Well, what would be the point of just standing up there talking without having a story to tell? That sounds more like a politician than a storyteller. Okay, so some politicians do have stories to tell. Other art forms can also tell a story, and storytellers may take part in other art forms. The story may be presented informally and almost entirely improvised or it may be very well practiced and follow a very strict presentation format. Regardless of what other art forms may be included or what mode of presentation is used, the story must be there.

Storytelling Encourages the Active Imagination of the Listeners

This is the part that sets storytelling apart from most art forms such as a play or video performance. If the audience is watching the action unfold, then are they truly using their imagination to be an active listener? If they do not have the visual representation of the story, but merely some visual aids, they are forced to fill in details. They have to listen to the storyteller and explore the pictures the words bring to their own version of the story that is playing in their minds. They are directed in the general direction of the story, but each person will have their own visual images of what the actual details of the story.

When you take into consideration these five qualifications for meeting the definition of storytelling, does reading aloud to a group of children rise to the challenge? It uses words. The words are both written on the page and spoken by the reader. Vocalization, physical movement, and gestures are part of reading aloud. Not all books tell a story, but many do. The two qualifications that may trigger a negative response remain.

When a story is read aloud not all of the information is provided, the listeners imagination must fill in at least some of the details. Whether or not this is enough of an encouragement of the active imagination of the listener is where the question comes into play. The other question comes from the interactivity involved in reading aloud a story. Sure there is some degree of interactivity but how much is enough.

The answer to whether it should be called reading aloud or storytelling will have to be left up to more knowledgeable minds than mine. Although, I think it fits the qualifications in the strictest sense of the wording, it is my humble opinion that reading aloud is indeed different from storytelling. When I think of storytelling, I think of a sense of energy and interaction that goes far beyond that of reading aloud a story. That in turn leads to yet another question. Can reading aloud a story be part of a storytelling experience?