Laughter, smiles, gestures and other connections sparked during a storytelling program Tuesday will likely result in more of the same.

Much of the storytelling came from Wisconsin storyteller, author and musician Stuart Stotts, also a certified teaching artist with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

He’s quite the masterful storyteller and effective teacher of the technique. 

Stotts packed his day in the city with a dedicated group of teachers from the Meridian and Lauderdale County school districts, part of an effort at the Mississippi State University-Riley Center for Education and Performing Arts. The workshop he led aimed to help teachers become better storytellers, resulting in them better connecting with students.

“I want them to come out of here and feel like they can tell a story to their students,” Stotts said.  

Teachers from each of the schools in Lauderdale County and Meridian school districts, St. Patrick Catholic School and MSU-Meridian graduate students in an arts integration and drama class engaged in strenuous storytelling time with Stotts, who has recently led workshops in Europe, Tanzania, Egypt, Malaysia, and Russia.

“Storytelling is universal,” he said. “It’s how we relate.”

And how teachers relate to students can make a different in their achievement and behavior.

“If you can relate to students, it can help shape their entire classroom experience,” he said.

Stotts took his Meridian mission seriously, providing examples of ways teachers can use storytelling with an entire class of students, small groups and individuals. He had teachers look at an encyclopedia of ways to incorporate storytelling into their lesson plans and had them practice storytelling with each other. He also had them practice by telling stories to a wall.

While storytelling may involve smiles, laughter, and silliness, the educators understood the serious consequences of better connectings with their  students.

Research shows students who feel connected to their teachers perform better in class, as they try to meet expectations the teachers set.

Storytelling techniques reinforce learning styles teachers use each day, finding ways to connect with students who learn through listening, seeing and doing. Stott’s storytelling workshop incorporated all of this.

Teachers in the class said they plan to use storytelling techniques to better teach a rainbow of state standards and soft skills such as making eye contact and using an audible, clear voice when speaking.

“My kids are going to love it,” said Jennifer McDonald, a second grade teacher at T.J. Harris Lower Elementary School. “They do it already, just at the lunch table, but if you use it in an academic setting they’ll better understand their texts and other literary work.”

Tori Johnson, a second grade teacher at Crestwood Elementary School, said adding storytelling to teaching English language arts, math, science, and social studies will help students make connections with the material. She plans to turn her classroom of students into little storytellers.

“It’s a great way to engage the class,” she said. “Instead of me reading aloud in front of the class, this gets them involved in it.”

The workshop marks the third arts integration program this academic year to bring a Kennedy Center certified teaching artist to the MSU Riley Center, a collaboration that begin in 2007.

Charlotte Tabereaux, the education director at the MSU Riley Center, said storytelling combines with music, dance, visual art, and other types of art to turn students’ experience in schools into days packed with imagination, creativity, and learning.

“This is part of our mission at the Riley Center,” she said.

For part of the workshop, the storytelling teachers joined Stotts for a classroom  demonstration at Southeast Elementary School, where he captured students’ attention with stories about a jaguar, a crab and a lazy child named Tok.

Stotts said his time in Meridian was well spent. 

“They were completely engaged,” he said. “The teachers could see the power of storytelling with the students.”