Practice telling stories. Strengthen your storytelling skills by taking the opportunity to tell relevant stories whenever possible to your colleagues, students, friends, relatives and neighbors.
Use props, sounds and visual tools. If teaching young children, a story about a cat with a strange meow will capture their attention more if accompanied by your enactment of the actual meow. To persuade adults to conform to your opinion or to sell a product, using pictures and presentation software may enhance the story and help you to achieve the storytelling goal.
Provide a syllabus, handout and reading materials to adults. Teens and adults are more self-directed and benefit from materials that they can read on their own, such as an explanation of storytelling techniques and upcoming assignments.
Ask the class to think of an interesting story. Provide ideas related to the particular age group and goal of the class. A public speaking class intended to improve an adults social life will tell different types of stories than a group of salespeople trying to sell a product.
Encourage students by providing positive feedback. Public speaking is a prevalent fear, so comment on things that students did well to generate a desire to continue perfecting their storytelling skills. Provide constructive criticism. Instead of saying that a story was boring, draw the student’s attention to areas of the story that can be enlivened by adding interesting details or voice inflections.
