Taffy Thomas talks about storytelling

Cumbrian-based storyteller, Taffy Thomas, MBE, recently appointed as the first Laureate for Storytelling, talked to the BBC’s Today programme yesterday (2 November) about the role – and told a story to the listeners.

Professional storyteller, Taffy, who has been a regular contributor to Scholastic’s Literacy Time PLUS will undertake the Laureate role for two years from January 2010 to January 2012. He discussed his repertoire of stories and folk tales, obtained from oral sources over the past 30 years, with the Today programme’s James Naughtie and told the tale of The Clever Wish in yesterday’s interview.

Taffy, with fellow storytellers Pie Corbett, Jane Grell and Xanthe Gresham is featured in Scholastic’s Storyteller series, telling some of the stories featured in the Storyteller children’s anthologies on the accompanying CD-ROM. The Storyteller resource includes a teacher book which provides tools to help turn children into storytellers, as teachers become increasingly aware of the power of using ‘talk’ to develop writing skills.

Storytelling is high on the literacy agenda, as many schools have discovered that if children learn stories orally, children become more motivated and engaged in the writing process, develop their understanding of what makes good writing, and use that knowledge to improve their own writing.

Subscribers to the all-new Child Education Plus will be able to access the tales, riddles and articles by Taffy Thomas which were previously featured in Literacy Time PLUS , as well as regular news, posters, topic-based activities, issues, debates, resources, calendars and more, from just £15 per year.

To hear the Taffy Thomas interview and story on the BBC’s Today programme visit the BBC website at www.bbc.co.uk.