I have to chuckle a bit because for whatever reason, in our education system, we have gotten away from the art of storytelling. We expect students to analyze nine thousand pieces of literature, but I think that task is sometimes so daunting that the love of the actual art of a story is not even recognized. Being "read to" as a child was what sparked my love of reading and writing and literature at a pretty young age. I'll never forget sitting at a beach house and my mother beginning the first Harry Potter book (and we were just mesmorized by the magic.) We may have pronounced every name wrong before the movie came out, the magic was there and the want to transform our life into a Hogwart's village was also there. Because storytelling's main purpose is to read side-by-side with another so that the love of a story is being discussed and multipled and retold by the individuals around you. And I think the people who find the most beauty in stories sometimes become much more aware of their own story and the magic that exists within it. 

In an age of purely academic writing in the younger grades, I still think there is little replacement for creative fiction which, in reality, requires much more gumption and expansion of the brain becauase you aren't given a topic or searching for facts, you are creating. And creation is a whimsical barrier that requires intellectual strength and wisdom. I have been modeling my own creative "spooky October" piece of fiction for about a week as we have been spending much time on our ideas and our graphic organizer to prevent confusion for the reader. The story begins with a trolly that appears only to me a few hours before the Halloween hour and on that trolly is a bunch of children that are walking around with half their bodies, half their fingers, half their faces. I soon come to realize that I have been called to free these children from their "half truths" that they told...And as I'm explaining my characters and the begining of my plot, I grab a student to become the bus driver and give him a pillow to start driving the bus and then I situate the students as if they are sitting on the trolly and as I continue the story, I have them pretend to look out the window or notice the glowing orange lanterns outside which causes the trolly to come to a halt. 

Let me say...I have never received such excitement, such mesmorizing whimsy, such inquisitive minds as I unfolded this storytelling process. And the plots they came up with...unbelievable. Because the mind wishes to be opened and think of the unimaginable. Because the mind enjoys creating and through creating learning and through learning sharing ideas with others. Storytelling never lost-but always can be found.