Spellbinders foster student learning, imagination with oral storytelling
Rebecca Duvall’s secondgrade class at Cottonwood Plains Elementary sat on a rug with a map of the world on Jan. 26, attention wrapped on Jennifer Goodnow as she weaved several tales.
As she told stories, students were encouraged to respond and sing along, all as part of the Spellbinders of Larimer County’s style of storytelling.
But Goodnow held no book, rather telling the story while looking at and connecting with the students.
The Spellbinders have been operating in Larimer County for 19 years, taking their oral storytelling tradition to schools around the county to bring kids into a world of imagination and connection.
The community of Spellbinders is made up of licensed local storytellers across Colorado and a few other states using specialized Spellbinder training, according to the group’s website. One of their many principles is that each volunteer storyteller “strives to serve as role models of respect, tolerance, empathy and compassion.”
“The whole thing about Spellbinders is giving back to the community,” said Nora Heaton, the founder of Spellbinders of Larimer County.
Although the Larimer County chapter spent many years telling stories in the Poudre School District, Goodnow and Linda Marshall have worked to bring the stories into the schools in the Thompson School District.
Those involved joined the organization because of their love of students and storytelling itself.
Marshall said she loves getting to see the bright comments and ideas she gets from
students, as well as seeing the excitement on their faces as she speaks. “It just makes me smile,” she said. “I get to laugh, I get to interact with the kids.”
Goodnow said she likes to think that with every story she is helping students grow “in a different way.”
“It is a warm group of people because we all adhere to the same principles,” Heaton said.
Local storytellers take their talents to schools in Larimer County, gathering classes together and telling them stories.
Goodnow led Duvall’s secondgrade class at Cottonwood Plains Elementary on Thursday afternoon in two stories, encouraging them to repeat phrases she said or sing along
with her to be part of the story.
She told the students two stories, talking about friendship and daytime and nighttime, often standing and acting out different characters as she spoke.
But for all those involved, from the school staff who invite the Spellbinders to the storytellers what the organization offers is unique in its way of teaching and engaging students.
“The interactive part of what ( Goodnow) does is special,” Duvall said. “She’s inviting kids into the story as she tells it.”
Cottonwood Principal Eric Harting said the interpersonal nature of how the storytellers pull the kids into stories with them is something unique and important.
“It’s something I really think we don’t want to lose,” he said.
For the storytellers, getting to connect with kids and tell them stories is not only fun but beneficial for each student.
Heaton said each story helps to stimulate student imagination and helps with creativity and sequence thinking. It also can help pass on values or wisdom from stories that come from all around the world.
“When you use a book to tell a story, they are distracted by the pictures they see,” she said. “When we tell them, they are creating their own visual features, and if I could see ( those features) I know every child would have a different picture of what is going on.”