Story Arts Online
Reviewed By Deborah Drake
Story Arts Online http://storyarts.org/index.html
The Story Arts Online website is authored by Heather Forest and funded by the Bell Atlantic Foundation. This site loads quickly, even with all the wonderful brightly colored graphics. An animated butterfly leads you to the Story Telling Store, complete with audio links to synopses of books that may be purchased. A stylized rainbow provides a link from each color to the following:
1. Articles about storytelling by author Heather Forest 2. Links to storytelling and Language Arts 3. Curriculum Ideas Exchanged via e-mail 4. Story Theatre with a text-only option 5. Storytelling in the classroom 6. Lesson plans and activities 7. Story Library with links to plot collection, story resources, and a list of audiotapes by professional tellers
In addition, each page includes a "quicklink" to subscribe to a free monthly newsletter. Story Arts Online has received numerous awards such as the Library Spot Spotlight Award, Best of the Web, and the Education Planet Award. Many college and university websites, among them the Yale University library, have included Story Arts Online as a selected resource. The site is continually updated as new information is acquired.
This site is very enjoyable and full of many ideas for old and young alike. I found this to be a good instructional website for educators and anyone interested in the area of library science.
Reviewed By Delaine Ulmer
Story Arts Online is a wealth of storytelling information that focuses on how storytelling can enrich communication and literacy. This non-profit site, geared to educators, is an expansion of the Long Island based Story Arts Organization founded by storyteller/author Heather Forest. The site, funded by the Bell Atlantic Foundation, created in 2000 has received numerous awards and is well received having been included as a resource link from many other educational websites.
Story Arts Online is easily navigated. Eight main links set on a colorful rainbow lead to a plethora of storytelling information. Some of the highlights include:<p><i>Storytelling in the Classroom:</i> Explains how to get started, where to find stories and learning to tell.<p><i>Lesson Plans and Activities:</i> Has activities for teaching storytelling and relating it to all curricular areas. Includes additional links to websites containing lesson plans and activities for teachers.<p><i>Story Library:</i> Collections of folk stories and twenty-six alphabetical fables retold.<p><i>Storytelling Store:</i> This links to a page where orders can be placed for Heather Forest tapes and books.<p><i>Articles:</i> Contains well-written articles by Heather Forest in many areas, including copyright and fair use, storytelling in the classroom and using “voice” in telling.<p><i>Links:</i> A wonderful “webliography” of links to additional storytelling resources, lesson plan sites, teacher resources and archives for folktales/myths.<p><i>Story Arts Theatre:</i> A small audio library of stories recorded by Heather Forest. The sound quality is excellent, but load time is slow. There is also a link to a <i>Curriculum Ideas Exchange</i> where teachers can send in ideas to share with others, however no contributed ideas where posted.
No additional fees or registration necessary for accessing this site. Real Player is needed for listening to recorded stories in the Story Theatre, however a link is provided to access the download. It is unknown how often this site is updated, however it links are fresh and the information profuse. Although this site is based on one source (Heather Forest) of storytelling information, designed to encourage the sales of Ms. Forest’s books and tapes, and promote the Story Arts organizational newsletter--it does not distract from the rich information offered and provides numerous links to outside sources.<br>Don’t miss this one--it is a storyteller’s delight!
Reviewed By Victoria McCallister
This website was created by storyteller and author Heather Forest. She has twenty years of experience blending storytelling, music, and poetry for audiences locally and abroad. In addition, she has adapted four folktales into children's picture books. She is also the founder and executive director of Story Arts, a cultural arts organization which promotes storytelling.
The website is broken into eight topics: Storytelling in the Classroom, Lesson Plans and Activities, Story Library, Storytelling Store, Articles, Links, Curriculum Ideas Exchange, and Story Arts. Since no sources are credited, it would appear that the information provided is mainly original.
Although the site seems to be very up to date and accurate, there is no indication of the last time it was actually touched up. The copyright date is 2000. All the links that were tested connected quickly.
The address, telephone number, and email addresses are prominently listed. Even though there is a store for Forest's products it is a minimal part of the website and does not appear to bias the information. No other advertising is displayed on the site.
The design of this site is exceptional. The graphics, artwork, and animation are beautiful and colorful. There are many full text stories to choose from. This site is outstanding for storytellers, librarians and educators alike.
Reviewed by Yvette Durham
This web site is professionally designed by Write Design and funded through Bell
Atlantic Foundation. The author, Heather Forest, is definitely an authority on
storytelling. She has won the Circle of Excellence Award from the National
Storytellers Association and she has published several books and storytelling
recordings that have also won awards.
Story Arts Online is aimed primarily at teachers. There are sections on
storytelling in the classroom and on curriculum development and ideas related to
storytelling. Other sections include articles written by Heather Forest as well
as a "store" to buy resources from Heather Forest. The content of
these sections appears to be quite useful. For example, in the section called
"storytelling in the classroom", she talks of the benefits of doing
storytelling in the classroom and she provides links to other related resources.
Story Arts Online provides a well organized list of links that provide a quick
explanation of what you can expect to find at each site. Most of the links are
aimed at the educator, though there is a small section of resources for
storytellers.
The site layout is very maneuverable. Each page has a link either to home or to
all of the other pages within the site. The site as a whole tends to load slowly
because of the high volume of graphics. All of the pages in this site are
beautifully illustrated, making it a fun site to browse. One of the few problems
with this site is that of currency. The pages are copyrighted for 2000, but
there is no indication as to when they were last updated. Another issue with
this site could be one of bias. All of the article provided, as well as all of
the story samples that can be listened to on-line are by Heather Forest. The
other problem I found was on the page called "Curriculum Ideas
Exchange." She asks people to submit curriculum ideas and says that the
best ideas will be posted. This is a great idea, but she does not tell you where
to look for the ideas that others submit and she does not offer any guidelines
for how she decides which ideas are worth posting.
Story Arts Online is a fairly focused web site. If you are a teacher, then this
is a great resource, however it does not offer non-educational professionals
much more than some useful links. Also this is not the place to look for links
to other storytellers.
Reviewed by Ann Hebisen
The publishing body, host this website as a communication extension of Story Arts Inc. a not-for-profit cultural arts organization founded by the author and recognized as a 501 © 3 corporation by the United States Internal Revenue Service. This website project was initially funded by the Bell Atlantic Foundation to launch outreach to schools via the Internet on the subject of storytelling in the classroom. The design and hosting of this site is by WriteDesign, and award-winning Web design and e-business consulting firm.
Beyond the information documented on this site links are provided to Story
Arts http://www.storyarts.org/storyarts.html
,
Heather Forest http://www.storyarts.org/storyarts.html
,
WriteDesign http://www.write-design.com/
,
and Bell Atlantic Foundation http://www.bellatlanticfoundation.com
.
This provides more detailed information and contact information.
Accuracy or verifiability of details
Award and review site links are supplied that allows background information for
verification and accuracy of information listed on the website document. Further
information on compiling a listening library of storytelling tapes is supplied
as contacts for storytelling audio anthologies, assorted storytelling artist,
and Heather Forest storytelling recordings. These contacts are listed by
individual names and addresses. Some supply site links and links to audio
recordings online.
Currency
The Story Arts Inc. organization was established in 1975, but the website was
not created until 2000. The website shows
Website Copyright © 2000 Story Arts
Literary Content Copyright © 2000 Heather Forest
Story Arts logo © 1998 Susan Gaber
There is no information provided to show how often the site is updated. There is reasonable likelihood that there are regular updates that occur when special dates are being posted with relevance to storytelling events.
Content/Coverage
There is good referral to and/or knowledge of the literature. As an educational
resource lesson, the author has created plans and activities for the use of
storytelling techniques in the classroom. Mentioning language arts as the most
likely home for the art of storytelling the author has presented its use in the
areas of science, math and social studies; with extensions into the visual arts,
art history, and expressive arts of drama/literature.
Objectivity, points of view, or bias
As an educational website Story Arts Online has received outstanding awards and
reviews. Recognized educational sites have included Story Arts Online as a
selected resource. The point of view all of these organizations share, with
regard to this website, is that storytelling is an appealing way to transmit
information across the curriculum.
Access
There are no real requirements for software or hardware to access this site. In
order to use some of the audio or visual links that are contained within the
site there will be requirements that allow for audio or video on the computer.
This could be accessed as a free software download by going to RealPlayer http://www.real.com/
PureVoice http://download.cnet.com/downloads/
websites . Windows Media Player is the default for streaming video that comes
with
Windows 98, 2000, NT, and ME.
There is no fee or charges to access this site or the resources within it. There is no registration needed to use this site, but there is a registration form that allows the user to sign up for the Story Arts Newsletter. It is the user decision to sign up or not for more contact information from the Story Arts Inc. organization. Overall, the site is easy to log on to and has quick access to all the intralinks and interlinks supplied on the site free of charge.
Design/Appearance
Having an award winning company set up the design for the website gives it a
professional appearance. There are animation graphics, colored text, highlighted
colored text links, the menu is accessible at the end of each category for quick
return or link to other topics, icon buttons that link to other sites are
supplied, photographs of Heather Forest are supplied, and the copyrighted logo
by Susan Gaber stands out on the home page and acts as a header for other main
category pages. There are no advertisements that appear while working through
this website that allows the user to work through the document with limited
interference.
Reviewed by Heather Motz
Story Arts Online is the website for the Story Arts organization. This is indicated by the .org at the end of the URL and by the information in the website about Story Arts. Story Arts is a not-for-profit cultural arts organization in Huntington, New York that was founded by Heather Forest in 1975. Story Arts offers concerts, workshops, and educational classes in the art of storytelling. Heather Forest's qualifications are that she has been a storyteller, author, and musician. She has recorded numerous albums and written numerous books. She has also won numerous awards. All of her works and awards are listed on the site as well as all of the places she has performed. She is the founder and executive director of Story Arts, which has been in existence since 1975. The address, phone number, and email address to Story Arts is given. The sponsoring organization is the Bell Atlantic Foundation. I am assuming that this is a telephone company but I could not get the link to their site to work. I could not find out the relationship between the author and the sponsor.
Heather Forest has a plethora of experience in the field of storytelling. Because of her experience it can be assumed that the information contained in this website is valid, reliable and trustworthy. The website has proper grammar and spelling. It appears that all the information given in the site was authored by Heather Forest. All of the articles given were written by her and all of the material appears to be produced by her for use in her workshops and classes. For the stories that she retells, she merely states what country they were originally from. She does not make it clear where she got any of her information. She does have outside links to other related sites. However, the information given does fall along the lines of the other information I have read and learned about storytelling.
The website has a copyright date of 2000, but no date of when it was last updated. I did not check all of the links, but the only link I found that did not work was the Bell Atlantic Foundation link. I could find no dates other than the 2000 copyright date on any of the information given.
StoryArts.org has information on storytelling in the classroom, lesson plans and activities, stories written and adapted by Heather Forest, articles by Heather Forest, a storytelling store, links to other related sites, a place for users to email their ideas to Heather Forest and a small sample of stories to listen to before you buy the tape/cd. All the information appears to be created by Heather Forest. The information is written for anyone interested in becoming a storyteller and for educators. The information given by Heather Forest can be found in other sources on storytelling. The information is valuable because of all the types of information you can find on one site. There are sample lesson plans, stories, articles and a store to shop at. There is a lot of information for one website.
The author appears to be providing this information to encourage storytelling and the use of storytelling in the classroom. The author is also promoting herself and her organization. She does not have articles from anyone else on her website. She does provide links to other sites but she does not credit or appear to use information from any one else. The author also sells all of her tapes and books on this site. The author is also selling her organization's workshops.
The only software requirements apparent for this site is real player to listen to the stories in the story theater. The site does not take a long time to load and is free of charge. There is no registration required to use the site. I liked the layout color and graphics. There were just enough graphics to add to the site without cluttering it and distracting from the information. I found the site easy to navigate through. I especially liked the fact that they had a site map. Site map's make for easy navigation.
All though this is a valuable site on storytelling the user should always keep in mind that it is also promoting the Story Arts Organization and Heather Forest.
Reviewed by Tricia de Winter
Heather Forest is the creator and director of Story Arts Online, an exemplary resource for teachers, librarians, and parents. The lesson plans and activities are excellent and reliable. Ms. Forest is an author of four children’s picture books based on folk tales. She has also published two award winning folktale collections. Ms. Forest has spent the past 20 years touring the United States and Europe, sharing stories in workshops, theatres and concerts.
This site offers a minimum of bias and there is no advertising on the page whatsoever. Ms. Forest is the founder and Executive Director of Story Arts, a non-profit cultural arts organization in Huntington, New York. The Story Arts website is funded by a Bell Atlantic Foundation grant. The site is updated regularly, all the links included worked effectively.
Ms. Forest’s website provides extensive coverage on the topic of storytelling in the classroom. Innovative methods to encourage creative writing are included, such as “Story Circles,” “Puzzle Tales,” “Story Broadcasts,” and “Story Treasure Hunts.” In “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words,” students use classical paintings for inspiration in beginning a story. Other strategies include creating stories from well-known proverbs or given plot structure scenarios. A “Storytelling Festival Day” is described as well as ways to use art history to encourage story sharing. So that students might create personal fables, Ms. Forest offers a thorough collection of concise folktale plots for student retelling. The links to both story collections and related sites are impressive.
The site also includes an area for storytelling across the curriculum. Ideas are suggested for using story in scientific and mathematic investigation. In teaching social studies, strategies are given for using story to promote an understanding of historical time periods, global references and cultural connections. There are also activities for implementing story in the arts. Each of these strategies is explained fully and appears to offer effective ways of incorporating the story experience in the curriculum.
An awards link on the website ascertains that it has earned multiple awards and positive reviews from educators and Internet reviewers. In addition, a variety of educational sites are listed that have included Story Arts Online as a selected resource. Clearly, this is a comprehensive, solid website that would be a valuable tool for any educator to use in developing lesson plans.
Reviewed by Jan Payne
Authority
Story Arts Online showcases the work of Heather Forest, storyteller and author
of Huntington, New York. The site, funded by a Bell Atlantic Foundation grant,
contains a list, as well as full texts, of writings by the author/storyteller.
There is specific delineation of awards and sites that have included Story Arts
Online as a selected resource.
Accuracy
The funding by the Bell Atlantic company, in itself, provides a solid picture of
information and an indication of the value inherent in the site. The site
purports to be a source of storytelling curriculum, ideas, and suggestions and
maintains that throughout.
Currency
The 2000 copyright date indicates the currency and up-to-date content of the
website. A free newsletter is advertised and sent quickly to subscribers.
Content/Coverage
Topics included in the website are: Curriculum Ideas Exchange, Stories in a
Nutshell, Aesop's ABC's, and Storytelling in the Classroom with sections on
Retelling Folktales, Using Storytelling to Assess Listening and Speaking Skills,
and Exploring Cultural Roots through Storytelling. A Webliography of
Storytelling and Language Arts sites is provided. There is an unobtrusive
advertisement on the second tier of the website, providing viewers an
opportunity to shop at the online, site store.
Objectivity
Story Arts Online makes no pretense to provide anything but information to
teachers and potential storytellers. It fulfills that objective well.
Access
Every connection within the site was well-maintained and viable. The Story Arts
Theater allows listening opportunities for those accessing the site. The audio
clips load quickly and sound quality is excellent.
Design/Appearance
Story Arts Online is a beautiful site, decorated with a muse that features
butterflies flowing from her hair and flowers from her mouth, and provides a
light, airy, visual treat. This template of common art in differing colors
allows the viewer to easily determine locations within the site. This thematic
art provides continuity throughout the entire website.