Stage a Mini-Festival! Invite parents or other classes to your Evaluation session. This showcases for the parents what the class has been working on for the past few months. It will then provide you with an opportunity to encourage parents of children who were evaluated to be Festival Quality to continue to work with their children to polish their stories until the county-wide Festival.

Or hold an evening or weekend school-wide Festival with all of the Festival Quality Tellers and their families and friends. This has the added benefit of giving the students another opportunity to practice telling their stories in front of an audience. Again, it will allow you to stress the importance of continuing to practice the story until the county-wide Festival in April. The format can be similar to that of the county-wide Festival if there are many tellers: that is, several students can tell to small audiences in the classrooms. If there are only ten or so Festival Quality Tellers, then all can tell on your "Main Stage". Consider inviting a professional teller to serve as an example and inspire all.

If your students need additional opportunities to practice telling in front of a live audience, take your tellers "on the road" to other classes, to preschools, or to nursing homes.

Assistance For Group Leaders

Librarians from Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System and Festival Committee members are available for workshops both for teachers and for students. They can also serve as members of the Evaluation Panel. Contact Priscilla Lakus at 813-273-3648 or Jody Wren at 813-931-2106.