Recommended Website:
American-Storytellers.com
ClickSchooling list member MaryAnna recommended this website. She wrote, “Although this is a commercial site, it is well done. Learn about the art of storytelling throughout American history, including the written word, radio, tv, and movies.”
Not to be confused with live storytelling performance art, this site explores the great authors, artists, and actors of past generations whose stories have left a rich legacy of American fiction starting from the pioneer works of Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe through the advent of Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction, to old-time radio serials and early television, and ending with modern science fiction, mystery, and fantasy.
This site is presented in book format with six chapters. When you get to the home page you will see a brief introduction and an invitation to take a guided tour of the site. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a menu that includes all 6 chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a particular genre, and there are subsections within them.
Click on Chapter 1, for example. It’s titled “The Written Word” and includes information about American fiction authors of the 19th century, science fiction, detective stories, classic literature of the early 20th century and more. Click on any subsection and you’ll find descriptions of the genre and brief biographies of the authors. (Book titles link to amazon.com so you can purchase the books, if desired.)
The rest of the chapters follow the same format providing a fascinating overview and/or introduction to the history of celluloid heroes of the early silver screen, legendary radio & TV programs, comedy classics, and small press publishers.
Exploring one section could easily spark enough interest to springboard students in about grades 6 and up to further investigation of any genre.
Because this site is quite extensive, I didn’t have an opportunity to see it all. As always, PARENTS SHOULD PREVIEW this site to determine suitability of content, especially for young children. In fact, MaryAnna suggested an alternative website for kids in K-5 that contains some fun American legends and stories. Enjoy!
