Once Upon an If: The Storythinking Handbook

by Peter Worley, Tamar Levi

If you want to tell more stories in the classroom but lack the confidence to do so...
If you need guidance finding stories that are good to get children thinking...
If you like using stories in your teaching but want to get more from them than the moral at the end... Once Upon an If is the book for you! In his brand new book, award-winning author Peter Worley provides a comprehensive guide to everything a would-be storyteller needs, including how to bring a story to life, tips on how to memorise a story and improvise descriptions, and techniques for using tone, movement and timing to engage and involve the children in your class. Once Upon an If also comprises a treasury of stories, new and old, written especially to get a young audience thinking actively about the deeper issues that lie behind and within the tales. Guidance notes, lesson plans and activity questions are included with every story and there is a companion website including extra resources for you to use on your interactive whiteboard. Once Upon an If draws on Peter's ten years of experience as a philosophy teacher, trainer and storyteller to help any teacher place stories and storytelling where they should be - back at the heart of teaching.

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2014

About the author

Peter Worley BA MA FRSA was born in the Midlands but grew up in the West Country. He failed at school the first time around and so had to do it all again later. He worked as a guitar teacher for many years before completing a philosophy degree in 2000 at UCL an MA in 2002 at Birkbeck and beginning a PhD at KCL in 2010. His interest in philosophy and teaching brought him to the world of philosophy with children and he developed his own approach to doing philosophical enquiry in the classroom called the PhiE method and this is described in his first book 'The If Machine' (Bloomsbury 2011). The book has been well received and has proved to be a must-have resource for teachers wanting to philosophise with their classes. Peter is also the author and/or editor of three other books 'The If Odyssey' (Bloomsbury 2012), 'The Philosophy Shop' (Crown House 2012), both have been short listed for the Educational Resources Awards and The Philosophy Shop won first prize in the anthology category at The New England Book Festival; he co-authored 'Thoughtings' (Crown House 2012) with Andrew Day a collection of philosophical poetry, and Peter's next book 'Once Upon an If: Storytelling for Thinking' (Bloomsbury) will be out in 2014. He has featured on television and Radio 4's The Today Programme talking about philosophy in schools and has been published in a number of educational and philosophical journals as well as lecturing on philosophy in schools at St. Mary's University in West London. He currently lives and works in South East London with his wife Emma, who helps him run the charity The Philosophy Foundation, and their daughter Katie.