Performance Evaluation Below is the rubric I use when I listen to my students tell stories. Instead of having a place for grades here, I instead simply have room for comments, which are less threatening and more helpful. With beginning storytellers, I do not feel that whether the story was well told or not is a good criterion for a grade. There are other ways to grade storytelling students, such as quizzes on readings, class participation, storytelling worksheet completeness and in-depth work, class oral presentations of reading material, etc. I grade students' storytelling performances only on these criteria: Did the student make deliberate use of the workshops in their performed story? Was the student prepared? Did the student act professional and was he/she enthusiastic? ...And that's it. The rubric below is to help the student improve. Criteria Comments Visualization: Teller sees and senses everything in great detail and shares these images with the audience. Deliberateness: Teller is deliberate about word choices, uses of body and voice, and story structure. Mood: Teller takes the energy to build appropriate atmospheres for the story through words and body and voice. Structure: The story has a clear structure: beginning, middle and end. It rises to a climax effectively. Body: Stance, gestures and facial expressions of the teller are deliberate and clearly appropriate for characters and situations in the story. Voice: Inflections, dynamics and characters are deliberate and appropriate for characters and situations in the story. Research: Teller has taken the time to research vital components of story for its effective telling. Diction: Word choices are deliberate, creative, and appropriate Command: Teller takes command of the “stage” and is energetic, enthusiastic and unapologetic about the story and about the telling of it. Preparedness: Teller is prepared, knows the story and images well. Times “um,’ “you know” “like” and “goes” (in the place of “said”) are said (running tally): Other comments: