The Story-Teller's Start-Up Book
Page 4
Pass out rhythm instruments or discover found objects to make music on and create background music to accompany the tale's telling. Experiment. Shake, hang, and blow on everything in sight. Select your "instruments" and begin. Let the chorus improvise with their voices and instruments as you tell. 'Cry retelling the entire story without words, using only sound and music.
Robert Barton and David Booth, in an article entitled "Feeling Like an Onion," tell of an ethereal telling of Joseph Jacob's "The Buried Moon," performed entirely in found sound. Anything the student could find to create sound was incorporated.
Playing with Story Through Movement
The introduction of music to your story will soon lead to movement. Add dance interludes to the story. Or portray the entire story through dance or mime. New Zealand teller Rangimoana Taylor tells each story twice—first in words, using much body language. Then he repeats the story using only dance. The result is entrancing.
I'laying with Story Through Art
You can extend the story experience by allowing the group to draw images from the tale. Or devise an art project to carry on the theme of your story. After hearing a set of folktales about rice, my students drew scenes from the tales, gluing on rice grains as a design element. Creating masks or costumes to retell the story as drama can provide an exciting artistic extension of the story event.
Playing with Story Through Creative Writing
Let your children extend the story by writing their own
alternative endings; writing of what happened after the story's ending; creating a diary which one of the characters might have kept during the story; or imagining their own story inspired by this one.
The Tale Stands Alone
Though it is fun to extend the story through drama, art, creative writing, music, and movement, remember that the tale stands alone. It needs no follow-up. Story is an end in itself.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Audience Participation
MacDonald, Margaret Read. Twenty Tellable Tales: Audience Participation Folktales for the Beginning Storyteller. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1986.
Look Back and See: Twenty Lively Tales for Gentle
Tellers. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1991.
Miller, Teresa. Joining In: An Anthology of Audience Participation Stories and How to Tell Them, edited by Norma Livo. Compiled by Teresa Miller with assistance from Anne Pellowski. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Yellow Moon Press, 1988.
Tashjian, Virginia. Juba This and Juba That: Story Hour Stretches for Large and Small Groups. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1969.
With a Deep Sea Smile: Story Hour Stretches for
Large and Small Groups. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974.
Creative Dramatics
Mason, Harriet and Larry Watson. Every One a Storyteller: Integrating Storytelling into the Curriculum. Portland, Oregon: Lariat Productions, 1991.
Sierra, Judy and Robert Kaminski. Twice Upon a Time: Stories to Tell, Retell, Act Out, and Write About. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co., 1989.
Incorporating Other Mediums
Barton, Robert. "Uncrating the Story: Storytelling in the Classroom." In Tell Me Another: Storytelling and Reading Aloud at Home, at School, and in the Community, 90-145. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishing Ltd., 1986.
Herman, Gail N. Storytelling: A Triad in the Arts. Mansfield Center, Connecticut: Creative Learning Press, 1986.
Livo, Norma J. and Sandra A. Reitz. "Nonstory Resources." In Storytelling: Process and Practice, chapter 6. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1986.
Ross, Ramon Royal. "Choral Reading" and "Singing and Dancing." In Storyteller, 85-106 and 107-198. Columbus: Merrill Publishing Co., 1980.
Telling the Story with Music and Sound
Barton, Robert and David Booth. "Feeling Like an Onion." In Writers, Critics, and Children. New York: Agathon Press, 1976.
Teaching with Story
"I have learned," said the Philosopher, "that the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened, and that what the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow."
—James Stephens, Crock of Gold
Justifying Story in the Curriculum
It always amazes me when teachers insist they have no time to fit storytelling into their curriculum. Most stories take less than ten minutes to tell. And stories can fit easily into many areas of the curriculum. Use nature tales to enhance science. Select tales from the cultures in your social studies units. Use singing tales in the music class. Match math puzzle tales to the math curriculum. And use any tale to enhance language arts. For specific ideas on matching storytelling activities to student learning objectives see the sources men-t ioned in the bibliography for this chapter.
Storytelling teaches listening. It models fine use of oral language. It models plot, sequencing, characterization, the many literary devices you wish to convey. There is no better educational tool to teach language-arts skills.
And yet teachers say, "If we get through our workbook, maybe we'll have time for a story." Teachers, the workbook w ill be forgotten by tomorrow, but the sound, the feel, the sense, the heart of that story may stay with the child as long as lie lives. Make space in the classroom for true quality time today. Share a story.
The folktale has so much to teach us. It brings us the voice of the past and the voices of distant peoples. The tale speaks with human wisdom, it bounces into the lives of our children carrying the joy of another age, another people. Or it slides
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into our hearts bearing their sorrows, their wonderings. It should be received as tales have always been, as a simple gift dropped from one mouth to another. Let the children retell the tales orally, spoken again as they were in the past. Let the students play with the stories, acting them out, drawing them, dancing them, singing them. Use the folktale as a springboard into the worlds of cultures distant and past. Talk of the story and assess the humaneness of its actions. Wonder about its motives, its mysteries, its madness. Does the tale speak the truth?
Use tales also to lead students into the glorious worlds of literature and book illustration. Share beautifully illustrated editions of your tale; share literary pieces drawing on themes related to your story.
Many books have been written for the teacher suggesting story as a device for teaching structure, plot, characterization, and a plethora of other concepts. Story is suggested as a springboard for writing exercises. For many of these educators, the end toward which they move is the piece of student writing. The child hears a folktale told or read, dissects it via a chart, and finally writes a retelling or creates a new story copying that tale's form. If you must dissect the tale to meet your curriculum's guidelines, please commit this brutality only after everyone has had a good time, playing with their birthright—the untrammeled folktale.
A Sample Whole Language Web
The possibilities for whole language units built around story are endless. On p. 45 is a web prepared by three Seattle teachers using the story "Gecko" as its starting point.
Folktale Comparative Study
With older students you might want to continue your use of story with a comparative folktale study. The cross-cultural comparison of folktale variants provides an interesting multicultural activity. Take one tale—Cinderella for example—and share variants of this story from several cultures. Compare the story's elements to see which remain constant through various
SOCIAL AWARENESS
Feminist discussion: should a girl be a prize?
Acknowledgment of the debt society owes to the past:
Gecko succeeded by building on the digging efforts of the others.
Scientific discoveries are likewise possible only because of the
discoveries of those who have gone before.
Discussion of group heckling and individual feelings:
Awareness of Gecko's feeling when the others mocked him.
Gecko's refusal to give up: When is this a
good quality?
DRAMA Play the story as creative drama. Perform the story as a play for others. Perform the story as a masked play. Perform the story as a puppet play. Work on character development for elephant, hippo, gecko, and the others.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Read other stories from this culture.
Read other stories about drought situations.
Write a story inspired by Gecko. About another drought?
Another adventure of Gecko?
Write character sketches for elephant, hippo, gecko.
Create another expandable story like "Gecko"
in which you keep adding characters.
Use "Gecko" to talk about sequencing, rhythm,
oilier literary devices.
SCIENCE
Drought
Ground water
Wells
Geckos, salamanders, lizards
GECKO
The animals compete at digging for water during a drought. A woman has offered her daughter as prize for the winner. Gecko continues to dig long after the others have
given up. Tiny gecko wins.
SOCIAL STUDIES Limba culture West Africa World view of drought-prone areas
MATH Sorting by size Size relationships
DANCE
Dance the
entire story.
Create dances to use
within the story...
a digging dance,
for example.
ART Illustrate the tale Cut sillouettes for the tale's characters. Create a diorama Create masks to act out the tale.
PYSICAL ACTIVITY Plan a stomping contest.
MUSIC
Retell the story by
singing it, opera style.
Accompany the story's telling with musical instruments, with found objects, or body music (hand claps, leg slaps, humming, etc.)
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tellings and which change to adapt to the culture telling the tale.
To locate several versions of one tale use The Storyteller's Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index to Folklore Collections for Children by Margaret Read MacDonald (Neal-Schuman / Gale Research, 1982). See also World Folktales: The Scribner's Resource Collection by Atelia Clarkson & Gilbert B. Cross (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980), which gives one version of several well-known tales and cites sources for variants. Titles in the Oryx Multicultural Folktales Series, which each provides around twenty-five versions of a well-known folk-tale, could also be useful (pp. 47-48).
Collecting Folklore
If you want to start a folklore-collecting project in your class, read A Celebration of American Family Folklore: Tales and Traditions from the Smithsonian Collection by Steven J. Zeitlin, Amy J. Kotkin, and Holly Cutting Baker (Pantheon Books, 1982). Working with tape recorders, notepads, or their memories, students can discover children's stories, family stories, family rhymes, riddles, sayings, and other genres of folklore.
My students brought in family heirlooms and wrote the stories they had been told about those pieces. The stories then were attached to the objects for future generations to discover. The students retold their family stories to the class. We selected our favorites to act out for parents in a special sharing in which we displayed heirlooms, photos, and family trees and told or dramatized the family stories. See this chapter's bibliography for sources that may help you start this sort of unit.
Begin sharing stories with the students in your classroom now.
Select ideas from this chapter and from the preceding chapter, "Playing with Story." Write a use for story into your lesson plans today. Or simply set aside fifteen minutes at the end of one day next week, gather the children around you, and tell your first story. It is really that simple. But you must begin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
See the bibliography for "Teaching Others to Tell" (p. 52) for sources useful in teaching children to tell stories. See the bibliography for "Playing with Story" (p.42) for ways to extend the story through creative dramatics, music and dance, and audience participation.
Barton, Robert. Tell Me Another: Storytelling and Reading Aloud at Home, at School, and in the Community. Markham, Ontario: Pembroke Publishing Ltd., 1986.
Barton, Robert and David Booth. Stories in the Classroom: Storytelling, Reading Aloud and Roleplaying with Children. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 1990.
Blatt, Gloria T., ed. Once Upon A Folktale: Capturing the Folktale Process with Children. New York: Teacher's College Press, 1973. Articles by several authors suggesting classroom applications of the folktale.
Cooper, Pamela J. and Rives Collins. Look What Happened to Frog: Storytelling in Education. Scottsdale, Arizona: Gorsuch Scarisbrick Publishers, 1992.
De Vos, Gail. "Extensions for the Classroom." In Storytelling for Young Adults: Techniques and Treasury, 15-29. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1991.
Farrell, Catharine. "Stories to Tell: Story Plans and Classroom Activities, K-6." In Storytelling: A Guide for Teachers, 55-93. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1991.
Hearne, Betsy. Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series: Beauties and Beauties. Phoenix: The Oryx Press, 1993.
I.ivo, Norma J. and Sandra A. Rietz. Storytelling Activities. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1987. Lots of great ideas for story-related activities.
. "Storytelling at Home and School." In Storytelling:
Process and Practice, 339-79. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1986.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series: Tom Thumb. Phoenix: The Oryx Press, 1993.
Rosen, Betty. And None of It Was Nonsense: The Power of Storytelling in School. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 1988. Thought-provoking commentary by a British teacher on her use of story with twelve- to sixteen-year old boys in a multicultural, inner-city school in Tottenham, England. She tells (folktale, myths, poetry) and elicits story (told and written, personal and imaginative) from her students.
Shannon, George. Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series: A Knock at the Door. Phoenix: The ()ryx Press, 1992.
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Sierra, Judy. Oryx Multicultural Folktale Aeries: Cinderella . Phoenix: The Oryx Press, 1992.
Developing a Unit for Cross-Cultural ,Study
Clarkson, Atelia and Gilbert B. Cross. World Folktales: A Scribner Resource Collection. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Storyteller's Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif-Index to Folkore Collections for Children. Detroit: NealSchuman/Gale Research, 1982.
Various authors. The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series. Phoenix: The Oryx Press. Each volume contains around twenty-five variants of the title story, notes about the tale, and classroom activities; see above for examples.
Justifying Storytelling in the Curriculum
Griffin, Barbara Budge. Students as Storytellers: The Long and the Short of Learning a Story. Medford, Oregon: Barbara Budge Griffin, 10 S. Kenneway Dr., Medford, OR 97504, 1989. Oregon state student learning objectives are given for each of the eighteen activities in this guide.
Livo, Norma J. and Sandra A. Rietz. "Matrix of Skills and Activities." In Storytelling Activities, 125-38. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1987. Livo & Rietz list thirty-eight educational skills covered in the story activities in their book. They relate these to Bloom's Taxonomy.
Storytelling for Young Adults
De Vos, Gail. Storytelling for Young Adults: Technique and Treasury. Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1991. Tips for using story with teens, and a selection of suggested stories.
Simmons, Elizabeth Radin. Student Worlds, Student Words: Teaching Writing through Folklore. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books, 1990. Advice on using folklore to start junior high and high school students writing.
Wilson, Evie. "Storytelling Teen Age Folklore." In Hanging Out at Rocky Creek: Developing Basic Services for Young Adults in Public Libraries. Metuchen, New Jersey:
Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993. Useful tips on using urban legends with teens.
Collecting Family Folklore
Zeitlin, Steven J., Amy J. Kotkin, and Holly Cutting Baker. A Celebration of American Family Folklore: Tales and Traditions from the Smithsonian Collection. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.
Collecting Oral History
Weitzman, David. My Backyard History Book. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975.
Exploring the Folklore of Children
Bronner, Simon J. American Children's Folklore: A Book of Rhymes, Games, Jokes, Stories, Secret Languages, Beliefs and Camp Legends for Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, Counselors and All Adults Who Were Once Children. Little Rock: August House Publishers Inc., 1988.
Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Baby Train and Other Lusty Legends. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1993.
. The Choking Doberman and Other "New" Urban
Legends. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1984.
. Curses, Broiled Again! The Hottest Urban Legends
Going. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989.
. The Mexican Pet: More "New" Urban Legends and
Some Old Favorites. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1986. .
. The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends
and Their Meanings. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1981.
Butler, Francelia. Skipping Around the World: The Ritual Nature of Folk Rhymes. Hamden, Connecticut: Library Professional Publications, 1988.
MacDonald, Margaret Read. The Skit Book: 101 Skits from Kids. Hamden, Connecticut: Linnet Books / The Shoe String Press, 1990.
Paper Folklore (usually for adults)
Dundes, Alan. Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992 (reprint).
. Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing: Still More Urban
Folklore from the Paperwork Empire. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991.
Dundes, Alan and Carl R. Pagter. When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators: More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987.