From My Pen to Your Ears
By
Marilyn A. Kinsella
A two-day workshop developed for the St. Clair County Regional Office of Education. I would like to thank the Storytell Listserve for their valuable input in gathering information.
Object: To teach teachers how to teach students to bring their written words to life through oral storytelling.
Illinois Learning Standards
STATE GOAL 4: Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.
Why This Goal Is Important: Of all the language arts, listening and speaking are those most often used on a daily basis at home, school and work or in the community. Skill in speaking is universally recognized as a primary indicator of a person’s knowledge, skill and credibility. In person, by phone or through video, good listening and speaking skills are essential to sending, receiving and understanding messages. To understand messages spoken by others, students must be able to listen carefully, using specific techniques to clarify what they have heard. For speaking properly and making messages understood, grammar, sentence structure, tone, expression and emphasis must be part of students’ repertoires.
4A. Listen effectively in formal and informal situations.
Benchmarks:
- 4.A.2a Demonstrate understanding of the listening process (e.g., sender, receiver, message) by summarizing and paraphrasing spoken messages orally and in writing in formal and informal situations.
- 4.A.2b Ask and respond to questions related to oral presentations and messages in small and large group settings.
- 4.A.2c Restate and carry out a variety of oral instructions.
4.B Speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.
Benchmarks:
- 4.B.2a Present oral reports to an audience using correct language and nonverbal expressions for the intended purpose and message within a suggested organizational format.
- 4.B.2b Use speaking skills and procedures to participate in group discussions.
- 4.B.2c Identify methods to manage or overcome communication anxiety and apprehension (e.g., topic outlines, repetitive practice).
- 4.B.2d Identify main verbal and nonverbal communication elements and strategies to maintain communications and to resolve conflict.
Day One
Lecture:
1. What is storytelling
2. Types of stories: Personal Experience, Historical/family history, Original/Literary
3. The Value of Language in Storytelling The difference between a story well-written for reading and a story well-written for telling. A discussion on formal speech as opposed to a conversational type of telling
Tell a Personal Experience Story and its development process
Activity:
List of story prompts on large paper (ex. At the top of the page “I remember…”
- When I got this scar
- When I had my driver’s test
- A special Christmas/winter holiday morning
- The scariest moment of my life
In 3-minute segments have the teachers tell the story (or about the story) to a partner. Then, partner tells. After the next direction, change partners and tell it again, but make changes. Tom McCabe graciously gives permission to use his ideas on how to get to the told story. The ideas below are great for junior high and adults, but you will need to alter or delete those you think are too advanced for 3-6th grades.
Each idea below needs to be explained, discussion, and then itold (3 minutes each) in pairs:
1. Tell the story – in the sequence it happened
2. Use a different plot: Tell it from someplace towards the end or from some detail in the story
3. Visualize – ask questions to elicit more details…who, what, where, when, etc
4. Senses – go through the story using the five senses
(Theatre Game – Write “Goldilocks and the 3 Bears” on the paper. Give each person a card with a sense written on it – sight, smell, sound, taste, feel. Ask for words that could be in the story related to the given card)
5. Physicalize the story: Walk through the story and play with gesture and movement
(Theatre game – hand out cards to groups with a scene from a well-known folk tale. Give time to discuss it. Have groups come up and give a “snapshot” of the scene. See if others can guess the scene and story)
6. Tone – What do you want the audience to feel as they listen to this story. Add words to stimulate this.
Group activity: As a group, discuss the types of tones and words that elicit that tone. Tone can also be "felt" by storyteller's movements.
(Theatre Game – Write a sentence such as “My, my, don’t we look pretty today.” Say it in different tones – sassy, complimentary, ugly, uncaring, etc - add gestures)
7. Use different point of views:
- Tell it in first person – “I” (this is probably how the person tells it already)
- Tell it from another person’s point of view
- Tell it in second person – “you”
8. Who is the focus on in the story? Change the focus
9. Add Character Voices and Conversation Have a good mix of narrative and dialog. Change tone of voice to reflect those speaking
(Theatre Game – Write a sentence such as “Where do you think you are going” and have participants say it as different characters – Mother, Father, Principal, fellow student, etc)
Time to write out story they now can tell
LUNCH
Activity:
Have participants tell their stories
Other Ideas Depending on the time:
Digital Storytelling – (especially for personal history or historical stories)– What it is and how to implement it as a tool towards storytelling
Student Coaching – See Story Arts and Self Assessment
Performance hints – See Storytelling Skills
References:
Storytell Listserve : E-mail chat forum where storytelling in its many forms are discussed. http://www.twu.edu/COPE/slis/storytell.htm
Telling Your Own Stories - Donald Davis
Little Rock, AR: August House, 1994
The Storytelling Coach: How to Listen, Praise, and Bring Out People's Best - Doug Lipman Little Rock, AR: August House, 1995
Article on-line about coaching students by Kevin Cordi - http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/3266/
Website pages that's information-packed with ideas for youth telling by Kevin Cordi.
“Super Simple Storytelling” Handout by Kendall Haven. Presents ideas from this workshop in a different format. http://www.ala.org/ala/aaslbucket/pittsburgh/SuperSimpleStorytelling.pdf
Final questions, discussion, references, books, bibs
Fabulous Folktales
Read, Re-write, Tell
By
Marilyn A. Kinsella
Day 2
Lecture:
1. Why tell folktales
- Writing - strengthens ability to understand basic story structures; opportunity to retell within a given structure; provides a base for creative fracturing; can be written to tell or to perform as a play or reader’s theatre
- Good for teachers to introduce science, geography, social studies; nice additions to multi-cultural days; promotes character building; easy to learn; promotes discussion on choices made by characters; meets many educational standards, appeals to different learning styles
2. What are folktales – small lecture on types of folktales – Morality tales (trickster, animal, and porquois), legends, tall tales, urban legends, fairy tales, fables, philosophical (religious, Sufi, etc)
3. Finding Folktales – 398.2 collections and picture books; on-line sites, storytelling festivals
Tell a simple folktale - Bringing it down to its bare bones and then model the following:
How to learn them using several different learning style techniques:
- Retelling orally (audio-learner)
- Outline (writing)
- Story map (visual learner)
- Story scenes (visual learner)
- Story walking (kinetic – muscle memory)
- Creative dramatics (group learning)
Activity: Retelling a Folktale to Make it Your Own (Most of the above will work for 4th on up)
Hand out simple folktales and have the participants bring it down to its bare bones.
In groups or as individuals, pick one of the above to work on the story
Making the story your own – visualization, senses, details, dialog, participation
LUNCH
Tell it in pairs, fours, to the group.
Writing Exercises Using Folktales (ideas for the classroom)
- Write a different ending: Tell a story but leave off the ending. Let the students write the ending. Or, “tell the rest of the story” – what happened to the characters after the story ended. Or, take a character or object that was in the story and tell the rest of its story.
- Take a character or object in the story and tell the story from its point of view
- Fracture a Fairytale – See paper Fractured Fairytales
- Write Porquois or, also called “How and Why” Stories
- Interview - Write out a conversation between yourself and a character from a folk tale.
- Be one of the characters in a story and write a letter to another character
- Be a character from a story and write a journal of your experiences
- Write a folk tale as a readers' theatre.
Other ideas:
Forming a storytelling club at the school: See MetroWest Youth Storytelling Club at http://www.mmrls.org/storytellingfaq.htm
Building a Storytelling Club at http://www.youthstorytelling.com/toolbox/BuildingAStorytellingClub.pdf
Developing opportunities for student telling: See Kid's Storytelling at http://www.storycraft.com/files/activ.htm
Discussions, References, Questions
.
Suggestions/Evaluations
Beyond The Beanstalk Interdisciplinary Learning Through Storytelling
by Lynn Rubright (ISBN 0-435-07028-2) Heinemann Publisher 361 Hanover Street Portsmouth, NH 03801
Children Tell Stories A Teaching Guide by Martha and Mitch Weiss (ISBN
Richard C. Owen Publishers, Inc. PO Box 585 Katonah, NY 10536
Creative Storytelling Choosing, Inventing, and Sharing Tales For Children by Jack Maguire (ISBN: 0-938756-35-4) Yellow Moon Press PO Box 1316 Cambridge, MA 02238
Raising Voices: Creating Youth Storytelling Groups and Troupes by Sima, Judy and Kevin Cordi Libraries Unlimited 2003
Storyteller Storyteacher Discovering the Power of Storytelling for Teaching and Living
by Marni Gillard (ISBN 1-57110-014-8 ) Stenhouse Publishers 226 York Street
York, ME 03909
Storytellers' Research Guide Folktales Myths and Legends by Judy Sierra (ISBN 0-9636089-4-0) Folkprint Box 450 Eugene, OR 97440
Storytelling in Emergent Literacy: Fostering Multiple Intelligences by Brand Trostle, Susan and Jeanne M. Donato Albany, New York: Delmar, 2001The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum
Copyright ©2006, Libraries Unlimited ISBN: 1-591-58305-5 ed. By Sherry Norfolk, Dianne Williams and Jane Stenson – easy, tried and true story extensions for classroom – Preschool to Junior HighStorytelling Games: Creative Activities for Language, Communication, and Composition Across the Curriculum - Doug Lipman Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1995
Super Simple Storytelling: A Can-Do Guide for Every Classroom, Every Day by Kendall Haven Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press, 2000.
Tales As Tools The Power of Storytelling in the Classroom
Edited by The National Storytelling Association (ISBN 1-879991-15-2)
The National Storytelling Press PO Box 309 Jonesborough, TN 37659The Storyteller's Start-Up Book Finding, Learning, Performing, and Using Folktales
by Margaret Read MacDonald (ISBN 0-87483-305-1) August House PO Box 3223 Little Rock, AR 72203
The Storytelling Coach How to Listen, Praise, and Bring Out People's Best by Doug Lipman (ISBN 0-87483-434-1) August House PO Box 3223 Little Rock, AR 72203
.
On-line Storytelling Websites for Teachers
Educators’ Resource: at http://www.diannehackworth.com/biblo.html Many categories for bibs. By Diane Hackworth
Learning Through Storytelling at http://www.turnerlearning.com/turnersouth/storytelling/deared.html Hints for teachers to start telling
National Storytelling Network at http://www.storynet.org/ Members have access to on-line material and memberships into SIG (Special Interest Groups) such as Storytelling in Higher Education and Youth,Educators and Storytellers Alliance (YES!) Up-to-date information about storytelling that is going on in schools around the country http://www.yesalliance.com/index.html
Storytelling in Schools – an on-line pamphlet compiled by Jackie Baldwin and Kate Dudding This reproducible pamphlet demonstrates the value of using storytelling and storytelling techniques across the curriculum in traditional classrooms. Specific programs around the U.S. are described http://www.storynet-advocacy.org/edu/how-to/
Story Arts at http://www.storyarts.org/index.html by Heather Forest – a plethora of idea for the classroom including lesson plans, short stories to learn to tell, bibs, and much, much moreStory Resources at http://www.yarnspin.com/resources.php by Angela Davis. Many ideas divided into grade levels
Storyteller.net at www.storyteller.net by Sean Buvala Interesting articles, on-line interview and stories, and a storyteller directory
Teacher/Teller Pages at http://www.marilynkinsella.org/TEACHERTELLER%20Index%20Page/TEACHERTELLER.htm by Marilyn Kinsella with useful study guides, workshop handouts, and much moreThe Story Bug’s Teachers’ Porch at http://www.storybug.net/teachers.htm by Karen Chace full of links and bibs and ideas!