It’s the beginning of a new school year. Classroom teachers
are considering the building of healthy
classroom communities, a spaces that works for everyone. A number of us here at
SAI have been hired to work at a school that is welcoming a whole new sixth
grade student body along with a few new sixth grade teachers. Everyone is
talking about forging strong communities in the school as well as the
classroom.
Each
storyteller will be paired with an individual teacher for three storytelling
sessions. The purpose and goals of these workshops are to introduce students to
the art of storytelling, the structures and components of storytelling and how
stories are conveyed in a myriad of ways. We will be telling stories and
demonstrating how comprehension and emotion are conveyed through such things as
voice, facial expression, body movement, specific vocabulary, sentence
construction, etc. At the conclusion of the workshops, the students will produce
a piece of writing which the classroom teacher and the storyteller will develop
collaboratively.
We
have been asked to frame our workshops around the concept of community. Hmmm.
Personally, I can’t wait to talk with my
teacher to find out how she defines, discusses and works with ‘community’.
Will she focus on community values, community rules, community support, and individual
responsibilitiesin a community? There are so many ways to contemplate
community.
Of
course stories are the perfect vehicle to look at community. All stories have
come out of community. Storytelling is a community event. I've spent the summer
trying to find a way to narrow my list of stories in order to choose the
perfect few ‘community’ stories I will tell.
As
it happens, one of my summer reads was Radiance
of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah. One theme the book explores is ways of
rebuilding a community devastated and dispersed by war. One of the ways evoked
is through storytelling and keeping the stories of the community. An elder
woman, Mama Kadie, the community's story keeper, mentors Oumu, a young girl. “It
isn’t about knowing the most
stories, child, it is about carrying the ones that are most important and
passing them along. I have already decided to tell you all the stories I carry.” (p35)
A
powerful scene in the book occurs when the children of the village find a dead
body in the river... the river where they go to bathe and get drinking water.
That night all gather as Mama Kadie tells a story of the water spirits and how
they behave. All listening are trying to make sense of the horror of the day.
Another
book I read this summer was Heroes and
Heroines by Mary Beck. This is a collection of Tinglit Haida legends. Beck writes
in her Forward:
"The
myths and legends were told and retold at potlatches, less formal gatherings,
as family pastimes, even as bedtime stories. But their entertainment value was
secondary. Here, as elsewhere, the important function of myth and legend was to
pass the knowledge and traditions, morals and mores from the old to the young, maintain social cohesion and continuity,
keep the culture alive and flourishing... In their parallels to the myths and
legends of other cultures, they reinforce the one-world concept. Through them
we see that human needs, reactions and values are essentially the same
everywhere, and that human beings, wherever they live, have found similar ways
of explaining life and transmitting their concepts." (Ix, x)
So,
in the service of building a narrative community, which stories will I pass on?
Which stories will best illustrate the benefits and difficulties of living in a
community? Which stories will provoke engaged discussions around the various
aspects of community?
We
storytellers must keep in mind that we are NOT teaching ‘community.’
That is the role of the teachers. We are teaching the communication skills
inherent in the oral art of storytelling. However, as professional storytellers
we can search out and choose stories that complement, enhance and extend the work of the teachers.
Two
stories come to mind right away. One
is ‘Stone Soup’ and all of its variants. Here is a story that
reveals the deliciousness of collaboration and working together in community. The
other is Aesop’s ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ or it’s
literary cousin, Fredrick by Lionni. What are an individual’s responsibilities in society? What is equal pay for
equal work? How do we handle those who may not
be ideal community members?
Excellent
discussions of both Stone Soup and Fredrick can be found at the site
TeachingChildrenPhilosophy.org.
I
would love to hear what others are thinking about ‘community’
and what stories are rolling around in their minds. Please respond.
Julie Della Torre
Stone Soup is a great story for this purpose. I like to tell stories that acknowledge the contributions of individual and unique talents in working together (e.g. Anansi and His Six Sons, from Ghana; The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, from Russia (or How Six Men Got on in the World or The Bremen Town Musicians, from Germany). In my experience, as children learn about how to participate in community with each other, they remain keenly aware of individual differences.
ReplyDeleteI'm participating in the project Julie described and I also thought of the "Fool of the World" types. I agree with Tim about why they're a good choice. I think that by the time kids are in 6th grade they are learning from many sources to categorize people by their most superficial characteristics, so it's good to give them stories that point them below the surface in their judgements. I think that The Ant and the Grasshopper provides a good prompt for talking about the individual's responsibility to the group, and to pointing out, as Leo Lionni does in "Frederick," that we can't have one standard for which contributions are valuable. However, there has to be a balance. A community of artists who don't also contribute to the group's material goals won't survive the winter.
ReplyDeleteAnother type I thought of was the three brother stories in which the first two brothers either shirk their responsibility or don't take another's advice because they value their own comfort and/or ideas more than the good of the community. These stories present another take on Tim's point. It takes the brother who is willing to collaborate, to take the fox's advice or to share his meal with the poor old man to set things right.
If we tell only stories that highlight cooperation and open-mindedness, however, we're ignoring something that every kids knows, namely that there is frequently someone in the group who seems to want to sabotage the project. So I think we also have to tell Trickster stories to help all of us think about how society deals with him. I recognize this character's creative energy, but I'm stuck on whether it's possible to expect him to cooperate. Anyone with ideas about how the community should handle him?
I liked what Julie had to say, and how she said it. Collaboration with the teachers and the students is the way to a good experience, hopefully building trust, and continuing.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking ahead to our meeting on the 13th of Oct, and how the tellers, the board, and the executive director (that's you!) will meet as a community--getting to know each other better, listening to the stories, not just the formal ones, but the social sharing. Hopefully the collaboration will continue to build SAI.
Sheila Schnell, SAI Board Member
The "Fool of the World" type stories, in which the hero needs collaborators with unique talents to complete his job would work in this project if the teacher wants to focus on that aspect of community. I think that by the time kids are in 6th grade they are learning from many sources to categorize people by their most superficial characteristics. The most worthy individuals are labeled 'popular' or 'pariah' depending upon where the labeler sits in the lunchroom. I think that The Ant and the Grasshopper provides a good prompt for asking kids to look below the surface, to think about the individual's responsibility to the group, and to pointing out, as Leo Lionni does in "Frederick," that there isn't one standard for which contributions are valuable. There has to be a balance because a community of artists who don't also contribute to the group's material goals won't survive the winter.
ReplyDeleteAnother type I thought of was the three brother stories in which the first two brothers either shirk their responsibility or don't take another's advice because they value their own comfort and/or ideas more than the good of the community. These stories present another take on the individual's responsibility to work with others and to keep the community goal in mind. It takes the brother who is willing to collaborate, to take the fox's advice or to share his meal with the poor old man to set things right.
If we tell only stories that highlight cooperation and open-mindedness, however, we're ignoring something that every kids knows, namely that there is frequently someone in the group who seems to want to sabotage the project. So I think we also have to tell Trickster stories to help all of us think about how society deals with him. I recognize this character's creative energy, but I'm stuck on whether it's possible to expect him to cooperate. Anyone with ideas about how the community should handle Tickster?
This is from Jack who can read this wiki from his phone, but not his computer.
ReplyDeleteI've always considered the trickster, at least at his heroic level, as a shaman figure, a connection with the other world and a provider of life and necessities. Campbell's discussions of the shaman figure have rather hair-raising stories of how thwarted shamans can devastate the communities they are supposed to help. Because their transformation process is individualized, rather than their being part of a group initiated into the values of the community, they are outliers, sort of alien, full of powers that are both helpful and dangerous to the community at large. The power has to be channeled in the right direction. To me this resembles the artist in our culture, powerful but on the fringe. Full integration into the group would diminish the strength. In fact he (she) resembles the ant in The Ant and the Grasshopper. Aesop's moral aside, we need the ant to be complete. I like Joyce's version better. So maybe an approach to the trickster could come from this angle: what does the creative, non-conformist have to contribute to the community at large? How can the community channel that creative energy to its benefit?
My own thoughts on the stories I may use kind of follow this theme. I really need to talk to the teacher but I'm thinking of Jack and the Beanstalk and Tatterhood for the first day, individuals struggling with the process of integrating themselves into a larger community from an "outcast" condition. On "movement" day (about which I would like to talk to you all), I was thinking of Hardy Hardhead - the Flying Ship thing - because it has the three brother and the special skills motifs and seems perfect for some sort of movement activity. I'm still not sure about day 3 which depends, obviously, on what the teacher would like them to write about. I'm happy for any feedback, either by mail or on wiki.
pauladavidoff Sep 8, 2014
ReplyDeleteFrom Jack: "Obviously I meant the grasshopper, not the ant."
pauladavidoff Sep 10, 2014
I think Stone Soup is also a good story to use on day one because most kids will already know it and its message, trickery aside, is pretty much the party line on what it takes to create community. Kids could talk about the soldier's trick, what happens if there is someone in the group who sees through it or refuses to contribute to the soup. That discussion could lead into stories like the ones Jack describes.
I like the idea of beginning with Tatterhood, but I am thinking of pairing it with the story of Rabbit at the Water Hole which, I think raises the question of how the community deals with an individual who can't or won't integrate. I don't know if Rabbit in this story rises to the 'heroic level,' but I think that he is a recognizable classroom character.
On day two, the movement day, I think I might tell The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese. It combines the good shaman/bad shaman theme and should be a good follow up to a conversation about the first day stories. It also raises the idea of community rites and rituals. For the movement part, I would ask students to embody the character they least understand and walk through the story as that character, then freeze them at various points in the story and hear the characters' thoughts. Follow up would be reflections about what we learned about individual characters and how they saw themselves in relation to the community.
Ijuliedt 3 days ago
Following up on trickster: I would love to hear 6th graders discuss the issue of how to deal with 'problem' community members. We have someone who usurps every conversation in book group. We can't get rid of her, just have to learn how to get along with her. Maybe the 6th graders would have good ideas. However, we only have 3 sessions with them. Such a conversation may have to be built on more trust. I have a great Anansi story that ends with the idea "Did Anansi learn his lesson? NO! That Anancy, he will never change."
juliedt 2 days ago
And what about those boys saving kingdoms from marauding dragons? Or Theseus stopping the carnage of 14 Athenian youths every 7 years?
I've decided that I am going to start with Haitian tales from Magic Orange Tree. The teachers I spoke with use the words respect and cooperation/working together when discussing community. I'm going to tell Mother or the Waters for discussion on respect and Tipingee for discussion on coming together. I will be able to talk about storytelling in the communities in Haiti and how everyone comes together to listen, talk, dance and tell stories.
ReplyDeleteOn my final day (I'm not there for movement) I am looking at stories from Africa or the Arctic. In both societies being ostracized from the community is the kiss of death. It is very hard to survive alone in the wilds or Africa or the Artic. I'm leaning toward Africa with Who's In Rabbit's House, Anansi's 6 Sons, The Necklace and Sun and Moon as possibilities. The Necklace, a story of a girl scorned by others in the village finds help and success, can be found in Helen Luke's book Kaleidoscope. In Sun and Moon, Moon is banished from a life around people because of her evil thoughts and deeds. I found it in a Cricket magazine years ago.