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| Image by Arthur Rackham |
A great, great experience at
Frelinghuysen Middle School this fall. Sixth grade ELA teacher, Sarah Satkowski, is a joy to work with, an amazing teacher. I
loved watching her extend the discussions and writings to fit the needs of her different
classroom communities. She really knows sixth graders. Sarah took lessons from the stories,
characters from the stories, and words from the students and expertly wove them
into mini-lessons of respect, character, language building and community
formation.
As a storyteller hired by an ARTS council, I wanted to emphasize the
‘art’ part of storytelling in all three sessions. (Paula subbed for me on day
2, but we were in conversation). I researched storytelling performance and
culture from Haiti and Africa. Paula spoke to the same in the Artic. Because
the underlying theme was community I wanted to stress how storytelling brought
(brings) communities together, and how storytellers are responsible for keeping
the traditions and cultures viable in these communities.
Another underlying conceit
was that of storytelling as a form of communication in all forms, oral,
physical and written.
In discussion via email Sarah
and I developed the following plan of attack.
Day 1: What is storytelling? What is community?
Listening and oral response were the focus.
We started with
blank chart paper titled “What is storytelling?” The students worked in groups
with post-it notes and developed ideas of what they thought was going to
happen. These were put on the chart and added to or subtracted from as the students
got to hear stories. A few of their ideas were: Storytelling is the art of creating a story, suspenseful,
entertaining with creativity and imagination, beautiful language, connect to
audience, magical, stories explain the unexplainable.
I told a story from
Haiti. We discussed briefly answering such questions as “Why did so and so do
this?” “What happened to so and so?”
Then another post-it note session for students to generate ideas to
answer, “What is Community?” Some of what they wrote: Community is working
together to solve a problem, to be respectful and responsible, rules and laws, connecting
to each other, a civilized group.
I spoke about
storytelling in Haiti and then told more Haitian tales from The Magic Orange Tree. Deep oral
discussion followed. Inevitably the question arose, “Are these stories true?”
Staying quiet, I waited to hear how they would respond. One girl said,” It
could be true without the magic in it.”
Day 2: Exploring
stories and characters through movement
Paula told The Girl Who Dreamed Geese and led the
class in movement exercises. Sarah and
students told me all about it. As you will see in her response (below) Sarah
honed in on the aspect of empathy. She brought this up as we listened to stories
on Day 3. I believe it’s true. We feel empathy for the characters as we listen.
Even if it is only for those 6-10 minutes of the story, we have at least
experienced empathy.
Day 3: Exploring storytelling and community through
writing
Sarah came up with
some great questions to be used as writing prompts. These were written on chart
paper. Before we even talked about what students were going to write, stories
were told and discussed. This time stories came from countries in Africa.
Again, we explored storytelling traditions and cultural values.
At this point
students wrote. Sarah lets them chose from different writing prompts.
These
were posted.
1)
How are
storytelling and community connected?
2)
Chose one story and explain what it tells us
about community.
3)
How has the
storytelling experience changed our classroom community?
The students chose one
prompt,wrote and then shared a bit. We made sure to save enough time for a
short wrap up story. Here are some of
the students’ writings. Sarah’s is here as well.
Excerpts from student’s
writings:
· “The community
and storytelling are both alike because the stories that a storyteller tell
(sic) can be true.”
· “Storytelling is time when you need a community to
talk and discuss about storytelling People participating is a sign of
community.”
· “The story I chose was Anansi’s Six Sons. This story tells us that to have a good
community everyone has to do their part. All of Anansi’s sons helped him in
their own way...”
· “A story that involved community was Tipingee. When the girls teamed up and
saved Tipingee from becoming a
servant, they worked together as one little community.”
· “Most storys (sic) or folk-tales are about a community
coming together or working together just like a community would. The things we
need to have to have a successful community is another thing we learned from
storytelling. Story telling helped us learn more about communitys (sic) work
and how important it is to have a successful community.”
· “I think we
have changed in a happy way because we enjoy storytelling and love hearing the
fun stories and activities we do. That’s why I think storytelling has changed
our classroom and also we learned about different cultures.”
·
Sarah Satkowski (teacher)
This was written in the time, at the same time, allotted to students.
“Over the
three storytelling sessions with Julie and Paula I think that our classroom
community has changed dramatically. To begin, I feel that listening to stories
leveled the playing field and really allowed everyone equal access to
understanding and engagement. The content of the stories we heard facilitated
conversations around many of the pillars of community and allowed us to examine
our roles in communities. I believe the most challenging aspect of this
experience has been our willingness to share, increased comfort level with one another
and our ability to empathize. (Something that is often sorely missed in middle
school.)
Overall---
I think we are all better community members because of storytelling.”
Post by Julie Della Torre
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