More About Community and Imagination

The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (postcard illustration)

"Over all what I learned from this experience is that a community is a very powerful and that imagination is very big." This comment is from a 6th grade student I (Paula) taught in the storytelling project described by Julie in the previous post. 

For this project, tellers and 6^th grade ELA teachers were paired to collaboratively plan and teach a three-day storytelling program that would reinforce the teachers’ literacy goals in their English Language Arts classes and give all participants an opportunity to reflect upon the role of community in various aspects of our lives, and on the responsibility of the individual to his or her community. Although we had guidelines in the form of a general residency plan for each day, storytellers were given the freedom to choose own own material and plan specific workshop activities. Each day of the residency focused on an aspect of working with story: discussion, movement, and writing, respectively.

I collaborated with Ashley Daly, an experienced English language arts teacher whose enthusiasm for teaching and learning is obvious in everything she does in the classroom. She made me, a guest teacher, feel welcome and comfortable, and it was clear that, even at this early stage of their first year in a new, much larger school, sixth graders feel safe in her classroom. Although we began the residency with a detailed lesson plan for each day, we continued to tweak the plan from day to day and, even, from class to class, as we worked through it.

The first day, the discussion day, was also an introduction to storytelling for most of the students and for Ashley. For this reason, I choose to tell three stories during the eighty minute workshop. I began the workshop with Stone Soup because the story provides an example of how collaboration enhances everyone’s experience, but it also reminds us that successful collaborations may require creative persuasion to get the ball rolling. My second story, Sungara Muddies the Water Hole (http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/mlb/mlb19.htm), also provides an example of how successful communities put aside differences when working towards a common goal. However, because the main character is Trickster, the story raises the question of how the community deals with an uncooperative and, possibly, destructive presence.

Students recognized themselves and each other in the Sungara character when they talked about the kid who refuses to do his or her part in a class project, or whose behavior diminishes everyone else’s experience of a special event. Most of them had come up with or been given strategies for dealing with the character. They also recognized that Trickster has strengths that could enrich the community.

The third story I told this day was Tatterhood. I chose it after discussing plans with my colleague. Jack McKeon, who paired the tale with Jack and the Beanstalk as examples how a non conventional individual struggles to integrate into a community. I thought Tatterhood would provide students with an interesting contrast to Sungara.

Students really enjoyed Tatterhood, but it was the most difficult story for them to discuss. In all of our discussions, it was hard for students to admit their connection to the outcast character. I don’t think they weren’t empathetic, but that the fear of being ostracized is so integral to the sixth grade psyche that public discussion of it is taboo. I imagine, judging from the comfort level she has already established, that this will change in Ashley’s classes as the year progresses.

Day two of the residency was creative drama day. For this workshop I told The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese from Howard Norman’s collection and used a series of creative drama exercises that gave students the opportunity to ‘live’ in the tale. I could write pages about this story, but I will only say that was perfect for our theme. Ashley and I adjusted the creative drama activities throughout the day based on the impact we thought they made on previous classes. We had a very strong workshop by the end of the day and I was lucky to have a second chance to teach it in Sarah Satkowski’s classroom. Here is what we ended up doing: After hearing the story, each student was assigned a character. (We began by letting students choose a character, but after the first session, we felt that imposing the character would better suit our goal which was to help students empathize with story characters and understand how characters change as the narrative progresses.) A visualization exercise allowed students to become their character. After walking and talking in their new persona, students told, in first person as their character, a part of the character’s story that wasn’t revealed in the story narrative. These narratives were often insightful and, sometimes, quite moving.

Day Three was writing day. I told The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship and asked students to compare it with the first story of the residency, Stone Soup. Students wrote about how their experience with the stories and with storytelling changed their ideas about community. Here are some of the things they wrote:

Story telling really changed the way I thought community was because I thought that community was just a town... Now I learned that community is a very important thing in our lives.

At first all I knew about community was that it’s a group of people who help each other to make a better place. After the stories I learned that in a community everyone depends on each other. It’s somewhat like an ecosystem.

I’ve learned that you should always be cautious about what you say about other people because they might not be what they appear to you.

From Tatterhood, I learned… it’s okay to be you. Also I have learned from the Fool that not all intelligence starts off as clever.

Sometimes 1 person can ruin all the hard work you had worked on.

The stories taught me to give people a chance to prove themselves.

I learned that a community can turn a weak and small person into a big and strong person. What I’m trying to say is that a community is stronger than just one person because everyone has a useful talent and with a group of talents, you can do anything.

Overall I learned that if you build a better community or help out with things in your community you may meet people you never really would have or try new things you didn’t know you could do and maybe even make friends by what you are doing in the community with the people you meet.

Storytelling and Community: A Tale of Middle School

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

It's All About Community

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