STORYTELLING AND CURRICULUM
(excerpts from posts)
(If you want to retell any of the stories listed below, be sure to obtain permission from the copyright holder if the material is not in the public domain)

Query: I have been to a workshop with a title like the one you suggest and came away disappointed, not because the workshop wasn't good but because it wasn't what I wanted. The really hard job (IMHO) is to find just the right story to bring the curriculum to life. What I wanted to know was how to take the facts of Columbus sailing across the ocean to America, for example, and creating a memorable story that would bring the unit to life.

1) One of my favorite stories to use within the curriculum is "The Debate in Sign Language." If you don't know it, I'll send the bare bones. (You can also find bare bones in "From Sea to Shining Sea.") But it's one of the first stories I tell all year long, and I refer to it all the time because it's so good for conflict resoltution.

I guess that would be my two cents - to make it "doable," encourage educators to have just even one or two stories that they can tell the kids and refer back to. They will continue to make the connections with the characters in the stories and use those connections to guide their choices. I don't know how many times I compared to "the debate" when we've had a playground issue that reverted back to "he said, she said." Just by recalling the story, the children realize that one set of events can lead to two sets of truth.

It's stories like those which really strike a chord for kids and are easy for teachers to remember. As a teacher, I often sit through workshops or presentations, and I get antsy because I'm moved. I want to try those things out for myself. At the same time, I want to feel I can do and accomplish what the person speaking can do. I want you to inspire me, but make me think it's easy enough and give me enough guidance that I'm comfortable in doing it.

2) The first thing you want to distinguish (and figure out what they want from you) is between
a) students telling stories and the curriculum connection,
b) storytelling used to enhance the curriculum currently being presented, and
c) storytelling and follow-up activities as it can be used to fulfill curriculum standards.

These are three different issues and would drive your workshop in three different directions. I've got the curriculum connections and state standards met when students tell stories, I'll send our website link to you when it gets back up and running.

But there is a distinction between figuring out what curriculum is presented and then doing the research to find appropriate stories to enhance that curriculum and bring the subject matter to life versus telling a story, doing related activites, and pointing out the possible curriculum connections. One works within the established classroom lesson plan, the other adds lots of activities to the lesson plan. It's a notable difference for busy teachers.

I have been to a workshop with a title like the one you suggest and came away disappointed, not because the workshop wasn't good but because it wasn't what I wanted. The really hard job (IMHO) is to find just the right story to bring the curriculum to life. What I wanted to know was how to take the facts of Columbus sailing across the ocean to America, for example, and creating a memorable story that would bring the unit to life. The workshop I attended did not address that. Rather, it gave an example of telling one story, lots of follow-up activities related to the story, and then gave an example of different subjects (science, art, music, etc) that the activities fell into. Those are my first thoughts -- finding out specifically what they want from you -- and it is possible they didn't know they had so many choices!

3) Years ago I attended a workshop by Barbara Lipke on bringing stories to life for kids. Her suggestion: make the main character of the story the same age as the children who are listening. This is the Johnny Tremaine model (there was one or more books with JT as the hero as he lived through various historical events.)

So that's why my story "The Statue"
http://www.katedudding.com/statue.html
has a 10 year old boy as the main character. I created this story to tell to an art class of 10 year olds. So for Columbus sailing across the ocean, I'd tell it from the cabin boy's point of view.

4) You can find a printed version in Bobby and Sherry Norfolk's book The Moral of the Story, Folktales for Character Development. Little Rock: August House 1999. Wonderful book of ideas, concepts and stories.

5) "The Moral of the Story" is available in both soft cover book and CD at www.storytellingstore.com

6) In Virginia no school will book anything unless somebody says it has SOL connections (standards of learning according to Virginai). It's gotten out of control, frankly, as it is hard to truly justify the arts. However, if you go to my website, you will find a link to SOL connections. They won't mean anything to you (or to me either, if truth be known), but the numbers and letters coincide to what children are supposed to "learn" while they're encountering the arts. You can find Virginia's SOLs on line if you think that would help.

Basically, though, I've just found that it's a good thing I always wanted to tell history as story, because that's been my most obvious knock 'em over the head, you can't miss the connection way to get schools to hear storytelling. And come to think of it, there's also an article I wrote for Virginia's Reading Association on my site. That gets pretty specific about storytelling functioning in education.
http://www.cascadingstories.com

7) I went to a workshop that Elizabeth Ellis did on this topic. She began by talking about how the left brain was pretty much what schools were teaching to. The right brain is the one that contains the ethics, values, and decision making processes. She came to the conclusion that the schools were creating "ethically disabled" students. This phrase hit me pretty hard. I hadn't ever thought of it in that way, but we all know that is what is happening. Now when I teach Storytelling to teachers, I include it in my workshops. Probably, being Elizabeth, it's her opinion, but a very sound one if you ask me.

8) She lit a candle at the beginning of her session and said something like <<as long as this candle is burning we will be in another world, the world of story. At the end of the session, she blew it out, saying we were now back in our ordinary world. She said the ritual helped to keep kids quiet.
Response: No no no! The STORY keeps them quiet. The candle just gets their attention at the beginning so they will settle in to listen more readily..... We've also had our drummer do it with drumming - an auditorium full of kids, call and response rhythms - he played, they clapped back....Got everybody focused really fast.
In classrooms I like to use a chime. It's penetrating, but gentle....don't generally need it for storytelling, but more to get everyone's attention during a lesson when it's time to change pace...

9) Guide: Storytelling in the Classroom by Jeff Gere, Daniel Kelin II; Beth-Ann Kozlovich (2002)
http://www.prel.org/products/pr_/storytelling.htm
This selection of classroom resources is useful for teachers seeking to develop literacy skills in elementary school students through storytelling. Information and classroom activities from three unique perspectives on speech and performance are included.

(This web page updated 7/20/04)