Storytelling is something that I learned at the feet of a master, my father, who used to gather his five children onto one bed on Sunday nights and tell "make up stories" to us. We loved his deep bass voice and feeling a part of the creative moment. Though he didn't call it storytelling, when I, the youngest, heard the art form later in life, I recognized it for what it was: an oral performance art.My father is gone now, but he has left a lasting legacy that I intend to pass on.
I'm not sure what spurred me on to create the storytelling curriculum for my students some 18 years ago. Perhaps it was sharing family stories around the dinner table when visiting with my family at a get-together. It seemed like a good fit for my 10-year-old gifted students, since in the general classroom, students don't get very much instruction in one of the pillars of communication: public speaking. I'd come across a book by Bob Greene called To Our Children's Children that is comprised only of questions, organized in chapters, that seek to elicit responses from elder family members, to be saved for posterity. I use a selection of these questions to give my students as interview questions for their parents, with the goal of eliciting a story of their parents' choosing that occurred to the parents when they were ten years old. This inter-generational exchange proves valuable for setting the stage in the academic year for parental participation in the language arts class that I teach. Students then spend about eight weeks with me, once per week, polishing the stories as dramatic art pieces. When they are ready, they perform their stories for Kindergarten students, who are a very appreciative audience.
My father having passed the "threescore and seven" benchmark, I thought it a good time to capture those memories before it was too late. I selected one question per month for a year from the book and sent it to my parents, giving them the entire month to think about their responses. Then I collected and collated their remembrances at the end of the year and distributed the collection to my siblings. Since within two years my father was stricken with inoperable and terminal cancer, I was eternally grateful that I'd engaged in this valuable exercise. Shortly after he was diagnosed, I asked if he and my mother would be willing to share their responses on film so we'd all have a visual, as well as a textual, record. This will always remain a treasured piece of family archives.
I recommend that you go to the National Storytelling Festival Web site at http://www.storytellingcenter.
If you're really interested in learning how to do storytelling, this is a good place to start.
Cindy (or Cynthia)
Ms. C. Scribner, Ed. M.
Teacher, Gifted and Talented Education (Retired)
E-mail: cescribner@gmail.com
Owner, 3 H Herbs, LLC
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