Blog #1: Learning a Story is About More than Memorization

 

 


 

My traditional experience with storytelling in the high school setting is limited. We don’t do much of storytelling with that age group in the classroom or the library. Sometimes we do read-alouds, but not storytelling. I did have the award-winning storyteller Darion McCloud do a session with my students to help them unlock the power of storytelling. Students then wrote their own stories and performed those stories over a beat. The magic of storytelling helps students unlock their own potential as storytellers and helps them to develop literacy skills. In her study on second graders, Agosto (2016) shows how oral storytelling helped students to practice four literacy skills: visualization, cognitive engagement, critical thinking, and story sequencing. Storytelling has the power to be entertaining and educating. 

Reading Seminar students (2016-2017) record their stories over beats they wrote after Darion McCloud & Bless Da Poet helped them with strategies. Listen to one class here.

 

I always assumed that a storyteller told a memorized story verbatim as the author wrote it. This week’s readings really helped me realize the process for learning a story is more nuanced and allows the storyteller some creativity. Greene & Del Negro (2010) say, “The storyteller must take the story from the printed page and blow the breath of life into it” (p. 59). Visualization and auditory approaches to learning a story (Greene & Del Negro, 2010) will help the storyteller breathe life into the story; however, simple memorization will not. The good storyteller must really work hard to make the story their own and not simply learn the words of the story. This also includes researching to learn all versions of the story being told (Greene & Del Negro, 2010).

 

One thing McCloud did with my students is vocal exercises to help them wake up their voices for the later recording sessions. This is an essential aspect of storytelling that I undervalued before this week’s readings. I found the Underdown-DuBois, C. (2011) article, along with the speech exercises in Greene & Del Negro (2010) to be especially helpful. As a writer, I believe that I sometimes focus on the story and the words and forget about preparing for how the story is delivered, and how to prepare my body for the presentation or delivery of the story. Underdown-DuBois writes, “The key to telling a story is expression—vocal and physical. The Body is a reader’s instrument and tool, just like the book being presented” (2011, para. 3). Learning the story thoroughly is one step and preparing the body and voice for the presentation of the story is just as important.

 

For the picture books I read, I did a mix of some from my one-year-old son’s collection and a few from my local public library. One book my son loves is one that is based on the Bob Marley song “One Love,” and uses the song title as the book title. It uses lyrics from the song that I sometimes sing to him. Elements from the book I recognized in other picture books include the use of repetition and rhyme. Besides having the actual images to look at, the words of the books are simple and usually use imagery to tell a story and explain the moral or theme. Books like Brown Bear and R is for Rocket are more educational in that they are teaching basic information like colors, the alphabet, and the names of animals. I think repetition, rhyme, and onomatopoeia are things a storyteller can focus on when learning a story. 

 

My son Loman looking through the book One Love, based on the Bob Marley song of the same name.

 

Many of the fairy tales use imagery, hyperbole, and repetition, which lends itself well to a story with good lessons such as avoiding being greedy (“The Golden Fish”). They also usually include a character who makes a bad or evil decision like when Father Anansi throws down the pot of wisdom. The fairy tales have a bit more plot while the fables are far shorter and to the point. The animals in fables have specific roles to show the moral. I used the website Storynory to read the fairy tales and used a Library of Congress site for the fables.

 

Like any art, storytelling has a craft to it. There are proven techniques in learning a story. Although I am a writer, I consider myself a novice storyteller. I’ve done poetry readings, but haven’t memorized my poems for spoken word or slam poetry. The reading this week really put me at ease about becoming a storyteller because it has offered so many specific tips on selecting, preparing, and presenting a story. Also, I realize that I will likely make mistakes during this process, but that with more practice and great feedback from my colleagues, I will be able to refine my technique and improve.

 

Picture Books

·      One Love, based on the song by Bob Marley, adapted by Cedella Marley, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton

·      Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

·      Ruby’s Reunion Day Dinner by Angela Dalton, illustrated by Jestenia Southerland

·      R is for Rocket by Tad Hills

·      Layla’s Happiness by Mariahdessa Ekere Tallie, illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin

·      Time for Kenny by Brian Pinkney

 

Fairy Tales

·      “The Golden Fish” by The Brothers Grimm

·      “Hansel & Gretel” by The Brothers Grimm

·      “How Wisdom Got Out” an Anansi West African Fairy Tale

·      “Little Red Riding Hood”

·      “The Elves and the Shoemaker” The Brothers Grimm

 

Fables

·      “The Rat & the Elephant”

·      “Jupiter & the Monkey”

·      “The Fox and the Crow”

·      “The Town Mouse and Country Mouse”

·      “The Ant & the Dove”

·      “The Eagle and the Jackdaw”

 

 

Special note: They and their are used as gender-neutral singular pronouns throughout.

 

 

 

 

References

 

Agosto, D. (2016). Why Storytelling Matters: Unveiling the literacy benefits of

 

storytelling. Children & Libraries

 

Greene, E. & Del Negro, J. (2010). Storytelling: Art and technique (4th ed.). Libraries

 

Unlimited.

 

Underdown-DuBois, C. (2011). Bringing storytelling alive with acting and storytelling

 

techniques: An interactive article. Tennessee Library Association. 

 

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