" If you don't know the trees,
You may become lost in the forest,
But if you don't know the stories,
You may become lost in life."
I believe that storytelling is at the root of language and the best way to connect a group of people. With stories we stimulate memory and sharing. I can't think of a better way to learn.
Here is a space for us to discuss thoughts, ideas, and raise questions about teaching and learning language across the curriculum.
How to begin a post...
We didn't get a chance to review how to post (instead of comment) in class on Monday. So I'm hoping these links to videos will help you get started.
How to post basic
How to include pictures - our blog simplifies these steps but this video should help anyway.
How to add a link - this is so you can post cool links for the rest of us to check out : ) (there is no sound...but helpful nonetheless)
This is exactly as I would have shown you, but please ask me before or after class if you have more questions! Blog away~
How to post basic
How to include pictures - our blog simplifies these steps but this video should help anyway.
How to add a link - this is so you can post cool links for the rest of us to check out : ) (there is no sound...but helpful nonetheless)
This is exactly as I would have shown you, but please ask me before or after class if you have more questions! Blog away~
Playing in the water
Things are not always as they appear
If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language. ~ Salman Rushdie
The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express. ~Alexis de Tocqueville
Interesting websites
Blog Archive
Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. ~William Butler Yeats
5 comments:
Yes - stories can be so powerful - using images, and raising emotions for the listeners/readers. My daughters love getting us adults to tell them stories, stories of when we were younger, how we met, what it was like for us as school - and I can see that they take parts of those stories and begin to create their own.
Also, students tend to respond to stories - my history teacher was awesome at it - we always thought he was off topic and we had him distracted; but it always related somehow to the lecture at hand!
What makes a good story teller anyway? How do you learn how? What are some tricks?
I have had very few really good storytelling experiences. You know, the ones where the storyeller is excited about the story, uses different voices or levels of speech, and seems to have the story entirely memorized because they never miss a beat! When you hear a story from someone like this you can't help but get excited and fully surrounded by the experience. I wish I had more experiences like this - partly because of the joy I feel from listening to the story and partly because I would like to learn how to be better at it myself. I love to read to myself and aloud but I certainly have not mastered the art of storytelling.
Before television, movies or even books...there were storytellers.
Everyone loves a good story.
Storytelling is about sharing experieicnes, explaining abstract concepts like religion or nature -- just think about First Nations Stories or the Greek and Roman Myths.
Storytelling is an art form -- perhaps even a lost art form. I think that anyone and everyone can do it, but it takes a lot to do it well.
One of my favourite movies just popped into my head. The movie: My Girl 2. Vada is talking with Jeffery Pomeroy...and he is describing her mother, and how she was a great storyteller. I tried to find something online that would give me a synopsis of what he says...but I couldn't find it. I may have to go home, pop the DVD in and scribe that part of the movie.
Don’t people always love a good story? I used to love hearing about the experiences and tales my high school teachers would share and sat enthralled listening to their stories. Conversely, I also remember that my grade 12 math teacher rarely shared anything personal about himself, but he still used storytelling just the same. He would passionately read from novels that described how Descartes sat bored and listless staring at the pattern of the square tiles on the ceiling of the theatre only to decipher, transpose and develop the Cartesian coordinate system. This teacher read with such gusto that it was contagious! More importantly, the delivery resonated with me so much so that I still remember it to this day.
I know that when I share personal stories about myself the kids perk up and instantly hands are raised, eager to find out the details of my endeavors. Moreover, following the model of my grade 12 teacher, I have found that providing the history and relevance of the intended learning and curricular content is an easy ‘hook’ and powerful reference for the students. Now, lessons on density begin with the story of Archimedes and exercises using the Pythagorean Theorem are preceded with a story on the Babylonians. In subsequent weeks when students have forgotten the material, the mention of Archimedes or the tribulations of the ancient Babylonians seems to bring it all back. I think storytelling can be used to simply impart knowledge but it can also be used to stimulate interest, relevance as well as to just help build a sense of community and respect. If I had to guess the trick or reason for the magnetic power of storytelling, I wouldn’t be able to. I only know that just as I love hearing stories, so do the students.
I known for a while how much younger children love hearing stories. When I was in my grade 1 practicum, I volunteered for an after school reading day. The students and their parents that came were very interested in the stories I read, and I found that the students at that event, and in class, very often are the most focused and listening the best when they were being read a story.
What surprises me is that stories are still what students are most interested in, even in older grades. In my current grade 10 practicum, the students were very interested in my personal stories of treeplanting when I was giving a lesson on forestry in social studies class. I think we never really grow out of enjoying story-telling, and I hope as I teach, I can continue to tell relevant (but may appear random, as Leanna's history teacher) stories to my students.
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