The Magic of Storytelling:
Educating Minds and Hearts
by
Joan Lange
Librarian—Overbrook Elementary School
As librarian at Overbrook Elementary School, I have been fascinated with the power of storytelling and its potential to actively engage students’ minds and hearts. The Frist Foundation Educator Award gave me an opportunity to study the art of storytelling with nationally acclaimed storytellers, Judith Black and Doug Lipman, at the “Telling Stories to Children” workshop in Marblehead, Massachusetts. In this four-day workshop, I acquired storytelling techniques and developed and performed an original story for an audience of children in Marblehead. In the intimate atmosphere of Judith Black’s home, I worked with six other participants from diverse backgrounds, including educators, librarians, a minister, a songwriter, and an aspiring storyteller. United in our goal to be appreciative audiences for each other as our stories developed, we shared the vision that storytelling could enrich the lives of the children with whom we work. What a rewarding experience! I have never before participated in a workshop in which the participants bonded so quickly while working toward a common goal and, at the same time, sharing so much joy, laughter, and tears.
Through this workshop I developed many valuable techniques, such as visualization (creating pictures in the minds of the audience), character voices, mime and expressive movement, creating participation in stories, addressing children’s social and emotional issues through stories, and how to be an appreciative listener. Most importantly, I learned how to build my story around the “Most Important Thing”—the message or feeling—that I want my audience to experience as they listen to my story. These skills of an effective storyteller will help me enhance library story times, aid the development of reading and writing research projects that engage higher thinking skills, and assist coaching students to be tellers of their own tales.
Students at Overbrook are now glowing with the excitement of storytelling!
In library classes, students in primary grades dramatized the story of Pinocchio using storytelling techniques. Earlier in the school year, I assisted our Forensic Coach in hosting a Mime and Duo Improvisation Workshop for diocesan forensic students and coaches. It was a wonderful opportunity for students from different schools to interact and develop creative dramatic techniques in a non-competitive atmosphere. As Assistant Forensic Coach, I have used appreciative listening and coaching techniques to aid fifth- through eighth-grade students as they develop their performances. Also, fifth graders and their parents participated in “An Evening of Melodrama,” in which parents and students wrote and read a melodramatic scene in which a hero or heroine outwits a devious villain.
The culminating project of this storytelling opportunity was the development of a shadow puppetry performance with the fourth-grade class. The students’ learning objective of the project was to develop an original folk tale based on the African tale, “Why Frog and Snake Never Play Together,” and resolve the conflict between the characters of frog and snake, who are enemies. This project linked several curricular areas, involving the collaboration of several teachers. In science class, students researched how frogs and snakes adapt to a desert location or swamp location and used these details in their story. Research took place in library class using books and magazines, with online encyclopedias used in computer class. Students created a web to organize notes in libraryclass, and this web was used to develop the written script in reading class. In music class students created an audiotape of the script narration and character voices, as well as music and instrumental sound effects to enhance the story. In art class, students created the black silhouette shadow puppets and colorful background location scenery. These puppets and location scenes were scanned in computer class, and the students created a PowerPoint slide show to introduce the characters and story theme to their upcoming audiences. The schoolcounselor even assisted by discussing conflict resolution techniques with the students as they decided how the frog and snake characters would resolve their conflict.
At each stage of the project, students enjoyed the opportunity for group collaboration and opportunities for problem solving and creative thinking. While brainstorming the script and developing the sound effects, I discovered that the storytelling techniques of visualization, “stepping into the shoes” of the character, and keeping in mind the “most important thing” or theme of the story was crucial in the process.
After weeks of hard work, the performances were a resounding success! Fourth graders performed their stories (a desert story and a swamp story) to both Overbrook students and Nashville schools through videoconferencing. St. Ann’s School participated in the videoconferencing with their fourth and first graders, and University School participated with their fourth graders. In addition, technology and teacher education students at Aquinas College, as well as their instructors, joined our Overbrook audience.
I also had an opportunity to show this project through videoconferencing to Dr. Steve Shao, director of PROJECT DIANE, and Laurene McLemore, director of health education for the Tennessee Department of Education. Laurene expressed interest in a possible future collaboration with Merrol Hyde Magnet School to develop a puppetry performance on the topic of health education. I gave a special presentation of the collaborative aspects of the project to Aquinas student teachers, and in January I will share this project with the Nashville Independent School Librarians. Storytelling techniques learned in the workshop have also been shared with Overbrook faculty at a teacher in-service training.
As I reflect on the benefits of this project, such as collaboration and cross-curricular links, creative thinking and problem solving, and the final dramatic performance, I think that the “Most Important Thing” for me was the “Most Important Thing” or message of the students’ stories. The students’ desert story was a cautionary tale in which the snake tricked the toad with his flattering words and ended up being invited to the toad’s burrow to eat the entire family. The audience appreciated the moral, “Never Croak to Strangers.” In the swamp story, the snake and frog decide to band together to help each other survive a fierce hurricane. Many morals were brainstormed, such as “Even enemies can become friends.” A first grader, an African-American student, pointed out her favorite moral, “You don’t have to look alike to be friends.”
The Frist Foundation Educator Award has provided me an opportunity to grow as an educator and a storyteller. It is so wonderful to have hearts and minds enriched through storytelling!