Storytelling around the Globe

Background/Rationale

I teach eighth grade Language Arts at Northwest School of the Arts, a magnet arts school for grades 6-12. Classes run for 90-minute blocks and I see my students every-other day. I anticipate this unit will last approximately all of Quarter Two (about nine weeks), as it will be my vehicle for teaching the elements of fiction, as well as an in-depth study of legends and epic tales. When I teach fiction I focus on the story elements: Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution. In this unit I want to move beyond a basic study of character, plot, conflict and theme and study the significance of storytelling within a culture. Oral storytelling is often omitted from my curriculum because I enjoy reading non-fiction texts, or short stories and novels that fall in the category of realistic fiction. Therefore, I have constructed a unit that will explore legends and epic tales from countries that rely on the oral tradition of such stories to sustain a connection to their culture's past. In many cultures, storytellers exist in a capacity closely compared to a journalist in the United States. The main difference is the way the the griot tells the story, "revealing the past not simply through his own eyes but also through those of his predecessors."¹ Oral traditions are not just a retelling of past events, but an account of how a culture interpreted the events.² On the other hand, the goal of a journalist is to gather information and present information with as little bias as possible. In the United States we use these news reports to document historical events. Unlike countries with an ancient history, U.S. history is conveyed through textbooks, newspaper articles, and other forms of text. While the U.S. does have it's own legends, and oral tradition surrounding them, it does not rely on oral tradition as a means of preserving the integrity of the nation's past. Civilizations that have been around for thousands of years were capable of preserving stories of genealogy and ancestry even before a written language was introduced to their society. The profession and skills of oral tradition have been taught in Ireland, Japan, and West Africa for centuries. I think it will be hard for my students to imagine a world in which history was not recorded on paper, but communicated orally because they live in a world full of text. Therefore, I created a unit that will give students the opportunity to explore oral tradition by reading epic tales, reciting excerpts and studying the role of musical instruments in the recitation of these tales. Since I work at a magnet arts school I try my best to infuse art, music and dance (when possible) into my curriculum. This unit will provide me with a great opportunity to allow students to learn about literature in way they are not accustomed to in a regular classroom setting. One of my goals is to have students study one of the epic tales we read, memorize an excerpt, and recite it to the class. This will not only improve their memorization skills, but will give them an understanding of the difficult task the storytellers who passed down epic tales must have endured for centuries.