Storytelling: Fictional Narratives, Imaginary People, and the Reader's Real Life

Rationale and School Context

A good story for telling is one that has something to say and that says it in the best possible way. It is a story that has vision as well as integrity and that gives a child something to hold. There should be sound values – compassion, humor, love of beauty, resourcefulness, kindliness, courage, kinship with nature, zest for living – but they should be implicit in the story, because a good one is didactic.

Augusta Baker and Ellin Green, Storytelling: art and technique

I have come to a number of conclusions on why this unit is important. Initially, I thought that the unit would serve as an outlet for my students' writing. This unit would be an opportunity for them to develop personal narratives reflecting on a small moment and how their lives were impacted. After careful consideration and thought, I concluded that my students definitely have stories to tell, but those stories, like mine, are deeper than them as individuals. The stories we gain through daily conversations and interactions only provide us with superficial motivation. They are part of the temporary fix for enjoyment in our everyday lives. So much more can be gathered from a story shared through conversations with our families – about their experiences, the stories that helped shape their lives. These stories would have a much greater impact on us. This impact can be seen through the process of digging deeper and learning more about experiences within the family structure. This process of digging deeper with the family structure would assist my students in creating stories with a greater impact and a more universal approach. After reflecting, I concluded that my students are already excited about writing and would be up for whatever writing assignment presented. Therefore, I needed not only to make this unit engaging, but also to include a key component of their lives – their families. "Storytelling is a way of keeping alive the cultural heritage of a people." ¹

I am not sure why my initial thinking did not lead me to my students' families. The family structure is a key component to my students' lives. Their conversations are usually focused around the family structure. Topics typically range from what happened over the weekend, plans for the holiday, or school vacation breaks. Some of their stories, although not as in-depth as some of the stories shared by Gladys, could provide that initial "spark" that leads to greater stories developed and shared through the conversations held with family members. Providing an outlet for students not only to learn, but also to share that learning experience with a historical connection through family interviews could prove to be a learning lesson for all involved. Being able to gain a part of your family's experience or life lessons through storytelling allows the receiver to gain knowledge while spending time with key members of their family structure. "As these tales and experiences were told, and as people began wondering about themselves different forms of stories began to take shape." ² Through this gaining of information, students are not only developing a since of kinship within their family circle, but they are also gaining "nourishment" to their souls through this process by bonding with their families.

After learning about the characteristics of storytelling, reviewing and analyzing stories, and spending time with a certified storyteller, students will begin the process of creating their own stories. Their stories will be created through the development of questions to be used during the interview process with their family members. The interviews with their family members will assist them in creating a product, their own stories, to be shared and used during their final performance assessment. Details on these activities are listed in the "Assessment" section.

In selecting the stories to be shared during this curriculum unit, I looked at several things to make sure that the stories reflected the diversity within my classroom. Identifying characters that reflected not only the age of my students, but also their backgrounds and experiences was important in this process. I personally felt that my students would gain so much from and would connect better to characters or events directly related to the makeup of our classroom. Holly Martin in Writing between Cultures shares that, "For some characters, as we shall see, mythical and legendary figures can provide the inspiration or the role modeling, for at least one aspect of their multicultural identities." ³ Being able to hear stories that directly relate to us personally or our experiences is pivotal to what we learn, how we learn it, and what we share. Due to the fact that my classroom is diverse, I felt that it was important to capture stories that represented a variety of cultural backgrounds. I feel that because I took time to make sure that my stories represented the diversity within my classroom, my unit will be better accepted by my students and made more appealing to the two grades.

I also feel that as an educator it is my obligation to make my classroom environment one that is safe and inclusive. With this safety and inclusion comes celebration. Celebration is built around everyone, highlighting each person's uniqueness and diversity. Everyone plays an important part in celebrating this diversity, the experiences of everyone, their perspectives, and their differences and similarities.

During my first year of teaching, my school's population consisted of 100% African-American students. Personally, I thought that this would be a piece of cake when it came to teaching. There was a lot to learn about my own race. While my students and I were of the same ethnic background, our experiences were totally different. That first year of teaching showed me that I needed to look at each encounter with students, no matter what was their cultural background, as a new learning experience. Following that year, I worked at a school where the student population was about 73% Latino, 25% African-American, and 2% other. While there were some similarities and differences, I haphazardly made an attempt to learn to celebrate and gain a better understanding of everyone.

This past year proved to be the greatest learning experience during my entire teaching career. I transferred to a new school and began what turned out to be one of those life journeys connected to the lessons learned from "Granny." This experience provided growth for not only me, but also my students. For my students, this was the first time they had a male classroom teacher (other than in physical education). For me, it was my first time working with students beyond the Latino and African-American populations: my classroom is truly America's melting pot! It was also the first time I taught in a classroom lower than 5 ^th grade. Therefore, I made a conscious effort to better understand how to build my instruction around diversity. Which leads me to my other desire for this unit: that my students learn from each other.

With the diversity in my classroom, comes a variety of experiences and stories. My classroom consists of students from backgrounds that include: Americans (both Caucasian and African), African (of the continent), Asian, Irish, Polish, Russian, and Indian. The stories my students inherit from their families for this unit will be the base of their storytelling cycles and the projects they complete. Because of their unique and diverse cultural backgrounds, I am confident that there is an array of stories to be shared.