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Storytelling Time: Passing on Family Culture

By
Joan Duncan, Victoria Pursch, Marilyn Sorensen
EHRD 635 - Family Literacy
Texas A&M University
Summer, 1999

The following is a proposed family literacy activity. Its purpose is to enable parents to provide their children with some of the heritage and background of their family. This was an assignment for a graduate family literacy course taught by Don and Anna Seaman in 1999. Some editing has been provided to the original assignment.

In an effort to maximize our literacy program's effectiveness, we will need a trained professional staff that is highly committed to this endeavor. The following is the minimum number of educators and staff required for the successful implementation of our program.

(1) Adult Educator	(1) Early Childhood Educator
(1) Teaching Assistant	(1) Parent Educator

Additional resources for the literacy program will be drawn from the local community.

The local Independent School District will provide the transportation for this family literacy program. Parents needing transportation will ride school buses with the children to the Primary School and to the Community Center. These facilities will both be used for the program and are within the same vicinity. The program hours are from 7:30 A.M. - 1:30 P.M.

Adults:

Number: 15-20

Age Range: Participants will be 20 years old or older

Demographics: Rahe Primary School and the Bulverde Community Center are centrally located in Bulverde. These facilities are easily assessable to members of the community, to include the disabled. We feel that the accessibility combined with community awareness should contribute to a strong turnout for the program.

Children:

Number: Student - Teacher ratio 20: 1 (Plus one teacher assistant)

Age Range: 3yrs - 5yrs.

7:30 - 8:00    Breakfast: Parents will eat with their children

8:00 - 10:00    Adult Education

8:00 - 8:15    Circle of Friendship

8:15 - 9:00    Review and Mini-Lesson on Genre of Story Telling Gathering/Prewriting Family Story

9:00 - 10:00    Writing Activity

8:00 - 10:00    Early Childhood Education

8:00 - 8:30    Calendar/Music

8:30 - 9:00    Outside Play

9:00 - 9:15    Read Aloud

9:15 - 10:00    Instructional Time - Literacy Activities (3 - 15 minute rotations)

10:00 - 10:30    PACT - Students choose center and activity

10:30 - 12:00    Parent Education

10:40 -11:00    Discussion on Storytelling with Speaker

11:00 - 11:30    Model Story Telling

11:30 - 12:00    Role Play using personal (family) stories

10:30 - 12:00    Early Childhood

10:30 - 11:15    Children Rest, Snack

11:15 - 12:00   Instructional Activities at Exploration Centers (3 rotations)

12:05 - 12:40    Lunch with children

12:45 - 1:20    Pact Share Stories and Create Storyteller Dolls

1:20 - 1:30    Clean-up & departure

Theme: STORYTELLING

Using personal storytelling, the student and parent are composing a unique set of story images derived from meanings associated with words, gestures, and sounds. Through the stimulation of the imagination, as well as creative and oral expression, a sense of family culture" is developed for the child and parent.

7:30 am-8:00 am    Breakfast together with parent

Objective: Children will practice social skills of conversation and mannerly behavior in a public environment

8:00 am-8: 15 am    Calendar: day, date, number sense, vocabulary

Objectives: Children will

• identify the name of the day and the month and number of the date on the bulletin board calendar,
• develop concepts of time(today, yesterday and tomorrow)
• develop concepts of number sequence
• develop vocabulary relating to sequence, size and quantity

8:15 am-8: 30 am    Music: sing and move to music-story type songs

Objective: Children will

• develop singing skills
• develop vocabulary
• listen for rhyme and patterns
• appreciate music and rhythm

8:30 am -8:50 am   Outside play: Group game and free play

Objective: Children will

• develop motor skills such as running, climbing and swinging
• develop social skills such as taking turns and cooperating in a group game

8:50 am-9:00 am    Water and bathroom break

9:00 am-9: 15 am    Read Aloud: A Chair for My Mother

Objective: Children will

• develop concepts about print (CAP)
• practice listening and comprehension skills
• appreciate stories about family events
• connect learning to prior experiences

9:15 am-10: 00 am    Instructional Groups: Children will rotate between 3 experiences for 15 minutes each:

• Guided Pre-Reading group with teacher

Objective: Children will develop and practice literacy skills through the use of emergent level reading books, magnetic letters, slates and writing activities

• Waterford Early Reading program (WERP) computer assisted instruction

Objective: Children will develop and practice phonetic, CAP and vocabulary skills with multi-sensory, multi-cultural technology based activities.

• Art center with the instructional assistant

Objective: Children will respond to the Read Aloud with clay, review the concepts, emotions and characterizations from the story.

10:00 am-10: 30 am    PACT (free choice centers with parents)

10:30 am-10: 45 am    Snack

10:45 am-11: 15 am    Rest and View Reading Rainbows video #15: A Chair for My Mother. Follow up discussion and questions.

Objective: Children will practice listening skills and see connections of the family story to "real life" situations and cultural traditions.

11:15 am-12: 00 am    Instructional Groups: Children will rotate between 3 experiences for 15 minutes each:

• Guided Math group with teacher

Objective: Children will develop concepts about patterns and practice creating patterns.

• Computer assisted instruction with Millie's Math House and Pattern Joust

Objective: Children will develop and practice number awareness and pattern recognition and creation

• Art center with the instructional assistant

Objective: Children will create patterns with beans, macaroni and beads

12:00 noon - 12: 45 pm    Lunch together with parents

12:45 pm-1: 20 pm    PACT

Parents will share family stories with children.

Children will choose from a variety of centers (puppets, painting, dress up, blocks, writing, etc) to respond to the family story.

1:20 pm-1: 30 pm    Clean up and leave together.

• Curriculum Objectives:

Adults: Affective:

• To share in the understanding and appreciation of the values of multiple cultures.
• To recognize and understand "storytelling" as a legitimate vehicle for communicating and preserving the history of a family.
• To obtain new insights and understanding of one's culture and that of others through the genre of storytelling. To obtain new insights and understanding of one's culture and that of others through the genre of storytelling.
• To recognize the use of storytelling as a way of describing, preserving, and transmitting one's cultural values, traditions, customs and pride.
• To recognize the use of storytelling as a way of describing, preserving, and transmitting one's cultural values, traditions, customs and pride.
• To share in the discovery of universal cultural commonalities while distinguishing unique and exclusive characteristics of various cultural groups.
• To gain an appreciation for cross-generational learning.

Adults: Cognitive:

• To demonstrate the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as valuable tools for communicating, preserving one's cultural heritage through storytelling;
• To develop written and oral language skills so that events and details follow in sequential order through storytelling; To demonstrate a basic level of computer literacy and word processing;
• To demonstrate the use of technology in improving reading and
• writing skills by creating a "life story" (autobiography)

Activity I: Circle of Friendship 15 - 20 minutes

Objective: To participate in a bonding activity that demonstrates the commonalities of the life experience across cultural and ethnic lines.

Materials: A basket filled with strips of paper on that is written multicultural proverbs - identified by a cultural or ethnic group. (Teacher should be cognizant of including those ethnic factors that are characteristic of the class members.

Concepts: Develop a feeling of kinship in the human race; reading and critical thinking skills.

Procedure: Entire group assembles in a circle. Each student draws a strip of paper from the basket as it is passed around the circle and (1) reads the printed statement and offers some interpretation and explanation of its meaning. Others in the circle are allowed to also offer an interpretation of its meaning especially those who identify with the culture. Misunderstandings should be identified and acknowledged and students should exchange proverbs in their cultural group which are similar to the ones read.

Examples:

"Better bread with water than cake with trouble."(Russian)

"When elephants battle, the ants perish." (Cambodian)

"It takes a village to raise a child." (African)

"One finger cannot lift a pebble." (Iranian)

"A crooked branch has a crooked shadow." (Japanese)

"He that goes barefoot must not plant thorns." (English)

"It is one thing to cackle, another to lay an egg." (Ecuadorian)

"Handsome words don't butter cabbage." (German)

"To hide one lie, a thousand lies are needed." (Indian)

"Anger is a bad advisor." (Hungarian)

"Eyes see everything except themselves." (Serbo-Croatian)

Activity II: Puzzle Tale - 10 minutes

Objective: To understand the importance of sequence and correct order of events in storytelling.

Procedure: The teacher will copy and cut up a folktale from a printed anthology or other printed source and paste each section to a sheet of paper. Students select a sheet of paper at random. Then, as a group, they must decide which event or description comes 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc. Once decided, they assemble in order and tell the story. The flow should move as though one person was telling it. As they go through the exercise, they should discuss the rationale for each decision.

Alternative Activity: Do a second round by giving students different sections of the tale and having them retell it. Or, have students rewrite the tale.

Break - 10 minutes

Activity III: The Life Story (Autobiography)- 65 minutes

Objective: To create an autobiographical sketch which can be expanded as homework or in other class sessions.

Materials: Paper, pens, tape recorders (optional), crayons, colored pencils, markers, water colors, A Chair for My Mother.

Objects: (preferably brought in by students) old jewelry , old shoes, old socks, old hats, etc.

Procedure: Prewriting

To get an idea of how to describe events in one's life, adult learners scan the story, A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams that has been downloaded on each computer.

Entire class looks at a display of the various objects assembled and imagines the "life story" of one of those "things". On paper, they jot down the history of its personal use, ownership, places used or worn, where purchased, by whom, at what price, what year, where manufactured all the way to the origin of the natural resources from which it is made. Two volunteers share their jottings with the class creating a brief autobiography of the object which has been personified (addressing its existence as though it is a "living thing") and telling its story from the first person point of view (autobiographical).

Procedure: Writing

Objective: To create an autobiographical sketch that can be shared with family and friends.

Materials: Strips of paper with writing prompts, computers/printers, crayons, markers, water colors, scraps of fabric, lace, beads, etc.

Old photos, jewelry, quilts or wall hangings, pictures, kitchen cutlery, pans, decorative molds, etc. which have been in the adult students' families for more than one generation have been brought to this class.

Teaching assistants: Youth, ages 12 to l6 years, involved in a service learning project

Procedure: Teacher and teaching assistant will assist the adult learner in basic computer and word processing use. Each adult learner will share life stories with the youth, especially relating world and community events which they personally experienced.

Each adult chooses a minimum of five writing prompts.

Each prompt requires a response which may serve as a topic sentence for a paragraph. The adult student uses the prompt to write a paragraph which describes a piece of his/her life story. As time permits, students are allowed to illustrate or create a cover for their story with resources provided.

Examples of Prompts:

Where were you born?

Who lived in the house with you as a child?

Describe the room you slept in as a child.

Describe the house you lived in as a child.

Tell how many brothers and sisters lived with you.

Describe your favorite relatives as a child, for example, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. What are their names and how significant are these names? Are they the names of ancestors or famous people? Have you continued a name tradition?

What were the occasions when you visited with them? Recall the smells, sounds, bits of conversations, stories, and music on those occasions.

Describe your neighborhood and neighbors--especially unique people and places; describe events that happened in your neighborhood (who was involved as leaders, storekeepers, troublemakers, nosybodies, etc., and how did your family interact with these individuals. Were some close family friends who shared secrets, celebrations or information with your family members?

Describe your school, church or community gathering place and explain one special event which took place there--especially with your family. What foods were served? Tell who prepared them and why they were served on "special days".

Describe an experience in which a stranger appeared at your door or one in which an individual of a different ethnicity was a guest in your home. How did your parents or older siblings relate to the individual?

What were their comments about him/her? What did you learn from those comments? As an adult, do you agree or disagree with their assessment? What have been the experiences of your children in similar circumstances?

Teacher assistants will assist the adult learners in using the word processor to write and print their life stories.

Printed stories will be duplicated, decorated, distributed and shared as time permits. One class copy may be assembled by volunteers and displayed for future learners as an example.

Assessment: Writing skills, especially the order and sequence of the paragraphs. Participation in group activities; cooperation with teacher assistants and production of a printed "life story".

Home Activities: (1) Use writing prompts to continue the story of your life and that of your family. (2) Keep a journal of family activities; (3) Document major events which occur in your community. Write your feelings and reactions to them; (4) Begin sharing information with your family, in both oral and written form. Write letters to relatives who live far away; and (4) Look around your house for objects which have been in the family for more than one generation. Tell a young person the history of those objects. Write a sketch of that history and put it in a safe place for future generations.

Parenting:

Affective:

• Promote the value of the home, neighborhood and community
• Nurture an appreciation for family heritage
• Develop a stronger sense of "self" and "other"
• Increase positive verbal interaction and responsiveness to child

Cognitive:

• Develop effective oral presentation skills using vocabulary, tone, and gestures
• Promote awareness of audience response
• Promote and refine literacy skills

Parent Education Lesson 10:30 am - 12:00 pm          

Storytelling Time as Part of the Family Culture

Goal: Parents will be able to orally express the benefits derived from personal storytelling, with their children, not experienced in entertainment or learning through impersonal communication media

Materials: The Parent Guide to Storytelling. Margaret MacDonald; Harper Collins, 1995

Tell Me a Tale. Joseph Brucher; Harcourt, 1997

Guest Speaker: Rose Travino Director of Children's' Library Services San Antonio

Concepts: To develop the rationale for family communication through storytelling

Procedures:

1. Ten-minute warm-up: share in small groups, storytelling experiences from their childhood (family, community or school).

2. Teacher directed discussion on how their cultures have been impacted through storytelling.

3. Speaker will discuss the role of adults and storytelling in the lives of children. She will also explain some effective techniques that parents can use when telling stories.

4. Teacher model the techniques using a student's story or a short story from Tell Me a Tale by Joseph Brucher.

5. Have parents write down one thing that they would like their child to understand about themselves or their culture after having shared their autobiography with them.

6. Break into two groups. The teacher and the assistant will monitor the groups, prompting dialogue and keeping the interaction such that a positive learning experience is possible for all participants.

7. Using their autobiographies, as developed in the morning, role-play story telling to their children.

8. Feed back will be from the group and the strengths of the presentation in relation to the techniques discussed in class.

Follow-up: Parent will share at the next meeting one home or community storytelling experience, in which they and their child (children), were involved.

---

Baltuck, Naomi.(1995). Apples from Heaven. Shoestring Press; North Haven, CT.

Brucher, Joseph. (1997). Tell Me A Tale. Harcourt; Orlando, FL.

Daily, Sheila. (1994). Putting the World in a Nutshell: the art of the formula tale. H. W. Wilson; Bronx, NY

Forest, H. (1999). Storytelling activities & language arts Lesson Ideas. In Story arts/cultural studies. [On-line]. Available: http://www.storyarts.ort/classroom/retelling/cultural

Knowles, M.S. (1980). The modern practice of adult education: From pedagogy to andragogy. Chicago: Follett.

MacDonald, Margaret. (1995). The Parent Guide to Storytelling. Harper Collins; New York, New, York

Schrock, K. (1999). The discovery school. In Story Talk - A place for storytellers [On-line]. Available: http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/

Sierra, Judy. (1996). Nursery Tales Around the World. Clarion; Wilmington, MA.

Williams, Vera. (1982). A Chair for My Mother. Green Willow Books; New York.

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