"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McKee

Deepening Comprehension Through Storytelling by Dr. Jane Gang

"Pursuing one's own goals despite derision from others is worthwhile." ~Santos

Looking at the activities that Dr. Gangi listed in her article, I can say that most of my teachers used one or more of these activities. However the most popular is always two truths and I lie. It's always a lot of fun specially in the older grades. Caution in the younger grades bullying may occur. Some students call each other liars so please use the activity carefully!

Personally, I love the idea of having students see themselves as the storytellers, therefore my favorite activity is folding a piece of paper like an accordion and writing one sentence. The next member of the group reads the first sentence, then writes another sentence connected to the first sentence that extends the story. The person then folds the paper so that the first sentence is not visible. The third person reads the second sentence, then writes a third sentence, fold the paper so the fourth person can only see the third sentence, and so on. The last person in the circle reads the entire story. I really enjoy this activity because it is a more creative mad libs! The students use their imagination and they have the ability to give the story their own twist. The students are the authors and they can have pride in what they have created as a whole. This can serve as an ice breaker as well because this activity definitely causes some laughs!

Qualities of a good reader:

• activate prior knowledge, making text to text, text to self, and text to world connections
• create sensory images
• synthesize
• determine importance
• make inferences
• ask questions
• make predictions
• self-correct
• summarize

Need some ideas to jump start the storytellers in your students? Try these activities! I guarantee you will see a difference immediately!

1. Have students see themselves as storytellers. Tell folklore and personal stories and have students share their own. Storytelling is not memorization it is internalization and visualization
2. Have students work with a partner and tell each other about a time they got in trouble. The have the students switch partners and retell the story they just heard. The student has to guess who's story it is and the original storyteller will point out any misconceptions.
3. Standing in a circle, the group repeats this chant: "As I went up the apple tree. All the apples fell on me. Apple puddling, apple pie. Did you ever tell a lie?" Then one by one, individuals tell brief stories which may be the truth or may be a lie. Group members vote-thumbs up if they think it is the truth, thumbs down if they think it is a lie. The teller affirms whether it is the truth or a lie. It goes around until everyone has a chance, chanting the refrain between individual tellings.
4. Two truths and a lie. The class guesses which two are the truth and which two are a lie. The truths generate interesting personal stories.
5. Collect coins that have dates your students could remember in their life. Children choose coins randomly and tell a story from that year. This can be done in partners or as a group
6. Tell stories based on interviews in which you take the point of view of someone who knows your partner well. Give partners time to interview each other first.
7. Tell a group story in which each sentence alternates with Fortunately and Unfortunately. Besides giving a rehearsal experience, this activity also teaches the writer's craft of see-saw patterns.
8. Fold a paper like an accordion. Write one sentence. The next member of the group reads the first sentence, then writes another sentence connected to the first sentence that extends the story. The person then folds the paper so that the first sentence is not visible. The third person reads the second sentence, then writes a third sentence, fold the paper so the fourth person can only see the third sentence, and so on. The last person in the circle reads the entire story.
9. Write random people, places, problems, and events on cards. One person begins the story with one random thing. The next person draws another card and must weave it into the story the first person began. A variation is to use vocabulary words.
10. Bring in sound makers: tambourine, drum. Every day objects can be included: keys, rubber bands. Each new sound introduced guides and changes the story.
11. Bring in different types of music. Allow the music to suggest the story.
12. Ellen O'Connor said, "Storytelling actively involves the child in the reconstruction of a story and helps develop comprehension, oral language, and a sense of story structure..."
13. Good storytelling means creating pictures or smells or feelings in people's minds.

    

    Looks like the President and First Lady have the right idea!

"History shows us a window into our past. Historical fiction can take us by the hand and lead us into that world." -Judith Geary

Definition:

The setting in Historical Fiction is the absolute most important part of the story.

 It must be real and you must be able to locate the place on a map. 

Plot:

Must be believable

Themes:

Social and Political 

Good v. Evil

Cultural Dislocation 

*Almost always contains dialogue

*Illustrations are either very realistic or actual photographs

Resources:

www.elanews.org

www.digitalmedia.org

www.archive.org

Books:

Bud, Not Buddy                                    Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry

Out of the Dust                                      R my name is Rachel

Moon Over Manifest                             Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Baseball Saved Us                               Journey to Jo'berg

Nelson Mandela                                    Lily's Crossing

Mary McLean and the Saint Patrick's Day Parade

Pink and Say                                         Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt

Henry's Freedom Box                           Journey's Sparrow

Number the Stars                               At Ellis Island

What Was (series)                                 Who Was (series)

Historical fiction is a great device to tie into the curriculum! Not only does historical fiction also students to wander to a time period they will never experience, but they will also be able to put themselves into the shoes of the character listed in the book. Historical fiction is a different and more exciting approach to teaching the facts. When the students are finished with the story, they will have the opportunity to connect it to the true facts and have a better understanding of that time period, culture, traditions, or ways of life.  

Historical Fiction and Historical Nonfiction are my two favorite types of genres!

During our book talk, I decided to speak about The Boston Freedom Trail. Below you can find a picture of the cover. When I was younger I was completely fascinated with the Freedom Trail and wanted to know everything about it. As for Historical Fiction, one of my favorites is The Book Thief. 

"Librarians save lives by handing the right book at the right time to a kid in need." -Judy Blume

Definition: Literary works that are believable and set in the modern world. These works of fiction are believable in nature and contain characters who could potentially be real people. Contemporary realistic fiction is rooted in the realm of reality. 

What makes up contemporary realistic fiction?
1. Real life situations
2. Can be made up events with real people 
3. Multidimensional human beings- characterization
4. Relevant issues and probable events-plot

Common Themes:
Coming of Age
Family Relationship
Peer Pressure 
Cultural Tension

Style:
Supports character development and plot
Usage of current slang and realistic dialogue 

Topics:
Adventure and Survival
Mysteries Thrillers
Animal Stories
Sports Stories 

Examples:
Tales of a fourth grade nothing
Alexander and the no good rotten day
The Lemonade War
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 
The Babysitters Club
Cam Jansen series
The Heart of a Chief
Junie B. Jones

"Art is literacy of the heart." -Elliot Eisner

On September 30, 2014, a man by the name of Chuck Stead came to visit our class. Stead just newly defended his dissertation on the Environmental difficulties surrounding the Ramapo Saltbox. Dr. Chuck Stead was asked to speak in front of our class because he is a story teller and the next topic we were about to discuss was folklore. He engaged the class in a story of how Henry Ford single handedly ruined his land by dumping more than 42,000 gallons of paint into the soil, causing many of his people to die early due to cancer and many other health difficulties. Chuck himself was even diagnosed with cancer. 

Dr. Chuck Stead told his story in a very unique way. He used an animal hide with several totems (pictures) creating a trail to the saltbox. On the hide you will find a fox, salamander, turtle, the Ford symbol, Barrel with paint sludge, Movie Reel, wounded deer, the saltbox, and sweet grass. These totems made a great outline and an inspiration to me for a future presentation. I also learned a few things along the way, Stead insisted that Henry Ford was awarded with the Eagle Cross from Adolf Hitler, and that Hitler considered Ford to be the only true American because he too had a vendetta against those of Jewish culture. I will have to look more into that on a different date.

In the end, Ford's ancestors cleaned up almost all of the paint that has been lingering in the land surrounding the saltbox, and Stead has been able to plant his own medical garden, as well as teach classes on the property. He ended his presentation with this quote, it is from the dark that the light emerged.


Thank you Dr. Chuck Stead for joining us and Congratulations on obtaining your PhD!





With that being said, what is folklore? Did you know there are 7 different sub genres? 

Folklore is a style of stories or legends coming from family traditions usually with some kind of a moral. These legends and stories have timeless themes therefore, the stories are passed down from generation to generation. In a way, they help us cope with the world we live in today because they mirror human nature.

1.  Myths: The story of (Roman) Neptune, Poseidon (Greek)
2. Epics: The Odyssey (only a section)
3. Legends: Baltic Wizards
4. Tall Tales: Babe the Blue Ox
5. Fables: A Christmas Carol
6. Folktales: Thumbelina
7. Literary Fairytales: The Snow Queen

A Beautiful Thing Is Never Perfect

What is a motif?
A motif is a decorative design or pattern, a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition. Using Animoto, my group created a motif for the book, Tuck Everlasting. Below you will also find other videos my classmates created!

Please watch the motif for Tuck Everlasting

Themes in Tuck Everlasting 

Character trailer for Tuck Everlasting 

Climax of Tuck Everlasting

It is evident that my classmates did an excellent job!

"When you learn to read you will be born again...and you will never be quite so alone again." -Rumer Godden

When you hear the genre Fantasy Fiction, you immediately think you know everything about that topic. I can honestly say, once upon a time I was one of those people. Then I researched the topic and it was eye opening the amount of new information I was learning. 

From left to right
Alicia, Lindsay, Megan

For example, there are two sub-genres of Fantastical Literature and they are fantasy and science fiction. At first I didn't realize the two were connected, but now I will never make that mistake again. There is also a such thing as high fantasy and low fantasy as well as hard science fiction and soft science fiction. It was mind boggling learning about these different categories and all of a sudden the genre fantastical started to make more sense to me.

Materials to help during the game

 If you would like to learn more information about the Fantastical genre then please take a look at our Fantasy Power Point. A big thank you to Alicia for putting this powerpoint together!

Our group of three was asked to present our topic, Fantasy, to the class as if we were leading a professional development. First we started our session by asking our class to fill out a KWL chart. We lead a discussion about what they already knew, and then went through the powerpoint because whether we like it or not, fantasy fiction is not common knowledge. 

Devon had Peter Pan

Kait had Katniss Everdeen

Then we played a couple of rounds of Fantasy Pictionary! The class was split up into groups of 2 or 3 and given a fantastical character or book on a piece of paper. Then one person from the group was asked to look at their paper, and draw that character or book on another piece of paper in a one minute time frame. For the most part, every individual in our class succeeded, so kudos to you!
Some examples were: Catching Fire, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and Jumanji (that was a tough one!)

Fantasy Land!

Desiree looks through
the book and decides
the sub-genre

Then we asked everyone in the class to travel to the back of the classroom. Here, we set up a game of Fantasy Land (Inspiration-Candy land)! It was a board game and everyone was given one turn to show off their new fantastical skills. The first person to try the game was Desiree, thank you for being brave!! When it was your turn, you were given a pair of blue sparkling fairy wings to wear. Then everyone was given a book, a color, and a question. The color and the question were two separate cards. An example of a question is as follows: What is the sub-genre? Explain how you know it is that sub-genre through the plot. The book the student was given was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The answers we were looking for were Fantasy Fiction and we know it is fantasy fiction because the plot is Magically Driven. The 6 posters that are pictured above were resources for our classmates to answer the questions(this was very helpful).  

Denise answers correctly!

The winner of the game was a little bit rigged due to time constraints, but if you were lucky enough to get a double color on your color card that meant you could jump two times ahead of everyone else. There were only three of those particular cards in the deck, therefore the final came down to three people and one book left to identify. The three were lined up (no wings this time) in front of everyone else in the class. The directions went as follows: I will say one book and the first person to guess the sub-genre correctly wins. 

Trina, our Fantasy
Land Winner!

Then I said,"1, 2, 3... Mary Poppins. Trina followed by Victoria guessed Fantasy Fiction and they were correct, however there can only be one winner so the first one to say Fantasy Fiction was Trina and she was declared the Winner of Fantasy Land!
Doesn't everyone look fantastic in their wings! A big round of applause to our class for being absolutely wonderful troopers the entire time!

To finish off our presentation, we spoke about 5 different books that we would recommend to our class. Megan spoke about Where the Wild Things Are and Mary Poppins. Then I spoke about, The Polar Express, Alice in Wonderland, and The Summer King.
We also recommended Tuck Everlasting and the author of the book, Natalie Babbitt. We also recommended the author, Chris Van Allsburg. He writes beautiful books such as the Polar Express, Jumanji, and The Widow's Broom. All enchanting books!

Thank you to Dr. Smirnova and Nicole for the pictures!