TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Information (The Oral Process)

Workshops
~ Student Workshops
~ Teacher Workshops
~ Comments from Participants

Residencies

All workshops and residencies are specifically structured to fit the needs and goals of the host organization. However, the unique approach which all workshops and residencies have in common is the focus on the oral process as opposed to writing. Once ideas are generated it is easy to transfer those ideas into a written project, but all creative work with the students begins orally. There are several advantages to this.

1) We learn to speak first. Although most of us eventually become proficient at both speaking and writing, we all learn to speak first. Therefore, young students especially feel much more comfortable with speaking than with writing. All too often the creativity of young writers is blocked by concerns over grammar, spelling and punctuation. There are no such concerns when working orally, and so creativity is less inhibited.

2) Voice and body are easily combined. The creation of a story involves imagining characters, settings and conflicts. Many people feel a natural desire to become the characters in the story they are creating. Dramatizing the characters’ voices and body movements can help the creator more richly imagine them. Similarly, most of us naturally use gesture when describing a place. (Just try describing an imaginary object to someone without using your hands!) In the oral process voice and body can work freely and naturally together in a way that is not possible while holding a pencil!

3) Most schoolwork already emphasizes writing. If a student is comfortable and strong as a writer there are plenty of opportunities every day for that student to shine. For a predominantly oral or kinesthetic learner, however, school can be a frustrating place. Allowing these students to be creative orally gives them an opportunity (perhaps for the first time) to show off their strengths.

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WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES: WORKSHOPS: STUDENT WORKSHOPS

Length: 45 min – 2 hrs.

All workshops are individually designed to fit the needs of your group(s).

Working orally, all workshops introduce students to basic story structure.

A specific aspect of story structure is often chosen to be the focus of the workshop, such as: characterization, conflict, or strong beginnings and endings.

A particular story genre could be the focus of the workshop, such as: personal narrative, historical story, fable, or tall tale.

The workshop could develop the use of narrative techniques such as: point of view, description, or metaphor.

Material from the workshop could be used for a follow-up project in creative writing, drama, art, history or any other subject area, even math or science!

WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES: WORKSHOPS: TEACHER WORKSHOPS

Length: 45 min – 2 hrs.

All workshops are individually designed to fit the needs and goals of your group(s).

Stories and storytelling techniques can be used to augment and enhance any curriculum area.

Two basic categories of teacher workshops are available with possible variation within each category. Other workshop topics can be designed on request.

The two standard topics are:

1) Creative Storytelling. This is a basic introduction on the how-to’s of telling clear, engaging stories without using a book. Topics covered include: where to find stories and how to choose them, visualizing the story, learning the story, use of voice and gesture, gauging age appropriateness, audience participation, and using stories as a teaching tool.

"You showed us how storytelling works, what can be achieved by that method, plus generated an enthusiasm to go forward with our talents."
Harold Barnett - Volunteer
Brandywine Battlefield Park, PA

"Thank you for waking our spirits, warming our day and teaching us good stuff along the way in your Creative Storytelling workshop!"
Lara Cogar – Health Educator
Calvert Memorial Hospital– Prince Frederick, MD

2) Leading Story Games with Children. This provides participatory games and activities that engage students of all ages in the oral process of creating stories. Special attention is given to the teacher’s role as leader, and on follow-up activities to build on the ideas generated by the students.

"Thank you for the marvelous presentation at the E.L.E.A. conference. All reports have been extremely positive, all attendees indicated that they found your session to be extremely worthwhile."
Marcia Renner – Conference Coordinator
Audubon, PA

"Thank you for the wonderful workshop, Leading Story Creation Games with Children, you presented at the annual SACC Conference! I received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from participants!"
Evelyn Keating – Child Care Services Director
The Family & Workplace Connection, DE

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WORKSHOPS & RESIDENCIES: WORKSHOPS: COMMENTS

Anonymous comments from participants:

An excellent speaker with clear specific suggestions
He is very positive and helped build confidence in all of us
The handouts will be a big help!
Great ideas to help children be creative
I liked that he asked us at the beginning what we wanted to learn.
An excellent speaker and storyteller. He was well prepared and gave useful information.
The presenter was wonderful and gave many ideas!

Things participants say they have learned from the workshops include:

Tell more stories to children, don’t just read books.
Know the story – not the words!!!
How to tell a story without books.
The usefulness of sound effects with storytelling.
Let the children make the animal sounds!
How to keep the attention of the children.
Really like what you are telling.
How to make the story your own.
Everyone loves stories and the togetherness it brings.
How to use musical instruments in stories.

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Matching funding for residencies lasting 10 days or more (in PA only) is available through the PA Council on the Arts (PCA) Arts in Education Program.

Visit http://muweb.millersville.edu/~artsined/ar-artst.html

Minimum Length: 5 days or more

"Every child’s contribution was acknowledged and included in the stories that were created. He interacted with the children in a comfortable, easy style that brought out the best in each child!"

Sister Honora – Principal
SS Simon & Jude School, W. Chester, PA

"I learned a lot that I’ll be able to use, not just in storytelling, but anytime that I have to get up in front of a group and talk!"

11th grader, Conestoga HS, Berwyn, PA

Residencies allow for one or more groups of students to pursue an in-depth project (these groups are called "core groups"), while also allowing all other students in the school to have some exposure to the art of storytelling. Core group projects could focus on enhancing a specific academic subject or skill, facilitating cross-disciplinary learning, improving or changing the learning environment or the relationships of those within the organization, or any combination of the above. See below for more details on core group work.

All residencies are individually designed to fit the needs and goals of the host organization.

All residencies should include the following:

1. Planning meeting with teachers/leaders of the core groups. This meeting should take place a minimum of 2 weeks before work with students begins so as to allow time (if necessary) for making changes and ironing out details which were not resolved during the meeting.
2. Introductory assembly or assemblies presented the storyteller for all participants.
3. In-depth project for between 1 and 4 core groups which has been cooperatively designed with the group teachers/leaders. Usually, but not always, the core group is an individual class. These groups should be no larger than 25 participants.
4. A workshop open to all teachers/leaders in host organization.
5. Workshops or Q/A sessions with participants who are not in the core groups.
6. Final meeting with core group teachers/leaders to evaluate the residency and discuss follow-up possibilities.

Ideally, at the conclusion of the residency core group teachers/leaders should feel capable of repeating the project (perhaps next year) without my assistance.

Core Group Project(s):

Because every residency is individually designed, the possibilities for work with the "core groups" are literally endless. Personally, I am particularly excited about projects in which storytelling is used to support or enhance other work being done by the host organization, or where storytelling is used in a new way or connected with another discipline. Examples include: bridging generational or cultural gaps, instilling a love/respect for the environment, bringing history to life, as therapy or self-discovery for "youth at risk", or _______ (fill in your idea).

In thinking about a residency, the following are some questions to consider:

1. Is there a need within your organization, or those your organization services, that an artist (specifically a storyteller) would be uniquely qualified to address? Keep in mind that storytelling (indeed any art form) can be used to enhance virtually any academic area, but the arts are also especially useful in addressing underlying human issues of relationships, community, sense of belonging, prejudices, self-esteem, etc. and often dealing with these issues can make a huge impact on the academics.
2. Who will participate in the residency? Will it be students, teachers, parents or community members, volunteers, some or all of the above?
3. Who will benefit from the residency and in what way?
4. Will there be a single core group, or several? Will each core group work on the same project? Do you want participants other than the core groups to be involved in the residency?
5. At the conclusion of the residency: a) What do you want participants to have learned? (i.e. what skills will they gain that they can use again or transfer to another aspect of their work or lives.) b) What do you want the participants to have done? (i.e. what specific tasks will be performed or what projects will be completed.) c) How will the participants, the organization or the community be different? (i.e. what impact will the residency have on the interpersonal or intrapersonal relationships of those involved.)
6. Will the residency focus more on the story creation process or on the story telling process. Story creation is literary in focus and involves the more "traditional" language arts skills of word choice, sentence structure, character, setting, plot, etc. The story telling process involves the oral interpretation of the story, and focuses on skills such as how to learn and remember a story, finding a personal connection to it, as well as "drama" skills like voice and inflection, gesture, body language, facial expressions, etc. Although both of these aspects will be at least touched upon, unless the residency is at least 10 days it is recommend that one or the other be chosen as a focus.

These questions are, of course, merely a starting point. Once an idea for a residency project has been agreed upon, specific details and goals will be worked out between the participating teachers/leaders and the storyteller.

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Previous residencies I have been involved with:

Price Elementary – Lancaster, PA.

Core groups: 3 kindergarten classes.
Length: 5 non-consecutive days.
Goal: Build sense of community and connection to school

This school has a large number of students from immigrant families. They were looking for a way to build cohesion within the school and surrounding communities and give the students a greater sense of belonging. They brought in 5 storytellers, one to work with each grade, k-4. Our project was to help the students find and tell stories about important/special places at the school or in the surrounding community. We decided the stories could be either factual or fictional, since even a fictional story would engage the students emotionally with the places they were telling about.

I was assigned to work with kindergarten. I decided that since kindergartners naturally feel both nervous and excited about attending school for the first time, I would set their stories at the school. I felt this would provide an opportunity for them to work out their ambivalent feelings, and give them a sense of belonging to the school. I asked each class to agree on a specific location where all of the individual stories would take place. One class chose the music room, one chose the playground, and one chose their classroom. Students were then asked to make a list of objects found in the setting. Each student then assigned an imaginary character to one of the objects. The character could be human, animal, or other. Each character had to be given at least one physical description and one personality description. (For example, we had the zany, purple elephant who lived inside the tuba, and the sad dog with 13 legs who lived in the bushes by the swing set.) At this point each class had a setting, a cast of characters, and objects to which the characters were in some way connected. I then conducted a series of improvisational dramatizations in which each student assumed the role of one of these characters (not necessarily the one he or she created) to discover what would happen when these characters began to interact. From these dramatizations each class, as a group, developed at least 2 stories.

At the conclusion of the residency there was an all school assembly (to which parents were invited) during which each of the 5 storytellers presented a selection of the students’ work.

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Farmersville Elementary – Bethlehem, PA.

Core Groups: 4 fourth grade classes.
Length: 6 consecutive days.
Goal: Encourage more descriptive writing

The grade 4 teachers at this school were looking for a creative and fun way to encourage the students to write more descriptively. After discussing a number of possible ways to approach the project, we agreed that every student would begin with the same bare-bones folktale. Each student would then flesh out the details of character, setting and plot in his or her own unique way.

I began with an opening assembly in which I told a number of well known folktales that I have changed in unique or unusual ways. Then, working with each individual class, I reviewed the basic structure of stories (character, setting, conflict, and resolution). Working orally the students began exploring the details of each within the context or our chosen story. For example, to explore character, students were asked to assume the persona of one of the characters in the story. The student (as the character) was then interviewed by a partner. Several students had the opportunity to be interviewed by the whole class. Moving on to setting, students were asked to imagine one of the places in the story. To aid in the process students were encouraged to draw pictures or maps, or cut out pictures from magazines (one student opted to create images on her computer). Students were then asked to take a partner on an imaginary tour of the place, pointing out important and interesting features as they related to the story. Again, several students were able to give the tour for the whole class. Similar activities developed details for conflict and resolution in the story.

All of my work with the students was conducted orally. Although students were allowed to write their descriptions, none were required to. All students were given the option of recording their homework assignments on a cassette tape. It was only after I left that the teachers took over the process of putting the students’ ideas into written form.

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West Chester Friends School – West Chester, PA.

Core Groups: 4 fifth grade classes.
Length: 5 consecutive days.
Goal: Foster intergenerational partnership

The school shares its campus with a senior home, and school officials wanted to develop a closer connection with the seniors. Casual interviews with both populations had revealed a fair amount of stereotyping and prejudice regarding what "those old folks" or "those rowdy kids" were like.

The program we developed required that I meet with each class once per day, and then a second meeting at the end of each day with all four class and 30 or so volunteers from the senior home. During the individual classroom visits, students were asked to tell a personal story about their families; perhaps a family vacation or memorable Christmas, etc. The students then had to turn these factual personal stories into historical fiction by setting them in a time period 40 – 60 years ago. In other words, if the story involved a visit to grandpa’s farm, how would farm life have been different 50 years ago. What details of the story would have to change to make it appropriate to the new time period. Ordinarily research for this kind of story would be done at the library. In this case however, we used the seniors as a "living library". During each afternoon session, students and seniors were broken into small groups. The students shared their stories, and then the seniors helped them with relevant historical information.

Throughout the residency, the focus was on developing the relationships between the generations rather than on the students’ stories. The stories were merely a vehicle to foster understanding and respect between the two generations.

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Phelps School – Malvern, PA.

Core groups: 4 classes, mixed grades 8-12.
Length: 5 non-consecutive days.
Goal: Enhance positive personal growth of students

This school is a boarding school for male youth who have not flourished in traditional school settings, mostly for social reasons. The cooperating teacher for the residency was the visual arts teacher. He was looking for innovative ways of approaching his students’ work in the visual arts, but also he was concerned about the personal development of the students.

The teacher’s idea was that the visual imagery in the stories the students were working on could provide ideas for their art projects. I suggested that the opposite could be true as well. Sometimes a single image is enough to suggest a story. Because most of the students were not comfortable with verbal expression, we agreed that the students would "tell" their stories like a comic book, using picture "frames" with dialog bubbles or captions. Finally, in keeping with the school’s mission and needs of the population, I decided that the stories would be "hero quest" stories which (hopefully) would represent the students’ own personal journeys into adulthood.

I began the residency by introducing the concept of metaphor. I asked the students to come up with visual representations of personal qualities (e.g. "I have a bad temper like a thunderstorm."), as well as visual ways of representing their hopes and fears for the future. Then using guided imagery exercises which I conducted, and assistance from the teacher on days I was not there, the students transferred these images into the basic elements of all hero quest stories. These elements are: The hero (what is your greatest strength?), the hero’s home (what is your relationship to your surroundings), the journey (what is your greatest hope for the future?), the helper (what outside resources are available to you?), the helper’s gift or boon (how might you make use of these resources), the enemy (what are your weaknesses? what might prevent you from attaining your goals?), the treasure (what will you gain by overcoming your weaknesses/obstacles?). At the conclusion of the residency each student was asked to explain his drawings and how each drawing fit into the story.

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Consetoga Sr. High – Berwyn, PA.

Core groups: 3 drama arts classes, grades 11-12.
Length: 21 days.
Goal: Dynamic presentation of stories

The drama teacher at this school wanted to demonstrate to her students some of the differences between storytelling and theater. She also was looking for a way to provide a unique performance opportunity for the students.

One of the difficulties with beginning this residency was getting adequate funds. The teacher however was very creative and very determined, and in this case her funding sources to some extent dictated the form of the residency. She went to the PTO’s of the district’s three elementary schools and convinced them to contribute assembly program dollars. In this case her drama students would be providing the assemblies at each elementary. She also secured some funding from community business, which necessitated a public performance.

At the time the residency was to take place (October) several of the grades in each elementary were studying either early American history or Native Americans. This led us to choose historical stories for our material. Because it was October, I suggested we make some of those stories historical "ghost" stories utilizing some of the rich revolutionary era history of this part of Chester County. This in turn led to the concept of making the public program a "tour" of historic locations near the school with the presentation of an historical fiction ghost story at each of those locations.

The drama teacher solicited the help of one of the high school’s history teachers, and also help from the after school history club to do the research for the stories. This work was done before my arrival. My work with the students was primarily on the presentational aspects of storytelling. Students were asked to tell the stories from the point of view of various minor characters in order to give them more depth. I worked with the students on telling personal stories suggested by events or characters in the fictional material in order to gain a personal connection to the story. Students were able to "direct" scenes from the story using other students as actors so that they could better visualize the events.

At the conclusion of the residency the high school students presented 2 assemblies (for gr. K-2 and gr. 3-5) in each elementary school. 6 of the students were chosen as tellers for the historical ghost tour. On Friday and on Saturday night before Halloween, busses brought public participants to each of six locations with historical significance where they heard an historical fiction ghost story connected to the place. While en route to each location, other students, acting as tour guides, provided historical background.

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