conversation with text

Balancing Story in Teaching

Frances Vitali-Draft stage

“Narrative knowledge is experiential and cultural knowing. It is the best means available for students to organize their experiences and make meaning for themselves.” (Cooper and Collins in Look What Happened to Frog, 1992, p. 5).

Recent articles by Thompson (2009) and Deschinie (2010) have prompted my own rethinking about the issue of multiperspectives within the learning environment and perhaps whose voices are we leaving out of the learning space. Differentiating instruction, learning styles, multiple intelligences although are common professional knowledge, we fail to make the link or connect how orality and literacy, two distinct, yet interwoven communication styles, are very much related. Furthermore, the balance of oracy to literacy is not recognized or validated in our school culture that values literacy above orality. Literacy refers to typographic, chirographic or hypertext reading and writing communication and orality or oracy refers to the aural or oral listening and speaking communication.

Gardner refers to first knowledge that children learn at home as primary knowledge. When children comet o school, they learn secondary knowledge, which could think would be scaffolded or used as connections based on their primary knowledge. As educators, my question is how we can utilize children’s first knowledge or cultural knowledge.

Dual Perspectives

“People often are powerless, alone, afraid; this is because someone else is telling their story for them: ‘You are stupid. You are ugly. You are undesirable. You are useless.’ Through storytelling, you recognize your real story.” (Joe Bruchac, Abenaki)

Indigenous students come from a storied place of coming to know through the oracy of language as their first knowledge. According to Deschenie (2007): “As No Child Left Behind seeks to shape a more literate society, we must remember that we come from cultures rooted in the power and beauty of oral tradition and face-to-face storytelling.”

Thompson (2009) understands these contrasting views as dual perspectives as follows:  

The Western view: “A gifted individual, such as a Shakespeare, out of his own imagination uses the many complex techniques of rhetoric and composition to create a work of art, which we lesser mortals struggle to fully appreciate through a complicated process we call literary analysis.”

In the Indigenous view, the oral tradition represents "the other side of the miracle of language" as described by N. Scott Momaday in The Man Made of Words: "the telling of stories, the recitation of epic poems, the singing of songs, the making of prayers, the chanting of magic and mystery, the exertion of the human voice upon the unknown—in short, the spoken word." To paraphrase a familiar document, this sounds to me very much like a literature "of the people, by the people, and for the people" (p. 13).

gkisedtanamoogk (Epstein, 2010) explains the complementarity of stories and writing during the Writers Project summer camp in Maine: "Storytelling is always an integral part of how indigenous people live their culture so we intended to cultivate cultural norms, to create community as members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, and thus promote writing as a form of storytelling."

The balance of oracy to literacy is sometimes not recognized or validated in our school culture which values literacy above orality. In this way, we are leaving out many voices that have something to contribute and valuable perspectival insight as learning strengths not recognized in our school culture.

A high school teacher admitted during our summer writing project that cultural knowledge fosters a deeper understanding of writing and pondered if she could use students’ cultural learning to teach writing (LaVelda Charley, Personal Communication, June 16, 2010).

Moayeri and Smith (2010) identify literacy as a cultural practice with different literacies influenced by culture, communities, and it’s role in communicating those stories the community values. A disconnect between home/community literacies and school literacy occurs where “literacy is most often taught in schools as decontextualized, technical skills” resulting in “holding back literacy development for children, particularly those whose home literacies are undervalued and ignored by the schools” (Dewey, 1956; Dyson, 2003 in Moayeri and Smith, 2010, p. 409).

Oral tradition is a worldview, a way of knowing as a “distinctive intellectual tradition, not simply as myths and legends” (p. 414) and in comparing traditional knowledge with scientific knowledge sometimes it is viewed as not legitimate. Hanamuxw (in Moayeri and Smith, 2010, p. 414) acknowledges ways of knowing for First Nation Peoples as: scientific knowledge as represented in the dominant society; life world ways as experienced in everyday life; and narrative ways of learning through stories. In honoring multiple ways of knowing, as culturally competent teachers, we can recognize “whose stories are being privileged and whose stories are being marginalized in the representations of the other” (p. 415).

Language is not neutral and writing and reading represent historical social, critical and political contexts of a status of power. For example, legally denying certain groups of people the right to read and write and therefore, limiting their equitable access of information is 

 embedded within the historical fabric of our nation, such as Jim Crow Laws. From a critical pedagogical perspective, those who are master manipulators of the written word, gain respect within the dominant society. For those who were denied and punished for speaking their mother tongue language are now learning the English language as their other language of power to express this oppression with style and voice. As Anzaldua (2007) explains: “Ethic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (p. 81).

Now in our over zealousness to teach everyone to read and write as the paradigm of literacy, we are forgetting about the rich cultural funds of knowledge that children bring to school.  Many children come from rich oral backgrounds wherein their primary knowledge and learning strength is oracy. In general, this knowledge is not recognized as being worthy of passing standardized tests and shuffled to more superficial occasions as Black History, Hispanic or Native American History Months.

Language Arts includes, listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking. Literacy enhancements of multimodal and multigenre contexts supported by current technology which include audio, are resulting in a blending and bending of the two creating a more holistic communication landscape for coming to know and relating to the world. The efficacy of future reading and writing skills is contingent upon a strong foundation of listening and speaking skills. As educators we can support a more balanced approach to oracy and literacy in our school culture.

Storytelling Project-Stories as Content and Context for Learning

The stories we tell not only explain things to others, they explain them to ourselves.” (Donald Norman)

Oral storytelling is natural and is an important precursor to writing stories. It follows the developmental way we learn language by listening and speaking first which leads to developing our written literacies.

Student family stories become the content and context for learning which recognizes and validates their own cultural history as Christensen (2001) confirms. Our practicum experience at Apache Elementary School honors this significant learning and teaching insight.

In our Practicum project at Apache Elementary School, we focus on the storytelling arts throughout the year. In the Fall we invite students to write a family story and in the Spring, students engage in a Chautauqua experience where they become a family member in a storytelling presentation. This is a balanced approach.

In each learning experience, family stories become the content and context for their learning. As Christensen (2000) explains: “As teachers, we have daily opportunities to affirm that our students’ lives and language are unique and important. We do that in the selections of literature we read, in the history we choose to teach, and we do it by giving legitimacy to our student’s lives as a content worthy of study”  (p. 103).  Christensen (2000) engages her students in “sweet learnings” (pp. 23-26) to acknowledge the family experiences they bring to school and family teachers are valuable assets that they bring to school. For Christensen, this is an important message to convey to students: “Because I live in a society that honors the wealthy and tends to hold in greatest esteem ‘high status’ formal knowledge, I must find ways to honor the intelligence, common sense, and love that beats in the hearts of my students’ families” (p. 25).

The richness of personal stories our children bring to school is the focus of this oral history project. As teachers we recognize that students who walk through our school doors are walking stories connected to family members who may be walking encyclopedias of knowledge. Recognizing the meaningful and relevant connections of students’ own lives as valid content and rationale for learning, our family storytelling  project honored both oral and literate ways of communicating and sharing knowledge. Students seeking out their own family stories validated their own sense of belonging and self-identity as well as learn the skills necessary in communicating, orally and literary, in accomplishing this goal. See Student Samples in APPENDIX A.

Our UNM students share their reflections of working with their fourth grade mentees on their webapges. See APPENDIX A. Excerpts from two UNM student reflections follow:

Ryan (Niehaus, 2010): “Since I have begun the process of the practicum I have been adapting to my students. I have learned some new strategies in dealing with the students. One strategy I learned was to focus on what is wanted from the student and not to muddle it up with irrelevant tasks. I learned this from getting the students to begin their Chautauquas. I would have never thought of having them tell me their stories while I scribed. It is obvious now that the telling of their stories was the objective and to have them write it themselves may have led to students being more concentrated on correct spelling or grammar” (http://rniehaus.webs.com/midterm.htm)

Mary (Durfey, 2010): Sharing stories with the children has helped them see connections in stories and give definition to family traditions. It's also helped them experience the art of a good story and the value of details and descriptions that help the reader 'see' what the author sees. Another valuable strategy we've used in the practicum is building webs and pulling out the details of our stories. Even more importantly is the aspect of connecting and learning from the children, their stories, their experiences as we have discussions (http://marydurfey.webs.com/midtermreflection.htm)

Oracy & Literacy

“Our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories.”(McLellan Wyatt Digital)

There is a complementarity & tension between the oracy and literacy for without literacy oral stories would be lost. Ong (1982) compares the two perspectives, similar to the processes of the Right and Left Hemispheres of our brain. Wilson (1997) defines oral tradition, including oral history, as "the way in which information is passed on rather than the length of time something has been told" (p. 103). Storyteller Judy Hooks said that when you read a story, students connect to the pictures; when you tell a story, students connect with you. Denise Hinson (personal communication, May 28, 2010) recognizes the significant role storytelling plays in building personal connections of trust and respect among students and teacher and the effect on classroom management.

Storytelling and reading require two different cognitive processes. Marshal McLuhan (1964) described the power of oral literature as when the eye is subservient to the ear. Storytelling draws from the Right Hemisphere of holistic, visual, relational processing, whereas, reading and writing draw from the Left Hemispheric of more linear, logical, segmented, mechanistic (Schlain, 1998). However, both brain hemispheres function together. Ong (1982) describes this tension and complementarity of both sides of our brain identifying Western and Non-western perspectives.

Story as Technology

“When a day passes it is no longer there.

What remains of it? Nothing more than a story.

If stories weren’t told or books weren’t written, man would live

Like beasts-only for a day.

Today, we live, but tomorrow today will be a story.

The whole world, all human life, is one long story.”

(I.B. Singer in Cooper and Collins in Look What Happened to Frog, 1992, p. 8)

Stories to me are aural, oral, literary human expressions; human extensions and human technologies designed to explain who we are, how we come to know, how we negotiate meaning. Language is the earliest human technology and stories are a natural extension of who we are as human beings giving meaning to and extracting meaning from our world. Rietz (1988) refers to stories as "a human invention" and "Learning 'story' and learning to 'story' involves learning a way of thinking, a way of organizing events and information, a way of knowing" (p. 164). Bruce Perry (n.d.) reminds us that we are storytelling primates.

Frank Smith (1990) validates that our “thought flows in terms of stories—stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best storytellers. We learn in the form of stories. We construct stories to make sense of events. Our prevailing propensity is to impose story structures on all experience, real or imagined….The brain is a story-seeking, story creating instrument” (p. 63).

Benjamin Whorf describes language as, “the greatest show man puts on.” Burke and Orenstein (1995)document just as the axe was a tool that changed civilization, so too, the alphabet became the most powerful tool for change thus far (p. 75) and literacy negotiated with computer and digital technology continues to change our cognitive awareness to new levels.

The big question

“We are chords to other chords to other chords, if we are lucky, to melody.” (Joy Harjo)

 As Paul Epstein (2010) remarks, how do we teach strategies for writing by embedding them in oral language? “Familiarizing ourselves and valuing the diverse and multiple literacies that students of different cultures bring with them enhances the learning potential of those students and that of the entire class” (Moayeri & Smith, 2010, p. 415).

                                          REFERENCES

Gallavan, N. (Ed.). (2010/2011). Annual editions: Multicultural Education. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companions.

Burke, J. and Orenstein, R. ( 1995). The axemaker’s gift: A double-edged history of human culture. New York: Putnam’s Sons.

Christensen, L. (2000). Reading, writing, and rising up: Teaching about social justice and the power of the written word. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.

Chautauqua family storytelling. (2010). Retreived from ANIMOTO at http://animoto.com/play/hEznDYmskVT2Bl7JW1haHQ?autostart=true

Deschenie, T. (2007). Why we are sticking to our stories. Tribal College Journal. Retrieved from http://www.tribalcollegejournal.org/themag/backissues/winter2007/winter07essay.htm

Durfey, M. (2010). Midterm Reflections. Retreived from http://marydurfey.webs.com/midtermreflection.htm

Epstein, P. (2010). Indian education for all: Grounded in place and culture. Retrieved from National Writing Project at http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3147

Kabagarama, D. (1997). Breaking the ice: A guide to understanding people from other cultures. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw Hill.

Moayeri, M and Smith, J. (2010). The unfinished stories of two First Nations mothers. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(5), 408-417. Doi:10.1598/JAAL.53.5.6

NCTE storytelling position statement. Teaching Storytelling. Retrieved from

http://www.writeonspeakers.com/index.php?id=4

Niehaus, R. (2010). Midterm Reflections.Retreived from http://rniehaus.webs.com/midterm.htm

Ong, W. (1982). Orality and literacy: the technologizing the word. New York: Routledge.

Perry, B. (n.d.) How the brain learns best. Retrieved from http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm

Rietz, S. (1988). Using oral literature in the classroom. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Teaching the Indian child: A bilingual/multicultural approach. Billings, MT: Eastern Montana College.

Schlain, L. (1998). The alphabet versus the goddess: The conflict between word and image. New York: Viking (Penguin Group).

Smith, F. (1990). To think. New York: Teachers College Press.

Tachibana, G. Student press initiative motivates young authors. Retreived from National Writing Project at

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2919

Thompson, M. (2009). Honoring the word: Classroom instructors find that students respond best to oral tradition, 19(2), pp. 12-16. Retrieved from http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2611

Vitali, F. (2010). Educating linguistically diverse students webpapge index. Retrieved from http://fvitali.tripod.com/315sp10.html 

Vitali, F. (2010). Tawnne, Grace's dog. Retrieved from ANIMOTO at http://animoto.com/play/VrNP40824Q5lytUaInF6ng?autostart=true

Wilson, A. (1997). Power of the spoken word. In Fixico (Ed.), Rethinking American Indian history, pp. 101-116. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

APPENDIX A

Student Samples from Apache school students’ practicum

·         UNM Student webpages

http://fvitali.tripod.com/315sp10.html

·         Chautauqua stories

http://animoto.com/play/hEznDYmskVT2Bl7JW1haHQ?autostart=true

·         Digital Storytelling example

http://animoto.com/play/VrNP40824Q5lytUaInF6ng?autostart=true