Heads or Tales

A Podcast with Eric Wolf

Eric Wolf is the moderator of a call-in pod cast entitled The Art of Storytelling With Children, and on Tuesday April 29, I will be talking to him starting at 8 about historical storytelling and about Columbus Story Adventures, if we have time. Yesterday and today, I’ve been thinking back over the historical stories I have, I’ve been digging up the notes I made for them, and I have been listening to Eric’s archival programs. Those archival programs are really good. I can’t stop listening.

Diane Williams, a co-author of The Storytelling Classroom, speaks eloquently about storytelling and literacy. She says that storytelling involves the emotions and, invites the brain to respond. It is the response that the oral tradition invokes which enhances literacy. Jim Flanagan, a teller here in Columbus, really lays out in detail his experience in writing spooky stories with kids. Brother Blue, a street teller in Boston, said that what Eric is doing is like creating a spider web, and he’s right. Each hour of interview creates a new strand in this art form and, because it’s all online to hear and retrieve for free, Eric's interviews weave a digital a web.

Take a look at Eric’s website. It’s www.storytellingwithchildren.com. You can hear tons of really great interviews with storytellers from around the U.S. on a variety of topics: Storytelling in Ceremony, Storytelling in Schools, Peace Storytelling, Personal Narrative, Professional Development, Storytelling in Community. On Tuesday April 29, call in and join the conversation about using history as story. You just need to go to Eric’s website and subscribe.

Arts At School

Yesterday, I met with two teachers to plan the daylong residency I’ll be doing centered around The Cow Tail Switch at St. Joseph Montessori School. I’m excited to begin. Earlier this week I read about a great program in the magazine Teaching Artist. This program is centered in Mankato, Minnesota and is directed at schools that have no or little arts available in their programs. The schools apply, and the artists are drawn from several organizations throughout the city. A three-year commitment is made between the artist and the school. For the first year the artist and involved teachers meet and work to plan a curriculum-centered experience. The artist provides teacher workshops and leads the program. The second year, the teacher leads the program and the artist is the mentor and observer and for the third year, the teacher implements the program.

There’s so much that I like about this model. I like that the art is tied to the general ongoing curriculum. I like that the program requires teacher and artist to work together and that the teacher has the opportunity and motivation to make art.

Here’s what teaching artist Armando Gutierrez said when he was asked if he was apprehensive about programs like this making teaching artists obsolete, “it’s just the opposite. Training more practitioners - teachers who not only teach but also make art and have a deep understanding of art—only increases demand for arts experiences. Teachers understand the importance of art in a direct, hands-on way. And it generates more work and more opportunity for artists.”

Spanish Version of The Great Big Enormous Turnip

I’ve been invited up to the New Philadelphia Library by a great bunch of librarians who are have El Dia De Los Ninos or a Children’s Day. They say that the population has an increasing Hispanic element, and they wish to celebrate it. In the past few years, they have employed a native speaker, but, due to family concerns, she is unable to come this year. I am the replacement. I’m not a fluent speaker at all, but I’m looking forward to filling those Spanish shoes. One idea for this audience, which I am told contains mostly Anglo children and families, will be to do a Spanish version of the Turnip Story. El Nado is the term for turnip in Spanish. I’ve told this story many times in English with the children taking the parts of the animals who help. This time I’ll have all the characters come up to act out their parts using Spanish names, and we’ll get to repeat their titles: el gato, (the cat) el perro, (the dog) la nieta (the granddaughter), el nieto (the grandson) and finally adding el raton (the mouse) as that small animal helps us get el grande nado (the big turnip) out of the ground. I’ll do a little more research with my Peace Corps daughter, Jess, and we should all have a grand time that day. I’ve also been asked to be in charge of the Pinata breaking, so I’ve been reviewing color words, and the words for higher, lower, left and right. Here’s a great poem I found:
“ No quiero nickel ni quiero plato
Lo que yo quiero is romper la piñata”

(I don’t want nickel or silver.
I only want to break the piñata.)