Heads or Tales

Writing and Storytelling

I just finished reading After The End: Teaching and Learning Creative Revision by Barry Lane.  I’ve been thinking over how to do a writing workshop using my historical story about the 1913 Flood.  I have done a tableau workshop using that story along with a photo from Columbus and the flood showing a group of people climbing down a very shaky ladder into an even shakier boat.  A tableau, however, doesn't work well with a large class.  Tableau, because everyone needs to participate, is good for 12 to 15 kids.  Any larger and the group will be too hard to manage.  Mr. Lane’s active and joyful approach to keeping the writing process relevant and exciting got me thinking about some great alternative writing possibilities that would involve an entire class.  I would love to really enlarge my photo.  Right now it’s about 15 inches by 23 inches.  I think putting it on an overhead or maybe in a poster format would help the kids see all the characters.  Here’s what I think, using Barry Lane’s ideas, we could do to explore the process of character development. 

            1) Discuss the picture and give it a title.

            2) Choose a character from the picture to be explored and write 10 details about that character.  In the tableau, students can be everything from the boat and the flood to a dog or a person.  I wonder if we could do the same thing in this exercise.  It works well in a tableau because students experience their choices in the context, but here, I think, it will be harder to dig into an inanimate object as having a personality.

            3) Establish what problem the character is having.  In the picture I’m using, the biggest problem is definitely the flood and survival, but within that many other specialized and individual worries can surface. 

            4) Students become the character they chose.  They can introduce themselves to the class as that character and talk about their thoughts and the problem facing them.  Other students can ask questions.

            5) After all have shared who wish to, we can take a few minutes to write down what we learned about our own choices

            6) Finally, we can write a story with our character in it.

 

The question remains as to how to emphasize my art form, storytelling.  Really…how to tie it to the Fine Arts Ohio standards.  More importantly, since I'll be working with kids in my art form, how to leave the impact and memory of storytelling.  

Here's what I think.  The whole experience is in response to an oral story.  As part of our writing experience, we do some storytelling so that we can enrich our writing.  With all of that in mind, this workshop would fall under the content standard of  “Connections, Relationships and Applications.” We are drawing on storytelling to better appreciate our writing and an historical event.

 

Southern Ohio Storytelling Festival--What I Learned

 

Last week, at this time, I was on my way down to the Southern Ohio Storytelling Festival, and, other than a slight mishap involving an over flowing toilet backstage, which was all my fault, the weekend was a grand experience.  Wily Claffin, Granny Sue, Bil Lepp, Kim Weitcamp and Lyn Ford and I all got to tell our stories.  Friday involved telling in the big tent, at a school and in the Majestic Theater to fifth and sixth graders.  Friday night was in the Majestic.  Saturday was under the big tent with each teller having some time to themselves and Saturday night was to a large crowd under the tent.  I’m still processing what I learned from being amongst all those fine tellers.  One thing might be that the crowd you hang out with defiantly influences your performance.  I think my own storytelling stepped up a notch or two as a result of the storytellers around me.  The other thing I learned was to be sure to thank the people who influence you.  I told a tall tale about German Village at the festival.  That story called The Half Naked Grecian Garden Lady was the winner at the Southern Ohio Liar’s Contest a few years back.  Bil Lepp was such a strong influence in the making of that tale…. I love how he forms Buck Dog and the Monster Stick about himself, but most of all I love the masterful soaring and escalating silliness in Buck Dog and in all the stories he tells.  I had an opportunity to thank him at the festival last weekend, and wish I had.  Now, when I think about it, I feel that I’ve left something undone that needs to be completed.  I also was reminded, over the weekend, about friends. Two sets of old friends traveled good distances to come and be with Nelson and me.  Emily Bailey, a great storyteller from the Storytellers of Central Ohio whose daughter has the charming name of Lovey, also came  because, at the National Storytelling Conference, I attended her fringe performance, and she wanted to return the favor.  I feel grateful to all of them for their affirmation.