Sherry Norfolk ~ Study Guide: "Georgia On My Mind"

Program Description

Georgia on My Mind takes students to a time they never knew as each tale challenges them to expand upon non-existent, existing and previous knowledge of Georgia’s ethnic and cultural roots. This lively interactive program explores Georgia’s rich history through fascinating folktales focusing on the Creek and Cherokee Indians, British and African American slaves. Every story not only creates an atmosphere for students to make intrapersonal connections to their own lives, but also promotes an environment that fosters visualization, imagination and transformation of people, places and events far and near.

Artist Bio

Sherry Norfolk is an acclaimed performer, appearing in Hong Kong, Anchorage, the Bahamas, Honolulu, Grand Canyon National Park and hundreds of points in between. With a B.A. in Elementary Education and a Masters in Library Science, she performs and teaches storytelling residencies through Young Audiences Woodruff Arts Center, Springboard to Learning / Young Audiences of St. Louis, and several state arts councils. Sherry is co-author with her husband Bobby of The Moral of the Story: Folktales for Character Development, 2nd Ed. (August House, 2006), and co-editor of The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum (Libraries Unlimited, 2006).

Background on Art Form

Storytelling is the art of using words, gestures, facial expression, and body language to bring a story to life in the listener’s imagination. From the beginning of time, storytelling has been the way cultures have preserved and celebrated their memories, passed on their values and belief systems, entertained, instructed and reported. Today, storytelling is recognized as one of the most effective brain-compatible teaching strategies, accessible for children with diverse abilities and disabilities, and applicable to all “ways of knowing.” Storytelling continues to invite us all to “Enter the Theater of the Mind-the Imagination!”

Pre and Post Activities

Prepare (Pre- or pre-performance)

Teachers, please read this to your students:

In our assembly today, we’re going to participate in a storytelling performance by Sherry Norfolk. PARTICIPATE means that you’ll be part of the program – as good listeners, using your imagination to “see” the characters, setting, and action. Sometimes, you may be invited to use your brains, voice and hands to help bring a story to life. Sherry says that storytelling is the most fun when the storyteller and the listeners work together to create the story – so let’s make this a fun experience for everyone!

Warm Up Questions to set the stage for engaging students:

• What is a folktale? How can folktales help us learn about the people of the past?
• Listen for the message in the story: what do you think the original tellers of this story want their children to learn? Does everybody hear the same message? Why or why not?
• Listen for words and phrases that we don’t use today. How do they help put the story into a historical setting?
• Each of the folktales we will hear today comes from a very different culture. Listen for ways that they are alike and ways that they are different.

Reflect (Post- or post-performance)

Quick Writes: take 5 minutes to write about the story that was most memorable to you. What made it memorable?

Connections: choose one story you heard today and discuss with a partner how it relates to your own experiences, how it relates to something you have read or watched on TV or the movies, and how it relates to the school, community or the world.

Additional Activities
Each of the stories represents an entire genre: Cherokee how-and-why stories, Jack tales, and trickster stories. Choose one genre, and find other examples in the library. Then ask the students to write their own stories, using these questions to develop their ideas:

How and Why
What Georgia animal are you going to talk about? What will you explain about it? How does the animal look in the beginning of the story? How does the animal feel about the way it looks? Why? What happens to change the way it looks? (Think about why it gets changed, who might do it, and how it gets done) How does the animal feel at the end of the story? Why?

Jack
Why does Jack need a job? Where/how does he look? What kind of job does he find? What obstacle will he need to overcome (examples: his mother’s instructions, giant, ghost, witch, etc.)? How will he overcome the obstacle? What is his reward (the gold, the girl, etc.)?

Brer Rabbit
What does Brer Rabbit want? Why can’t he get it? (Examples: someone else has it and won’t share; it costs too much and Brer Rabbit is too lazy to work for the money) Who has it or can help Brer Rabbit get it? How does Brer Rabbit trick this character so that he can get what he wants? How does the story end? Does Brer Rabbit get punished in some way?

Vocabulary

Brer Rabbit -- a trickster rabbit with origins in West African folktales
Folktale -- a story passed down in the oral tradition
How and Why or Pourquoi tale -- a story that “pretends” to explain how or why a plant, animal or landform looks the way it does today
Trickster -- a character who uses his brains rather than violence to solve problems. Usually small, defenseless, quick.
Symbolism -- using one thing to represent another, i.e., Br’er Rabbit represents the slaves who were not allowed to carry weapons; Bear, Alligator, Lion represent the slave-owners who used weapons to dominate the slaves.

Resources for Teachers & Students
Websites

www.atozkidsstuff.com/georgia.html Georgia fun facts, history and more!

www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/house/kids/elemen/elemindex.htm Georgia state symbols, Georgia glossary, fun facts, endangered state animals, more.

www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-515
Explores the storytelling traditions of Georgia, including African-American, Native American and Euro-American tales.

Books

Chase, Richard. Jack Tales.
Lester, Julius. Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit.
Underwood, Thomas Bryan. Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears.