Sherry Norfolk ~ Study Guide: "Tellin' Tales"

Program Description

The Tell’n’Tales Workshop allows children to learn and experience stories through creative drama and movement. After Sherry tells a participatory folktale with a clear pattern of language and action, children learn it by re-telling it verbally and physically with her, then turn it into creative drama. This sets the stage for creating and performing their own group or small-group story (dependent on ages) based on the pattern of the original story. “Tell‘n‘Tales” engages the whole brain as children process language, pattern and logic, rhythmic refrains, spatial imaging, as well as group and individual interaction. Every child is successfully integrated into the process, no matter their learning style or abilities. (Session is 45-55 minutes, maximum 30 students per session)

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 are the parts of a story? (characters, setting, problem solution, beginning, middle, end)
• What do you use when you listen to a story? (ears, eyes, brain, imagination)
• As you listen, use your imagination to make a “video” of the story in your imagination. Will all of you have the same video? Why or why not?
• As you listen to the stories today, listen and watch to see if you can find patterns in the words or the actions. Why are patterns important in the stories?
• Try to predict what’s going to happen next in the stories, but don’t yell it out! Just listen and think and see if you’re right!

Reflect (Post- or post-performance)

Draw a storyboard of one of the stories we heard or created today. Show what happened first, second, third, etc. Use the storyboard to re-tell the story to a partner.

Additional Activities
The story patterns used in this workshop can be the inspiration for creating stories linked to math, social studies, science and language arts curriculum. Now that the kids are engaged in and invested in these patterns, use them to form the foundation for further learning! In addition to storyboarding, students can re-tell their stories orally with or without a sandbox (see Storytelling Classroom, listed below, for details), create picturebooks, use props or puppets to enhance creative drama – even put on a play for the entire school!

Vocabulary

Characters --The people or animals who are in the story.
Folktale -- A story form the oral tradition, with no known author.
Plot -- What happens in a story.
Setting --Where the story takes place.
Storyboard -- a set of pictures that tells the story, like the Sunday comic strips. There is one picture for each major thing that happens.

Resources for Teachers & Students
Websites

www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/about/index.htm
Kids on the Net was one of the first websites to invite kids to publish online – and in addition to that, there are fun and educational activities and games!

Books

Adler, Nancy. Tellin’ Tales at School: A Handbook for Teaching Storytelling in Workshops and in the Classroom, 3rd Ed. Self published. 1998. (Call 801-224-6861)
Cooper, Patsy. When Stories Come to School: Telling, Writing and Performing Stories in the Early Childhood Classroom. Teachers and Writers Collaborative, 1993.
Gillard, Marni. Story Teller, Story Teacher: Discovering the Power of Storytelling for Teaching and Living. Stenhouse Publishers, 1996.
Hamilton, Martha and Mitch Weiss. Children Tell Stories: A Teaching Guide. Richard C. Owens Publishes, 1990.
Norfolk, Sherry and Jane Stenson, Diane Williams. The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum. Libraries Unlimited, 2006.