• Writing
through storytelling workshops
Flexible workshop ideas aimed at improving and expanding the
scope of students’ compositional and imaginative writing,
utilising a variety of natural techniques drawn from ORAL
modes of storytelling – effective with students of all
ages, and particularly with those students having trouble.
• Biggies and Littlies workshop
An idea for bringing older and younger school students together,
through the gentle and enjoyable activity of improvisational
oral storytelling: the biggies learn and practice the techniques
of their art… and then they meet the littlies! (Helps
Littlies with their listening skills, too!)
• Special Needs
Children and adults with the various kinds of special needs
are often among those who benefit most from storytelling workshops.
Lenny regularly visits schools and communities where he meets
with people who are living with all kinds of difficulties
and disadvantages.
Read more in the COMMUNITY
link.
• Storytelling
for teenagers and young adults
How do we negotiate the hazards and pitfalls of adolescence
and entry into adult life? How do we position ourselves
to meet the encroaching modern world? As the child
matures, the value of storytelling does not diminish,
as some people suppose. On the contrary, storytellers
the world over have always successfully used stories
to help young people at all stages of this transition.
They do this indirectly. Myth, fairytale and legend
hold in symbolic form all the abiding themes and settings
of human existence. By gently allowing their young
listeners to immerse themselves safely in the all-embracing
world of story the sensitive storyteller helps foster
a creative engagement that allows for all kinds of
natural and timely inner unraveling.
It is a significant process and crucially one over
which the listener retains full control and ownership,
instinctively biting off at any given time no more
than he or she can chew. Its impact is positive, stabilizing
and far-reaching, percolating into all areas of his
or her life – home, classroom, street, club … – all
of which, as is well known, can become sites of flash
points for conflict.
For this reason, the professional storyteller is important
to carers of the younger child certainly but of the
teenager and young adult in particular.
• ICT
and Storytelling
In this mini project (four or five two hour sessions)
your students will first be captivated with an astonishing
variety of lively and engaging renditions of stories
taken from many cultures
Next, they will be led, at whatever level of attainment,
through fun ways of generating a mixed bag of exciting
narrative structures of their own devising
Finally, using PCs, digital cameras and microphones they
will be helped to construct original creative photo-stories,
and be shown how these can be put onto personalised CDs
with voice-over, captions, sound and music using the
freely available Photo-Story 3 software
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• Teacher
Insets - Application of Oral Storytelling
Hands-on workshops or programmes designed to inspire teachers
and others working in any setting, by sharing new perspectives
and practical ideas.
The student as storyteller
The teacher as storyteller
Storytelling in the classroom
Storytelling and the family
Storytelling and an examination of critical social issues…(such
as racism, bullying, sexism…)
Delivering a storytelling project Etc.
Sometimes groups of students might be used as willing guinea
pigs!
• Community Storytelling Project
Based in a specific school (or schools) and using its neighbourhood
links this extended storytelling project involves the students
in practical workshops and visits, and culminates in a public
event which features performances, activities and exhibitions
covering as wide a gamut of the arts and the curriculum as
is practical. It is multi-inclusive in every way (that is
its purpose), great fun, and grounded in the down to earth
life of the participants. It is a truly holistic learning
opportunity, ‘Education in the Round’, and sometimes
a veritable ‘gift’ for many a troubled neighbourhood,
individual or relationship. .
This project is most effective within the education arena
because specific learning outcomes such as improvement in
listening, oracy, literacy, organisational skill, imagination,
self-expression, communication, self-confidence and social
awareness are developed, and can be measured, in the secure
and realistic context of a familiar family and community background.
I have delivered this project in school and college communities
many times throughout the U.K. I have also taught its principles
to both professionals and students.
Please read more in the COMMUNITY
link.
• Workshop Watchwords
and ethos
• Creative and Participative
• Inclusive and Non-discriminatory
• Values the experience, aspirations and contributions
of each
individual
• Balance between processes and end products
• Uses whatever language forms are the most likely to
engage and stimulate participation by the groups concerned
• Values and recognizes the importance of community
as context
• Seeks to promote and encourage oral storytelling as
the art of talk
“The fascinating parallels that are generally found
in the stories told by various peoples show that there is
a basic kinship between nations despite superficial diversities.
For this reason folk-lore plays an important part in the
attempt to bring together all the nations of the world,
and to promote mutual understanding, universal sympathy
and world unity.”
[From the preface to FOLK TALES OF NEPAL by Karunakar Vaidya
1992]
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