Storytelling: Selkie Myth

I walked away from today’s drama workshop with ONE message that struck me.
I felt really motivated to BE a teacher who has the gift of storytelling. I want to take up the challenge that Egan (1997) suggests – which is to “reconceive the curriculum as a set of great stories we have to tell children and recognise… school teachers as the storytellers of our culture” (p. 64).
I experienced the enchanting and engaging effect that storytelling had not only just as listeners but also as storytellers. I absolutely loved how we could all get creative with the storytelling process. Students would be given free reign to imagine their own stories as the story can undergo several changes and hence differ with each re-telling. The workshop fleshed out this idea focusing on the use of storytelling as a way of connecting (meanings, subject matter, ourselves) to the listener.
I’m really keen to do the story-telling activity in class with Stages 2 and 3 in the future.

Steps:
1. Teacher provides the bare bones of The Selkie Myth by acting and dramatizing the story.
2. Have a chat about how they felt as listeners. Were they engaged? What hooked them?
3. In pairs, the students retell the story. One student does the telling and the pair can either say to advance or ask for more detail.
For example, when students ask for detail, it would mean that the teller should create as much detail for that moment in story. “There was a fisherman, who had ginger curly hair falling to his shoulders. He was middle aged and had yellow teeth. He had a big beard that is long and wispy.”
For advance, move the story forward.

Further related activities could be getting students to bring a story from their home to tell.
At the end of the session, time permitting, teachers could do a ‘Conscience alley’ to decide what the Selkie does when she gets her skin back. Should she leave her family? Yes or No.
A great link to literacy would be to write new ending.
References:
Egan, K. (1997). The educated mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Working with Clay

Working with clay. Making a picture frame.

This week’s art workshop saw us trying our hands at clay. I’ve never had the opportunity to work with clay ever – so, it’s really my first time.

Having just completed a month of prac, I found this art lesson really refreshing. The art lessons in the school that I was at did not leave the students’ much room for creativity. Everyone had to follow guidelines, every student painted and drew out the “same” picture, a picture which the teacher had set as the “standard” for each student to reach.

With this clay activity, I felt that students would be given free reign to express their creativity, and at the same time, also develop motor skills. We had to knead the clay to get the air bubbles out, pound it and shape it into a picture frame. As an introduction for students, we could perhaps analyse examples of clay and sculpting and have a talk about how ceramics are used by people (practical daily use & artistic expression).

Having done that, a teacher could give clear instructions.

Steps:

1. (This step is optional) Have students draw their intended design on a piece of paper first.

2. Students to put on art smocks. Retrieve a board. Hand out small blocks of clay.

3. Throw and knead clay on board to remove air bubbles in the clay.

4. Explain why we need to remove air bubbles – so that when we put it in the kiln, it doesn’t explode and harm other students’ work.

5. Roll out clay with a rolling pin to the thickness of their finger.

6. Use tools to mark out, shape, cut out and carve their photo frame.

7. Lay out the completed work to dry.

8. Fire clay at a local high school or let them air-dry.

9. Paint with acrylic paint.

Some of the previous cohorts’ finished product. Those were great ideas to help give me a direction for my own photo frame. It’s important to have a ready-done model to show the class before they begin.