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| Lyn Ford |
- Common Core
"Stories are bridges from one
mind to another." – the late Martha Holloway, storyteller and former
bacteriologist
In the benchmarks of the Common Core
State Standards, emphasis is placed on reading, writing, speaking, listening,
analyzing, and critically thinking in order to progress and thrive. These
are life skills, tools that are useful and needed throughout one’s lifetime.
Here’s how this is stated at the
Common Core State Standard website*:
The Common Core asks students to read
stories and literature, as well as more complex texts that provide facts and
background knowledge in areas such as science and social studies. Students will
be challenged and asked questions that push them to refer back to what they’ve
read. This stresses critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills
that are required for success in college, career, and life…
The standards also lay out a vision
of what it means to be a literate person who is prepared for success in the
21st century.
But where is the vision for the
development of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), literacy in the ability to
empathize, communicate, hope, and persevere?
Believe it or not, it’s in the
standards, too.
Two examples:
1.
One Common Core Math Standard expects
the following outcome: Students make sense of problems and persevere in
solving them.
In order to manage this achievement,
students need to be self-efficient, willing to work, attentive, determined, and
optimistic that they will make sense of and solve problems, all benchmarks of
emotional growth and development.
2.
In the Common Core Standards for
English Language Arts for Grade 3, one finds:
Describe characters in a story (e.g.,
their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions
contribute to the sequence of events.
Such description requires a working
knowledge of emotions and emotional reactions and outcomes.
The earliest and easiest format for
SEL and universal communication is storytelling.
Regardless of genre, the communal
experiences of stories told:
•
Teach the basic format of narrative communication.
•
Offer strong, effective characterizations and clear actions in a time and place that give setting for the
action.
•
Nurture creative thinking and imagination, necessary problem-solving and
if-then processing skills in science, math, and life.
•
Encourage reflection, dialogue, and research, as well as an appreciation for
clarity in language usage and descriptive phrasing.
•
Connect participants to culture, heritage, and history.
•
Cross and connect communities, and generations.
We must give our children a working
knowledge of the world around them. We must also encourage them to
discover, create, or maintain skills that will help them to persevere in that
world, and to seek ways of keeping that interconnected world thriving and
alive. We can do that, by sharing our stories, and hearing theirs.
Storyteller, author, and professor
Peninnah Schram says, "Since storytelling is a dialogue, shared stories
create more understanding; bring people closer together as a community; and
serve as a string that binds one heart to another. (And I believe that the
universe is made up of string.)"
Lynette (Lyn) Ford is a
fourth-generation Affrilachian storyteller and teaching artist for the Ohio
Alliance for Arts Education, as well as a contributor to several books on
storytelling in education, including The Storytelling Classroom:
Applications Across the Curriculum. Lyn is the author of Affrilachian
Tales: Folktales from the African-American Appalachian Tradition, and
Beyond the Briar Patch. www.storytellerlynford.com
Beautiful! Storytelling is at the heart of our lives. Thanks for this lucid, elegant explanation of those important connections.
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