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| Sara DeBeer |
Storytelling: Ancient Mind Melding
In my work as a teller of traditional folktales, I engage
listeners in the experience of co-creating stories. Children often mirror my
expressions: when I scowl with greed or scorn, they scowl as well; when my face
grows worried and concerned, their faces share the worry, the concern; when my
face lights up with joy or triumph, I look out on a sea of smiles.
While the
bond which joins teller and listener is strong, equally powerful is the
realization that every listener perceives the characters, the setting, and the
story in his or her own way. Story-listening and story exploration provide
important opportunities for students to exercise their ability to create their
own internal images.
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| We see what we see! |
Being a teaching artist is
quite different from telling stories to hundreds of kids in an auditorium (or a
cafetorium, or worse yet, a gym). In the classroom, I shift back and forth
between being a performer, telling a story while students listen in rapt
attention, and being a facilitator, encouraging students to share observations
about the stories and the art of storytelling.
Students see that voice, gesture, and language can strengthen the
presentation of a story and its impact.
An artist can serve as a role model for students, whether the students
are going to model their lives directly on that artist (becoming artists
themselves) or whether they incorporate some aspects of that art form into
their daily lives; contact with a resident storyteller strengthens all
students' communication skills. At the
same time, by observing the students' interaction with the artist and the art,
teachers often perceive their own students in a whole new way.
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| Click here for a study about the importance of teaching artists! |
During my visits to classrooms, I include time for
students to process the story which they just heard. Younger students draw
pictures of their favorite part of the story, and sequence the drawings,
creating a book which retells the story. Older students work as
a group to create monologues based on different characters in the story. They
then take turns reading aloud the monologues. We choose to make parts of the
monologues choral, so there is a role for the entire class during the oral
reading activity.
Whether I am presenting an assembly program, or working
as a teaching artist, I ask for information from teachers ahead of time so my
presentations integrate with themes currently being studied in the classrooms.
Although some see me as an “entertainer”, I see myself foremost as an educator.
With a Masters in Education from the Bank Street School of New York, and years
of experience as a classroom teacher, I am able to partner with teachers and
design programs which tie in with on-going classroom studies of science, social
studies, and language arts. Teachers who
work with me soon recognize that stories can be a tool for helping students
learn any subject.
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In these different ways, I aim to instill a love of the
value of storylistening and storytelling, as well as an appreciation of the
richness of the folktales and folk traditions of a broad range of world
cultures. When children lose themselves in the world of stories, they find new
understanding of what it means to be human.
You can find our more about Sara at storydebeer.com
Happy Teaching!
