Objective:
Students should understand that folk stories change as time passes and they are told and retold, and that events that happened in our history influence how and what are told in the folk stories.
1.
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Have each student read “High John the Conqueror” from Black Folktales.
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2.
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Select five students who will retell the story of “High John. The five students should be as diverse as possible with male and females and also with different interests. Also some of the students who did not like the story should be chosen.
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3.
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Students will take notes on the various stories so that they can refer back to them for information during discussions. Some of the reasons for variations of the story are that some will see John as a hero and others will see John as a trickster, some will focus in on the feats as opposed to the facts.
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4.
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Discuss with the students the reasons for the different versions of the story.
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5.
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The fact that John was a slave is an important part of the High John stories. He was seen by slaves as a hero who could not be subjugated by his master because he was smarter than his master and able to control his master by his wits more than the master was able to control him.
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6.
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After the discussion choose another three students to retell the High John stories. Students should again take note of the differences. The differences should again be discussed keeping in mind the previous discussion.
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There should be as many different ways of retelling the story as there are people telling the story. This is an excellent way of helping students understand that stories change from person to person according to what each person defines as important.