As I stated in the introduction, I would like there to be a practical component to this curriculum. Hopefully by the time we had completed the telling of stories from the past century, the students would have enough of a handle on their form to begin to tell stories of their own, in the style of any of the given time periods. To encourage this process even further, I would bring in selections from the greatest stories told by African-American comedians. It does not take too much effort to see that the tradition of oral storytelling exists in the stories of Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and many others. I believe that these stories would inspire the students to see how they could apply the tradition to the creation of stories about their own lives. I would provide the students with a forum to express the stories of their lives, giving them the performance tools necessary to do so, while encouraging them to find ways to transform their experience into performance.
The goal of this final section would be:
-
1. To give students the time and the means to create stories about their own lives, as a way of empowering themselves and seeing the possibility for change.
SAMPLE LESSON #1
to cover approximately one week
Comparing African and African-American Stories
OBJECTIVES
|
¥
|
To familiarize the students with the mythology of Africa and the mythology of African-Americans
|
|
¥
|
To understand the form that these stories were told.
|
|
¥
|
To understand why these stories were told.
|
|
¥
|
To see how and why the African stories evolved when they were told in America.
|
|
¥
|
To understand the function of the character of Anansi and Rabbit in particular and the Trickster character in general.
|
|
¥
|
To be able to associate human characteristics with animal characteristics as a way of understanding the use of metaphor as storytelling tool.
|
|
¥
|
To create the different characters from the story.
|
|
¥
|
To perform the stories.
|
STRATEGIES
In order to accomplish the goals stated above I would use the following assignments and exercises:
-
1. Read
Anansi the Spider
, by Gerald McDermott and the version of
Doc Rabbit, Brer Fox and Tar Baby
in
The People Could Fly
.
Questions for Discussion:
|
¥
|
Why are animals used to tell the stories?
|
|
¥
|
Why are certain animals used to convey certain characters?
|
|
¥
|
What is the difference in the world pictured in the first story and the world of the second?
|
|
¥
|
Are there any similarities between the two stories?
|
|
¥
|
What kind of animal would you be if your life was a story and why?
|
Practical Application of Material:
|
¥
|
Make up an animal story to explain the existence of something mysterious in the world (Why volcanoes erupt? Why the sun sets? Don’t use scientific explanation, but imagine living in a time when these things could not be explained.)
|
|
¥
|
Make up an animal story using a Trickster character who overcomes a huge obstacle by using his/her brain.
|
Additional Dramatic Exercises:
|
¥
|
Create a Jungle. Have the students pick an animal from the Jungle.
On
their own, have them create a picture
in
their mind of that animal doing various activities sleeping, eating, hunting, playing). Have them begin to physicalize these various states. Discover a voice for your animal. When everyone has completed a range of activities, allow them to begin to interact. Ask: Who are your enemies? your friends? What is your favorite thing to do? What makes you mad?
|
|
¥
|
Have a conversation between two different people by yourself. Use animal influences to help you discover your character.
|
SAMPLE LESSON #2
to be used for approximately one week
Creating Performances from the Stories of Zora Neale Hurston
OBJECTIVES
|
¥
|
To introduce the literature of Zora Neale Hurston to the students.
|
|
¥
|
To see how her stories derive from the slave and African traditions.
|
|
¥
|
To appreciate the differences between written and oral traditions in storytelling.
|
Practical:
|
¥
|
To learn the qualities of Story Theater, as developed by Paul Sills and Viola Spolin.
|
|
¥
|
To apply that knowledge to the interpretation of a story of their choice by Zora Neale Hurston.
|
STRATEGIES
In order to accomplish the goals stated above I would use the following assignments and exercises:
Read
King of De World
by Zora Neale Hurston. (Read the version of the same story in Hamilton called
He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit
, if the Hurston language is too difficult. Then go back to the Hurston.)
|
¥
|
How does the story read? Is it clear that it is still from the oral tradition?
|
|
¥
|
In what way does the story capture some new themes relevant to the 20th century and to the plight of Northern blacks?
|
|
¥
|
Who is the narrator of the story and what function does he serve other than to tell the story?
|
For Story Theater:
|
¥
|
How many characters are there? What types of animals are they?
|
|
¥
|
How many different locations are there?
|
|
¥
|
How much time goes by in the story?
|
|
¥
|
What is the style of the story (mystery, funny, ghost or spirit, action, dramatic)?
|
|
¥
|
What are the rhythms and the overall dramatic shape of the story?
|
For Performance:
-
1. Prepare the students by doing animal improvisations.
-
2. Have students “audition” for the various parts by showing how they would depict the characters described above.
-
3. Break the story up into sections. Each new section will be determined by a change of location or time. Each section will be set up by the narrator, Dad Boykin.
-
4. Determine an environment where the story is told. (Use Spolin’s WHERE? exercises to help set the place.)
-
5. Use the dialogue from the story as a starting point for an improvisation between the characters in each section.
-
6. Hone and shape the different scenes to fit the style determined for the piece.
-
7. Allow the narrator to introduce the sections.
-
8. Create ambience by the use of group sound to augment the feeling for each scene. For instance, if there is a suspenseful scene in the forest, the group can create the sounds of animals, wind, rain, etc.
-
9. Put all the elements of character, ambience and narrator into the piece and tell the story as a whole.
-
10. See if the natural rhythms of the story as written are reflected in the final product.
SAMPLE LESSON #3
to be used for approximately one week
Rappin’ Langston, Rappin’ James, Rappin’ Martin, Rappin’ Yourself
OBJECTIVES
|
¥
|
To introduce students to the poetry of Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson.
|
|
¥
|
To appreciate the rhythmic quality of this poetry as well as the rhythms of the preacher, specifically Martin Luther King.
|
|
¥
|
To listen to and read the lyrics for RAP songs and appreciate the debt that they have to the forms mentioned above.
|
|
¥
|
To take the writings and speeches of Hughes, Johnson and King and turn them into Raps.
|
|
¥
|
To address some serious aspect of their own life by creating a Rap. This may or may not be preceded by a brief overview of poetry in general and a few attempts to put their experience into poetic form.
|
STRATEGIES
To accomplish some of the goals listed above I would give the following assignments and exercises:
Choose one of the following:
Dear Landlord
, by Hughes;
The Creation
, by Johnson; or
I Have a Dream
, by King.
|
¥
|
Analyze the rhythms in each selection.
|
|
¥
|
See if they are Rap-able.
|
|
¥
|
Memorize and present each Rap to the class.
|
Preparing to Rap your Life:
|
¥
|
Play Rhyming games. Go around a circle and create rhyming couplets. Do not worry about a story.
|
|
¥
|
Improvise situations where each line has to rhyme the line before.
|
|
¥
|
Ask student to come to class with a story centered around a given theme (AIDS, Homelessness, Unemployment). Tell them to keep it personal and not polemic.
|
|
¥
|
Find the story’s title by deciding its theme.
|
|
¥
|
Employ repetition and rhythms and rhymes to create a Rap about the topic chosen. If possible, tape their Raps and play them back.
|
|
¥
|
Have a final discussion about the Power of Rap and whether creating their own taught them anything about themselves, their society, their past or their future.
|
