Title
Creating Family Folktales
Objectives
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Further understanding of oral literature and its transmission.
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An appreciation of family sharing, in the present and from generation to generation.
After pupils have been exposed to a variety of folktales and are familiar with the process of oral tradition, the teacher will tell an interesting personal tale or two from his/her childhood or even more distant past. The further back the tale can be traced, the better.
It should now be relatively easy to motivate pupils to tell their own tales from earlier childhood, though it be only a few years ago. When this is concluded, pupils will be asked to delve further into the past by questioning older members of their family regarding intriguing anecdotes from their lives or stories which they had been told by others. If the class has been exposed to
Grandma’s Latkes
and/or “The Case of the Missing Strawberry Pie” (previously mentioned), pupils should be aware of how stories are transmitted from generation to generation within families. If they have not yet been covered, at least one, or another story illustrating this process, should be introduced.
Each pupil would prepare at least one short tale to share with the whole class. The children might choose among a variety of approaches to his/her presentation. The pupil might memorize the events and tell them directly, or recorded and played, to the class, or the material could be written out and read orally, or even dittoed for individual silent reading. If equipment is available, a recording of the original teller could be made and played to the group or perhaps the family member could come to class in order to tell the tale directly to the class.
As a further development, pupils might create illustrations to accompany their own story. These pictures could be used in connection with an oral presentation or combined with a written text to form a small booklet or even part of a class collection. Each piece also would be titled by the pupil and could include any necessary words of explanation.
No matter what the completed form, the final stories should be shared. Possibilities which go beyond the mentioned classroom sharing include: presenting the stories to members of other classrooms, individually or as a group, holding a sharing night at which pupils and/or family members would share each tale, and finally taping all or a portion of the stories and allowing pupils to take them home to share with family and friends.
Finally, when all stories are completed and shared, pupils might hold a general discussion in which they examine the similarities and differences existing among their stories:
“Who are the heroes?”
“What are his/her characteristics?”
“What type of people, if any, are villains? What are they like?”
“How do the stories make you feel?”
Whatever their conclusions, have pupils speculate on possible influencing factors.