Monday, November 22, 2010

Telling Stories

This story telling unit was something that was brand new to me. I had never been taught this type of unit in school and so it was interesting to see what other people came up with, and, also, how my group and I were going to create a unit worth teaching.

Being a student throughout these units was fun. I feel that I learned a lot about the concept of story telling and I had fun doing it. The different and varying activities all taught me something different about story telling and they all held separate values. I think high school and middle school students could benefit from these opportunities even more than I did because they might be less experienced than I was and they could learn the elements of a story, the history of totem poles, or the process of story telling.

Holding the role as a teacher was different than being a student. I was nervous that the information I was teaching was going to be too childish, or not hold enough depth for these students. I thought they would find my lesson childish. Although I didn't receive any bad remarks from the students, I still had a feeling that my lesson could have been aimed at an older audience. 

I think that the concept of story telling, and planning a unit around the idea of telling stories is something that can be academically viable. It is possible for this to be intellectually stimulating. But I think it’s a thin line. There is a way to make this whole unit too childish, and it isn’t hard. But if you can create an aligned unit that caters to both the story telling ideas, and the appropriateness of the age group, I can see a major strength in this. 

1 comment:

  1. Rachel,

    I think it is really interesting that so much of your reflection touches on a fear of being childish. Perhaps one of the most important thing that story telling can do for us is keep us in touch with the child within. I think it is a shame that we are taught (maybe mostly at school?) that being childish is something we want to avoid when the component of childishness that story telling accesses is not irresponsibility it is FUN .

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