Storytelling with Children
To inspire children to give accounts and tell stories – this was the task I was assigned at the youth centre and school in the Rivierenwijk district of Utrecht. Not only should everyday experiences be related but also short pieces of creative composition, such as stories that are found in picture books, stories with a plot, stories that make sense. This process should give the children, especially the foreign children, a fresh impulse for communication.
Out of this task evolved a storytelling club. Each week ten children between the ages of 7 and 9 met with the aim of composing stories and telling them to one another. A suitcase filled with various objects served as the goldmine of material from which to extract ideas. As we handled and examined the objects we would ask ourselves, “To whom could this object belong and what role could it play in the story?”
The children were delighted. They began to create never-ending stories that eventually did end – in nothing. It was the beginning and the end that posed the problem. The children could not come to grips with a story structure – quite logical, actually. To tell a story by heart presupposes an overall and advance knowledge of the story. The teller has to orient him/herself like a bird in flight; otherwise s/he loses track of the path. For many of the children this proved to be an impossible task. Children experience a story like a film – it unfolds word by word. This can be observed in their experience reports. After school vacation it goes like this: “First we drove to … and then … and then we ….” All the experiences are stored in the memory chronologically. The only way to recapitulate it is to tell it in the correct chronological sequence.
When I realized this, I wondered how I could give them the necessary signposts for orienting themselves within their stories. For this, I got some help from the philosopher of Greek antiquity, Aristotle. In his “Poetica” he stipulated the structure of the story to comprise five main parts:
- introduction
- incitement of the plot
- climax of the plot
- fading out of the plot
- conclusion
I had found my signposts! For the children it would be possible to simplify this somewhat:
- on the way to the incitement of the plot by making introductions
- on the way to the climax
- marching toward the end
I wanted to introduce the children to these points of orientation, but a lesson on the ancient Greeks was out of the question! The subject must be approached in as lively a manner as possible. At this point I considered the possibilities for using SAGA. With only three cards it would be possible to set the decisive milestones for orienting the story:
introduction - plot impetus – on to climax – climax - on to the end – end
It almost worked. Story structure stood tangibly before the children’s eyes. (For me the only thing missing at this point were SAGA images in large format.) They were able to “read” the details directly from the pictures. It was possible to use the picture cards as notes or “cheat-sheets,” so to speak.
Yet the final image proved to be problematical. Although it was fairly easy for the children to put together a story from the first two images, the last picture restricted them. It represented a prison for the imagination. Although necessary for the structure of the story, in composing stories independently this picture seemed to act as a barrier. Once again, logical: a prescribed ending to a story presupposes an overview. For the children the situation was like a topography: if your task is to get from your own house to Berlin but you only know the streets as far as the town limits, then the rest of the way is like a black hole that can only be filled in by a general map.
The solution to this problem, however, proved to be simple. The final image would be created by the children themselves, after they composed the conclusion to the story. (Author’s note: suitable here are the CLARO cards, which are meant to be designed by the user!) Based on what I have just outlined, we finally developed our approach for the storytelling club. During the initial phase the children practiced creating stories based on objects. In the second phase the SAGA cards were introduced. The children were divided into groups (two to three participants), each receiving two pictures and one object. The pictures were to mark the plot impetus and climax of the story, with the object taking on some significance during its development. The stories, usually short, were written down and the last image painted.
This approach would be practiced several times in varying groups. The main focus, during phase three, was on turning these mini-plots into real stories, to be told in a detailed and understandable way. In order to function as points of orientation for the children, the pictures, in the manner of an “oh! experience,” must stimulate the memory at the relevant points in the story. It was therefore important that these “oh! experiences” be as vivid as possible.
However, the pictures didn’t automatically stimulate this response. For the children the images were just pictures from the SAGA deck until the necessary connection between picture and story was established by acting out the story, the most important structural points being the plot impetus, the climax and the conclusion. The dramatised scenes were linked to one another by the SAGA images. As soon as the structure became clear, the story would be practised once again, this time with the pictures laid out on the floor.
After practising like this the children would remember the story without having to memorise it. It was even possible to improvise on the story with the structure firmly established in this way. And so with the help of Aristotle and SAGA it was possible for us to animate children to storytelling!
Marco Holmer ~ Storyteller and member of the Utrecht Storyteller Group
Utrecht, Holland
Excerpted from the book Strawberries Beyond My Window: Games of Association for Opening the Door to Creativity and Communication, by Waltraud Kirschke.
Card images are from the SAGA deck.
