Summer SAVY 2017, Session 4/Day 2- Telling Tales (Rising 2nd/3rd)

Posted by morganr1 on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 in SAVY.

We had a terrific Tuesday in Telling Tales at SAVY. This morning, we reviewed some of what we learned yesterday about Geoffrey Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales as well as our classroom norms and procedures. Next, students developed Two-Minute Tales based on one person in this class photo. Ask your student which person their tale featured!

Students were asked to start their story with, “It was picture day,” and end their story with, “And then the photographer took the picture.” We then broke into two groups. While students told their Two-Minute Tale, a classmate worked on feedback for them, noting a “star” (or strength) and a “wish” (something to be revised or added). Students focused in their tale on describing how their character felt about picture day and their relationship with one other person in the picture while conveying a primary character trait. Once we came back together as a whole class, we worked together to tell a tale about the boy in the yellow shirt (the one with the cast on his right arm). We developed a great backstory for this character, whom we named Jon, that explained how he ended up with the cast (all thanks to a classmate who wouldn’t get off the monkey bars!).

After our Two-Minute Tales, we returned to Chaucer’s Prologue to meet the pilgrims. Students worked in pairs and read the relevant Modern English verse lines that described their pilgrim (the Knight, the Squire, the Yeoman, the Prioress, the Parson, the Miller, or the Summoner). Students read the passage, drew the pilgrim on a poster based on their description in the passage, and identified their primary character trait. After students shared their posters, we talked about which pilgrim would tell certain kinds of stories – funny ones (the Miller), ones that show courage (the Knight), or ones that teach a moral or lesson (the Parson). We did this to get students thinking about how the stories people tell is a reflection of who they are and their persona.

Towards the end of class, students learned some new literary terminology related to characters. Students also learned about how we learn as readers who characters are and what they are like – through their dialogue, including diction and syntax; through their foil; or through primary character traits who mark them as a flat character. We also talked about why flat characters are more common in oral stories and in books for young children. Finally, students began developing a persona to inhabit on Friday’s pilgrimage around Peabody. We even took a walk outside as our persona, interacting with each other.

Tomorrow, students will begin sketching the stories they will tell on Friday’s pilgrimage and learn about conflict in storytelling.

Want to know more about what your SAVY student learned today? Ask them these questions:
· What’s the difference between a flat and a round character? And where do we most often see flat characters?
· Can you, in a word, describe the pilgrims you met in class today? How did their physical characteristics reflect their character traits?
· Can I meet your persona? (Students were challenged to have dinner tonight in their persona, so be on the lookout for some actresses, a very busy pastry chef, a neurologist, two wrestlers, or any other number of folks.)

Look forward to seeing these characters back in class tomorrow.

Dr. Elizabeth Self