Summer SAVY 2017, Session 4/Day 3- Telling Tales (Rising 2nd/3rd)
On our third day of Telling Tales, students dove back into The Canterbury Tales, thinking especially about conflict, and took off with their own tales in preparation for Friday’s pilgrimage around Peabody. In the morning, students worked in small groups to turn a shoebox full of random items into an interesting tale, focusing especially on identifying a protagonist and a central conflict. We heard stories about a man who got pecked by a chicken during his walk through the forest, met a snake who likes to party, learned about an astronaut who was stuck in space, and were introduced to a princess with a magical crown. After each story, students shared their “stars” and “wishes” with the group as a way to focus on the feedback process.
After learning about different types of conflict, students worked with a partner to identify conflicts in various Disney movies as either internal or external, noting the protagonist and antagonist in each conflict. We then talked briefly about how conflict connects to theme and how some stories use the conflict to teach a moral, often in the form of an allegory. We then watched a short clip of The Nun’s Priest’s tale, called Chanticleer and the Fox. Students identified a few conflicts in the tale, and then we used this to connect to the moral of the tale. Because this is a trickster tale, we also connected to other similar tales in Aesop’s Fables.
We spent the second half of class with students working independently to start sketching the tale for Friday. Students were challenged to identify their protagonist, their main character trait, and the conflict in the tale and conferenced with me and our TA, Lexie, about their ideas. During our walk-and-talk outside, students tried out their tale with partner to get initial feedback, then used that to continue expanding their tale towards the end of class. We also watched a very short interview with Mo Willems (of Pigeon and Elephant and Piggy fame) on the writing process. We talked about how to grow and then trim stories, that they don’t have to be written from beginning to end, and that part of a storyteller’s job is to make tough choices about to leave out in order to make the story for engaging and easier to follow. We will continue working on that tomorrow as students finalize their stories.
Want to know more about what your SAVY student learned today? Ask them these questions:
· What was the moral of Chanticleer and the Fox? How did that connect to the central conflict?
· What’s the difference between and internal and external conflict?
· Can you tell me about the story you’re developing in class.
I look forward to seeing students tomorrow – and all of you on Friday!
Dr. Elizabeth Self
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