Storytelling Lesson #2

Heroes Overcome Obstacles

Overview: 

Stories of “Good Guys” achieving success against great odds, achieving definitive victory against those odds, seem to be particularly satisfying to the human soul.  Whether the hero is likely or unlikely, with supernatural powers or only luck, he or she, at some point, must overcome an obstacle.  The obstacle must be overcome by strength and/or ingenuity. 

This is the ongoing struggle that human beings, and perhaps especially children, face. A good Hero story inspires us to be valiant in overcoming our own obstacles.

Materials: 

Poster or projections of heroes, real and fictional, some readily recognizable, others obscure.  Include a variety of ethnic and genders, current and historical heroes. Group the fictional heroes together and the nonfictional heroes together.  You will need the group of fictional heroes for Lesson Three.

·         Horton Hatches the Egg, by Dr. Suess, Random House, New York, 1968; or other “Hero” story, teacher’s choice.

·         White board and markers

Vocabulary:  (as is appropriate for grade level)

Fictional, real, hero, heroine, protagonist, main character, “good guy”

Objectives:

·         Students will differentiate between pictures (names) of real and fictional heroes.

·         Students will participate in pantomime of large physical obstacle.

·         Students will generate a list of ways to overcome the pantomimed obstacle.

·         Students will participate in sound and motion during telling of the Hero story.

Procedure:

1.    Establish pantomime of an obstacle. For example, you might say, “We’re going to pretend for a little while.  Loook!  Look at this huge rock that’s right in front of me.  It’s so tall I don’t know how I can get over it.  It’s so wide I don’t see how I can get around it.  What a problem! (Push and pull the obstacle)  I just can’t seem to move this obstacle, this problem, at all.  Let’s call this big problem an obstacle.  Whew! I’m tired.  Can anyone think of a way I can get on the other side of this obstacle?” 

2.    Choose a student to describe his way of solving the problem.  Then invite the student up to demonstrate his idea.  Work with him as a partner in the pantomime.  For example, if a student’s solution is to use a ladder and climb over the top, volunteer to help him get the pantomimed ladder, and climb up, before or after the student.  Once you are both on the other side of the obstacle, thank the child profusely.  Ask him to “give me five”, or a similar victory ritual.  Then say to the child “Hooray!”  You overcame the obstacle!  You’re my hero!”

3.    Repeat step #2 at least two more times, with alternate ways of overcoming the obstacle. 

4.    Using the white board, write ”Good guys”.  Ask students if it is reasonable to describe all the pictured heroes as “good guys”.  Write the word “hero” on the board.  Share with students the fact that this is another term to describe “good guys”.

5.    Write, “Heroes overcome obstacles.”   Ask for an example from the poster of a hero who overcame an obstacle.  Keep equating “solving a big problem”, with “overcoming an obstacle.  Wrote names of the various heroes on the board.  Asked children to identify which are fictional, and which are real life heroes.  

 

6.     Also, wrote on the board the words heroine, and protagonist.  Told students that these are also words that often describe the main character in a story.  This character is someone who overcomes an obstacle. (Heroine describes a female hero.)

7.    Announced to students that you have a story to share about a hero.  Told them there will be places during the story for the audience to help the storyteller.

8.    Read Horton Hatches the Egg, potential places for the audience to join in the dramatic story telling, from their seats, could be as follows (Note: Don’t forget to use the illustrations as clues to help children infer what they can add to the story through their sound and motion stories):

·         Invite the students to make the sound and motions of a storm during” It poured and it lightninged! It thundered!  It rumbled!”

·         “Soon it was Autumn. The leaves blew away.”  Sound of wind, motion of leaves flying.

·         “…and said with a sneeze,”  Invite students to sneeze as Horton would sneeze.

·         “They taunted. They teased him.”   Invite students to make “Nyaaa, nyaaa, nyaaa, nyaa, nyaa” or other playground teasing noises.

·         “He held his head high, and he threw out his chest…” Invite students to do the same taking Horton’s stance.

·         “Rolling and tossing and splashed by the spray…” Invite students to make the sounds and motion of the ocean.

·         Invite students to make the appropriate sounds during “A thumping!  A bumping!  A wild alive scratching!”

·         Invite students to make the appropriate sound after “…the egg burst apart!”

·         Invite students to repeat everything the crowd says, such as “What’s this all about…?” And ”My goodness!  May gracious!” and “My word!  It’s something brand new!  It’s an elephant-bird!”

·         “And they sent him home happy…” allow students to provide “100%!”

9.    Review how this fictional character, Horton, was the hero of the story, by helping students to identify the obstacle Horton overcame.  You might want to compare his behavior to Mayzie’s or the hunters’ behavior.

Assessment: 

·         Were students able to identify fictional and nonfictional heroes?

·         Did students participate in the dramatic play of the Obstacle pantomime, including offering ways in which to overcome the obstacle?

·         Did the students participate, as cued, using sound and motion during the Hero story?

Integration/Correlation/Extension/Modification

·         Invite students to write or draw a picture of a story in which they, themselves, are the heroes.  The obstacle the hero overcomes should be clearly identifiable.

·         Invite students to read Horton Hears a Who, also by Dr. Suess.  Encourage them to find places in which the audience could add sound and motion to aide the storyteller in the sharing of the story.

·         Ask students to think of more unlikely heroes in unusual situations.  (A lion protecting a lamb, a mouse helping a cat,  a fisherman helping a fish to escape, a kindergartner saving a sixth grader, etc.)

·         Concentrate on the concept of print hints that help the reader understand how Dr. Suess would like the words to sound in read aloud.  Point out the italics and bold print, the rhythm and rhymes, the punctuation marks, etc. which can help the reader make creative choices in vocal expression such as tone, timber, tempo, dynamics, word color, etc.  have volunteers work on different parts of the story to present to their classmates.

·         For older students:  Ask students to represent a nonfictional hero’s obstacle in a visual art medium.  (For example, a student might draw a picture of Jackie Robinson jumping over a hurdle representing racism.)  Discuss how the hero story, told in words, can be translated into visual art.

·         For older students:  The hero of a story is most often the protagonist of a story.  However, sometimes he/she is not.  Challenge students to take a hero story, and without changing the main plot points of the story make another character the protagonist.  Tell the story from another character’s point of view.

This week's lesson is about PANTOMIME and at the end of the class, everyone will have a chance to "act out" with pantomime our science vocabulary words to get a few classmates to guess what the word is.

1)  We will start class with the 1st chapter from a book all about the Apollo 11 mission.

2a) (optional) I was hoping to introduce PANTOMIME with showing this super funny 30 sec commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXuKc_TjUhw

2b)  We will briefly talk about pantomime and then get up 

and play a game called "Red Ball Thank You" - in this game we start with a red ball while we stand in a big circle. When passing the imaginary red ball, we must first make eye contact with who you want to pass the ball to, say their name along with the color of the ball. The person receiving the ball will say, "Red ball thank you." 

After we play that a little bit, we'll switch to another game called 

3) "Sparkle Ball" where they will all have a chance to practice spelling our 8 vocabulary words.

This is with an actual ball and with each pass of the real ball, the next letter of the word is said.

4) We'll have a seat and have a more in depth lesson on PANTOMIME to get ready for...

...Lastly,

the big finale, we will break into three groups of about 8 students each as we 

jump back up to each get, folded up on small paper, one of the vocabulary words. 

5) We will use PANTOMIME to get the rest of the small group to figure out/guess what each word is.

Yesterday we reviewed the parts of a story and the three ways actors add information to a scene (verbally, emotionally, and space work) before I read our nonfiction book, "On a Beam of Light, a Story of Albert Einstein" click HERE for review. I wanted them to listen for the different emotions and to pay attention to the different tempos I would use when reading the book. So we had a chance to talk about tempo and after reading the book also about imagination. We also talked about lasers and space travel.


After the class Becky Wallin, Cathy Douglas and I talked about getting clear on what our long term goals for the next 10 visits would be. Because next Thursday is Halloween, we will use next week for getting more specific lesson plans mapped out.  Speaking of maps, I was all over the map with the things we covered yesterday. I lacked focus but was excited about the nonfiction book I brought to share. Things were taught but for what purpose?

For our next lesson, I think we will write a story to act out using these new vocabulary words:

Appearance 
The way something looks

Axis 
A straight line about which something turns

Model 
A small copy of something

Moon 
A large object that revolves around Earth

Orbit 
The path followed by an object going around another

Revolution 
To move in an orbit while rotating around an object

Rotation 
To turn around a center point or axis (spinning)

Sphere 
A space figure that has the shape of a round ball

Memory games and paying attention.

We started with reviewing the elements of story - Characters, Setting and Plot.  

I had them get out a sheet of paper to write down each element as we read through the story "Empty Pot" by Henry Holt.   Here is a link to a review of the book.

After the class, Ms. Douglas suggested using a Graphic Organizer for next time. She also suggested using some non-fiction stories too. I'm excited. Today I found a handful of books that might work and they are on hold right now as I write this. A year ago I read a great story with an over arching metaphor for Jackie Robinson and his heroic struggle to be the first black professional baseball player called "Testing the Ice" written by his daughter. This is one of the books on hold and I'm looking forward to revisiting the book and to see if it will work for our class. 

I continued to use "One Second Party" - OH YEAH! and they remembered. 

Another suggesting Cathy recommended was at the top of my class time, ask the students to clear their desks. This will work great as a cue that it's time to begin. In the words of Jack Lemmon, "It's magic time." Cathy noticed that although at the top of the lesson, the kids were a bit noisy - "they were with you".

After we reviewed how The Empty Pot had two main characters and what each of their different "problems" were. We also looked at how all the children of the kingdom, as a group could be considered a 'character' in the story and that their problem/goal was to be the successor to the emperor. We analysed the plot and also talked about we the author's theme or message could be. We talked about honesty and always doing your best.

We then played two memory games. I tied the importance of memory to how an actor will have to remember their lines. We had 12 items on a small table and they had to look (or hear) at all the objects. (some of the kids went out of the room to just listen to us name the objects to make it more difficult)  I then taught them about "chunking" as a memory technique. 

http://lifehacker.com/5946606/improve-your-memory-with-the-chunking-technique

For our last game, I had 5 kids get up and stand in line. I gave them numbers 1 -5 in order. Then they went out and when they came back in - they were all mixed up. The rest of the class had to put them back in order. We played the game two more times with 8 students and then 11! The other kids got it right both times. I was amazed. 

I also taught the kids Meisner's technique how the only two things that effect an actor in a scene is what is going on emotionally with the scene partner (happy, sad, fearful, angry or loving) and the imaginary circumstance.  That's what I remembered at least from studying with David Kagen in L.A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meisner_technique

Elements of Stories and establishing some feedback mechanics.

Friday morning, Oct. 4th 2013 was my first visit to Elk Meadows.

To get an idea of what I taught these wonderful 3rd graders, check this out.

I used many of the techniques found in this video that I only just watched myself the first time for my IP&T class less than a week prior to my visit.

Not only did I teach that CHARACTERS are people and sometimes animals, SETTING includes where and when, and PLOT is a problem, events, and solution... but we also set up some feedback mechanics that I'll cover later.

We then read "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Polacco so we could practice identifying the characters, setting(s) and the elements of the plot. They did awesome. I told them I had only skimmed the book but because Ms. Douglas said it was a good book, I would like to read it with them. They said they had read the book the year before and were excited to hear it again. They asked if they could flicker the lights when there was lightning - they already knew who the light monitor was and he jumped up and was poised ready at the light switches. I also suggested they pound their fists on their desks to make the thunder sound. We had to do a quick science lesson about how light travels at 186,000 miles per second and that sound travels slower (at only 340 miles per second). They caught on real quick and we were into the story having fun. I did a great "old grandma" voice but my Russian accent was horrible and I ended up just dropping it. At the end of the story we wrote identified the different parts of the story and I was impressed that Cash even identified the "Thunder" as a character in the story.

The Feedback Mechanics
I also established that they must say "OH YEAH!" when I say "One second party!". I also told them when I ask a questions when my hand is up, I want them to raise their hand if they know the answer. If I put my hands out and say "everyone" at the end of a question, I want them to all call out the answer together. (Sometimes I put my hands out and stop short of finishing a sentence, and they know to also finish the sentence now too.) So, we've got some ways to unify the group and get good feedback if they are following along now.

In closing we practiced with one more book that I brought called, "The Bug Cemetery" by Frances Hill, Author, Vera Rosenberry, Illustrator.

Before I read the story, I shared a quick lesson about how stories are made up of information. I told them I have done improvisation comedy for over 20 years and that it is my strong suite. I told them there are three main ways to add information to a scene: 1. Verbally 2. Emotionally and 3. Space work. I then wrote the 5 main emotions on the board: happy, sad, fear, anger, loving. I shared this with them because I knew there were some sad parts of the story.

I'm excited to go back next week and review what we learned. We will also begin to write our own stories and after we develop a story with a few different characters, we'll actually get up and act out a story! This will probably not all happen during our 2nd visit but we'll see!

Here are a couple pictures from my morning:

The morning drop off hustle and bustle.



First time at Elk Meadows. 

Meeting face to face and sharing ideas.

So today was the kick-off meeting/luncheon.

After a flurry of emails back and forth these last few weeks, we got to finally meet face to face and share ideas. I was also happy that Cathy suggested we bring pictures of our kids (in her case, some grand kids - 5 grand daughters all born within 9 months of each other, which includes a set of twins!)

To say "we are all very excited for the students in both classes" would be an understatement!

I knew from an email from Cathy Douglas, that she has 23 students but only today learned how many 6th graders Jeff Loreen has...<drum roll please>... 32!!! That's a great number!  32 can be two big groups of 16, and groups with 4 or 8 and 16 pairs. Fun!

For Cathy Douglas's 3rd grade class, a couple of the things I remember most about what she would like to co-create is to aid them in tapping into the power of their imaginations. I LOVE IT! And she wants to allow her self to personally to learn how to be more flexible.  This is going to be fun!

For Jeff Loreen, what I'm excited about is to assist with productions he's been doing on an annual basis already. He said there's a program at the end of the school year as well as this Dec. I will just be an audience member for their first show - which is in a few weeks to celebrate Halloween. There were quite a few things that he shared with me about his students that are very exciting. I have a strong feeling that his 6th graders are quite extraordinary and his expectations he holds for them, have been allowing them to flourish. I believe that our only limitation for our group will be our own imaginations. I initially thought I would wait until just before Thanksgiving to meet them but when I found out about their show coming up, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them in action.

I will be meeting Cathy Douglas's 3rd graders - tomorrow early in the morning. I'm so excited I can hardly sleep!

Jeff Loreen & Dave Shipp 

Cathy Douglas & Dave Shipp

First contact!

Today I sent an email introduction to both teachers I'll be working with and am looking forward to meeting them both in less than two weeks.

I've also been reviewing the core standards to get ideas for what we might be doing in class.