Storytelling is an essential part of our lives. Whether we are listening to an old story form our grandparents, watching a play, reading a book, or writing a story it is a way we can all communicate. “Story telling represents a powerful sociocultural practice shaped by and closely linked to a community beliefs values and attitudes” p. 321 for the three young men in the research study storytelling did just that. It connected the boys to the past and their communities. The men wanted so much to keep their cultures and values alive as they integrated into the American culture.
As found in the research the refugee boys told what they called “traditional stories”. We all can relate to traditional stories. I think back to my second grade class this year when we were reading a traditional Hispanic story sharing family and food. This is a traditional story that all students were able to connect to especially my students from Mexico and Puerto Rico. Within our own classroom we can set the stage for our students to have an experience from another culture. We can find literature to share or ask our families within our classes to share their own stories and traditions. We are then giving our students an genuine purpose for their learning.
Even though the boys are now in the United States it is important that “They keep their identity”. P. 331 It is important that no matter where you are, you never forget where you came from. The no longer have the connections to the elders in their culture they now must educate others to keep the cultural traditions and ways heard alive. Through sharing their stories these traditions can live on and the systems they live by will stay with them.
Kara Scott
Comments (4)
Kara,
I enjoyed reading about you sharing the Hispanic text with your students and the connections that they were able to make when the literature is meaningful and identifies with their culture. It reminded me of the Hmong students that I had in my class a couple of years ago. They would delight in telling ghost stories about 'spirits' that lived in the forests of their parents homelands.I asked them how they were able to retell such great stories and they explained it was because their grandmothers told them regularly at family gatherings. Unlike the lost boys they were able to keep more of the traditional storytelling alive from their culture because they still have their elders with them to learn from.
Posted by Karen Massey-Cerda | June 16, 2011 8:31 PM
Posted on June 16, 2011 20:31
Kara,
I agree that we could infuse the art of storytelling into our classrooms by utilizing our students' parents. I have many different cultures represented in my classroom, but unfortunately I seem to find myself focusing on what most would consider to be the "standard" curriculum. I am not proud of this, but with the pressures placed on us as educators, as well as our students, by the EOGs and other standardized tests, I don't always do what I know to be TRULY BEST for my students. I hope that as I grow and continue to develop as an educator, I can find ways to ensure that I am truly integrating multicultural education into my classroom and helping students learn to appreciate and celebrate our differences.
Posted by Leslie Rothenberger | June 17, 2011 11:08 AM
Posted on June 17, 2011 11:08
I think the term "transformed storytelling" fits nicely to the situation of the Sudanese participants because that is exactly what has occurred - a transformation from the old to the new. The participants realized that a new culture often means a new way of doing traditional things. Though I'm sure they miss the traditional oral stories, writing them down is the best way to impact American society, and essentially, it allows for an even wider audience that spans worldwide as these written stories become translated in other languages. This article only convinces me further that literacy affects our lives in multiple facets - even when we aren't intentionally looking! Your example of forming a multicultural classroom by incorporating food and stories from other cultures is a great way to show students that literacy spans among all cultures in various ways - written and oral.
Posted by Melissa Riley | June 17, 2011 9:58 PM
Posted on June 17, 2011 21:58
What I liked most about this article is the therapeutic benefits of storytelling -- not only cognitive but also emotional and psychological. And listening to stories is simply fascinating and fun!
Posted by Dr. Jackson | June 20, 2011 10:25 AM
Posted on June 20, 2011 10:25