RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

This was my favorite reading thus far. The article presents, yet again, a new idea of literacy. Storytelling is, in my opinion, one of the great lost arts. I think that with the emergence of technology, oral traditions slowly started to disappear in the United States. Instead of listening to their parents tell wonderful stories about times past, kids play video games or watch T.V. This, in one aspect, connects to what Perry mentions in the article regarding the relationship between marginalized groups and oral traditions. He mentioned that, historically, groups that have been kept at a disadvantage often place more emphasis on oral tradition. As a very wealthy country, the United States (for the most part) has been one of the world leaders in technological advancement. While our children are interacting with this on a daily basis, kids in third world countries are not; therefore, they are often entertained by great stories. The Sudanese boys reiterated this point when they said that “...in Africa, there's not a lot of work, so people gather to tell stories.”

Historically, a great example of a marginalized group within the U.S. affected by this phenomenon is slaves. This first group of African immigrants kept their dignity and traditions alive through oral storytelling. Because most of them were forced to remain illiterate, they passed down stories of family and tragedy and hope through story.

Personally, I can fully relate to the importance of oral stories. Some of my fondest memories involving my grandparents revolve around tales that they shared with me. I learned a great deal in school about WWII, the Great Depression, and Vietnam; however, I never fully grasped the “reality” of it all until I heard about it from the perspective of a person who lived through it. For example, my grandfather would tell me about our country's immediate response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He said that he remembered being out working in the fields when plane after plane would fly over—for two-three days at a time. These stories allowed me to “connect” to what I had learned. Also, like some of the African tribes, religious stories are an important part of my life—this is one area of my life today that storytelling still exists.

As for storytelling in the classroom, I believe that it creates a wonderful “diversified” learning environment. By creating their own narrative or drama on a topic, kids include bits and pieces of their lives. Recently, I had my seventh graders create a fictional narrative about time traveling to ancient China. They had to discuss which time periods they would travel to, what they would do, and who they would see. Aside from the basic elements that I wanted them to include, the kids stories were full of a variety of supplemental information. For example, I have several Asian children in my classes. They incorporated family religious traditions into various parts of their story (three of which have Buddhist traditions practiced in their homes; they are 2nd generation Americans).

Although I was already aware of the atrocities that have been taking place in Sudan over the past several years, the stories of these youth allowed me to fully connect to the young person's experience there. Hopefully, these boys voices will continue to be heard so that people across the world can personally connect to what is happening there.

Heather Coe