From the twists in the tales

Deepa Kiran

‘Please tell me a story’ is a heart-felt request that has surely been made to every teacher and parent. Often, the request is granted much to the delight of the eager listeners. What draws us to storytelling so deeply? How do we choose the stories appropriate for telling? How can we make storytelling more effective? How can we use this art of oral narration in a learning context? These are the questions that Story Time will attempt to answer.

The column will always begin with a story, which will be followed by post-storytelling activities that explore various facets of facilitating learning. The stories in this column will be chosen to suit 7 to 11 year old children. These stories and the activities that follow can be simplified or made complex depending on the target audience.

The frog race
“Yes! Come on! Faster!” shouted the animals of the jungle as they watched a unique race. It was a race of frogs up the vertical walls of a castle. A very strange race indeed it was. The frogs had decided to race up the walls of a castle which was as high as a hill. All the animals came to watch and cheer. Hundreds of frogs contested but they all gave up very soon.

Pichuk! pichuk! the frogs fell off the slippery wall. Soon there were only three left. These three kept climbing on and on, higher and higher. The animals below began to worry for the frogs now. “Hmmm…what if the frogs have a bad fall and hurt themselves?” they thought. So instead of cheering and encouraging them, the animals began to shout, “Stop! Come back! It’s not safe! Return now!”

These shouts soon reached the three climbing frogs. Two of them stopped in their tracks. They decided to return and very carefully came back to the ground sound and safe. The third frog however kept going. Forget returning, he didn’t even stop for a moment. On and on and on and on he went. Higher and higher. There was absolute silence below as everyone watched with bated breath.

Birds flew up to try and warn him but they were too late. The frog had reached the top of the castle! “Hurrah!” everyone cheered and clapped below. The victorious frog sat there on the top of the castle. The excited birds said, “Congratulations frog! You must tell us what gave you the courage to continue even when so many animals were discouraging you?”

And what do you think was the winning frog’s answer? He turned around confused and said “Eh?”
You see the frog was deaf and so he hadn’t heard anything!

Activity: what and why?
Ask

Did you enjoy this story? What did you enjoy in the story? What did you like the most in the story?

These are the kind of questions that can be posed to children just after they have listened to the story. It is important to ask such questions as they allow freedom for the child to speak up. They offer legroom for responses which are beyond right and wrong. They provide an opportunity to communicate in a non-competitive environment.

Listen

It is equally important to patiently and gently hear out individual responses. Asking for personal opinion encourages children to speak up and often the shy ones also begin to respond voluntarily.

This happens because after listening to the story children are in a highly creative space. They have after all just created the entire story in their minds! Their responses at this time are bound to be full of creative energy and uninhibited joyful sharing.

For most children the comprehension-based, closed-ended questions will simply kill the joy and confidence of sharing a response. Such questions need to wait for a while. Asking what they liked in the story and listening patiently to the answers is a beautiful and powerful way of acknowledging the child and her feelings. And let us not forget that these responses are also indicative of comprehension.

Through this apparently simple activity the teacher is offering unconditional love to her listeners. She is saying, “You matter and I am listening.” There is no right or wrong answer. There is no better or brighter reply. The act of storytelling and listening builds a strong bond between the teller and the listener.

This special bond and the creative energies generated together hold immense potential. The teacher in the classroom can leverage these in innumerable interesting ways to facilitate learning and child development.

We will look at more possibilities in the following parts of the series. Along the way some telling tips will also be shared.

Telling tips for this month’s story

1) Make cheering sounds of the animals in a high pitched and loud voice.
2) Dramatize the lonely frog as anxious yet moving on upwards.
3) Add in a small song, like a boat race folk song to enliven the telling.
4) Imitate the silent anxious animals staring up at the dangerous scene.
5) Ask questions such as, ‘Can you name some animals who were watching the race?’
6) For children below 10, start the story by explaining the race first.

Hope you enjoy exploring this story. Do rehearse a few times before sharing it with the class. Happy storytelling!

The author is a storyteller, educationist, writer and voice-over artist. She holds storytelling performances with music and dance woven in. She conducts training workshops for teachers on the art of storytelling and using it in the classroom. She is also the founder of Story Arts India (www.storyartsindia.com), an organization that offers storytelling shows and training programs for children, teachers, parents and all storytelling enthusiasts. She can be reached at over2deepakiran@gmail.com.