I'm not sure of the pedagogical implications of rhymes, but they're pretty, easy to remember and fun to make up.Īfter the course, I talked with people and thought a good deal, and I began to wonder whether the pattern I had been trying to teach in the third grade might not be more appropriate in the seventh and eighth grades. (Is it 16 times that researchers have decided we need to be subjected to a fact before we are fairly sure to learn it?) Repetition of a pattern gives understanding, assurance and self-confidence. Repetition enables a child (all of us) to understand. I work with much simpler story patterns, and we do a modern or historical or national version of a specific folktale, especially those which include rhymes and repetition. Now when I work in the third grade, I use folktales as a springboard to talk about other cultures and other people. The pattern I had used with the third grade was too complicated for them, and I didn't give them clear enough guidelines. It is a structure that enables a process to happen. It allows them to explore who they are and who they want to be. A folktale enables each child to be the hero or heroine of his or her own story, and to go on journeys, face dangers, solve problems and return home safely at the end. Writing a story based on a folktale pattern-be it a tall tale, a pourquoi tale, a trickster tale or whatever- gives children a recognizable structure within which to work, but it allows them to do anything and everything within that structure. I still think folktales are appropriate for third graders-for any age. Maybe because Falmouth is on the sea, children of both sexes drew boats as well. They wanted to use pens, pencils and magic markers-anything that made LINES-to draw unicorns, rainbows, princesses, rabbits (the girls), guns, rockets, tanks, knights and trucks (the boys). They wanted to know about Native Americans, and knights and the Greeks they wanted all the details. They didn't like using cutout construction paper cutting and pasting was an activity of first and second graders, and they were THIRD graders. They were much more interested in the precision of the Indian symbols, in making a key which explained the meaning of each symbol. It was clear that they understood the story structure to a large extent and could do what we asked, but somehow they weren't being touched to the core. Luckily, I was also teaching with another volunteer mother, Shirley Wozena, who brought in Native American folktales and showed the class examples of sand-paintings and rugs and baskets, and talked about the symbolism of the pictures. I began to work out some of the structural principles of illustration and had the children use cutout construction paper to illustrate the stories they wrote. I gave the children a formula to follow-similar to the one I call the Hero/ine Adventure Journey-in which each child was the hero or heroine of his or her own story. I first taught as a volunteer in the Falmouth Public Schools, in my daughter's third grade class. Our best work is not only meaningful to those who read or see it, it is the most meaningful to ourselves: it helps us to solve our troubles, assuage our pain, rejoice in our happiness and come to terms with our lives. Or people would ask, "How do you come up with your ideas?" "How do you draw so well?" The more I thought about it, the more I felt that I simply had access to and familiarity with certain patterns and structures that others weren't aware of, and that if I could just figure out what the patterns were and show them to people, everyone would be able to make stories and pictures that were meaningful. Over the years, many parents have told me how much they wanted to write something for their children, something better than what is 'out there', but they didn't know how to begin. The second reason was peoples' questions about writing and illustrating. One, writing and illustrating is a very solitary business, and I wanted to be with other people. I began teaching this course for two reasons. Now you know some popular African folktales with moral lessons and plenty of entertainment.How to Write a Hero/ine Adventure Journey Folktale: A Manual for Teachers of Grades 8 and 9 First published in 1988 READ ALSO : Popular traditional black South African recipes and South African food When the dog got hungry, he forgot to deliver the message on time and human beings ended up being buried because the foolish sheep told the wrong message. The moral of this story is that people should not be distracted easily like the dog was when the Creator entrusted him with the secret to eternal life. After the defeat, the worms were relegated to living underground. This story encourages the idea of strength in numbers the same way the ants overwhelmed the worms with their number. 16 African symbols for God, love, and protection 14.
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