Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Fran Stallings, a storyteller based in Oklahoma, works on a weekly basis with a local 2nd grade class (7- to 8-year-old children). Their classteacher, Mr C, uses the story she tells as the basis for an amazing amount of his teaching, in particular in the STEM subjects.

Fran has posted some details of this work on the Storytell listserv. She has generously given permission for me to publish some of them here – until such time as she creates pages on her own website.

Below are some of them.

The year’s retrospective

Yesterday was my last Tuesday with Mr C’s second graders. I had sent him a list of all the stories I shared this year: 33 visits, in 3 of which I added a short extra story (total 36 tales). He projected the list, half at a time, on the classroom’s “Smart Board.”

I read off the titles of the first half with the students, adding a sentence or two to remind them of the story when the title didn’t ring a bell. Then Mr C divided them into six groups of 3-4 students and I asked each group to privately select one of the stories from which they could act out a scene -without words! (Note: this eliminates some stories that rely on puns or dialogue.)

After they had several minutes to prepare, they took turns presenting their scenes while classmates guessed which story they had chosen. I was amazed how they remembered and re-enacted scenes so vividly that we could quickly see what they were representing. A girl mimed painting pictures, then curled up to sleep while a boy crawled out menacingly and was attacked by a girl on all fours: The Boy Who Painted Cats! A boy shook an invisible hat on his head and was joined by friends in the dance: Anansi and the Hat Shaking Dance! In a few cases, a later group was dismayed to see a scene from the story they had chosen, but their scene was different: no problem.

Many students proudly pointed out what they had done to show who was who in the scene. Their cleverness was impressive, and I’m sure they suggested ideas to later groups. It was all very quick and improv.

After all groups had a turn, Mr C projected the second half of the list and we did it again. They whole review took less than an hour, and left many titles still waiting to be acted out. Perhaps they’ll fill spare minutes in the remaining few days of school.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with Mr C and his students this year! I have been saving my posts to Storytell, as well as notes on stories I didn’t have time to post, along with the jpg “maps” (diagrams of curriculum applications for each story) that Mr C composed. My summer homework will be to contrive a separate section of my website to house this material so that it can be more widely available. Meanwhile, with my permission Richard Martin has uploaded some of my posts to his own on-line handbook for teachers. I’m glad Mr C’s ideas are being shared!

I look foward to working with Mr C’s new students next school year. Meanwhile, he’s doing two magic shows at our public library next month! I hope to see some of the kids again there.

Below are some more of Fran’s posts

They are in no particular order, but serve to show what is possible.

• Baba Yaga and the Girl with the Kind Heart
• Caps for Sale
• How Turkey got its Beard and Rabbit got a Short Tail
• The Squire’s Bride
• In With Oni
• Animal Zodiac
• Number Petition
• The Man with the Iron Head
• The Snow Maiden
• The Stonemason’s Daughter

Visit Fran’s website

to find more about her wide range of work.

In particular, explore the Earth Teller Tales, where she shares many articles about teaching natural science through storytelling.

Fran’s article The Web of Silence: Storytelling’s Power to Hypnotize is a deep exploration of many aspects of the storytelling experience, including the storytelling trance. It also offers great insight into the whole art itself.

Fran can be contacted here.

Further resources relating to storytelling in schools

• Science teaching: Hawthorn Press
• Generally using storytelling in schools: Storytelling schools