Once upon a time there was a big friendly project and all the children in the area wanted to take part. That?s how all good stories start, isn?t it? Well, no. Not if you listen to the storytellers who have been involved for the past two years with an innovative literacy scheme in Northern Ireland, says Zoe Reid.
Funded by the Western Education & Library Board, the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry has placed four storytellers ? Liz Weir, Patrick Ryan, Billy Teare and Frances Quinn ? in underachieving schools in the area to work with selected groups of children. Each storyteller works with a group over twelve sessions so that they really get to know the children and, perhaps more importantly, the children become familiar with them and with their methods. Far from using clichéd formulae, such as ?Once upon a time?, the storytellers start with the children themselves. They work, as it were, from the centre out. One of the ways in which they operate is to have children in pairs telling and retelling their own stories, recounting their own experiences to catch the imagination of their partner. While the telling of the story is one point of the exercise, equally important in this process is the reciprocal skill of listening. Gradually as their confidence builds, the children can start to relate to larger audiences. They learn how to structure and develop plots, use descriptive language to make their stories come alive, storyboard, illustrate, write their stories down, act them out or record them either on audio or video.
Over the twelve-week period the stories become progressively more complex and they started to deal with topics outside the children?s immediate experience but nevertheless relevant to their interests. They listen fascinated as the professionals tell them stories from myth and legend, from the children?s local history or from their own seemingly bottomless fund of intriguing yarns. Recasting the stories and relating them to other audiences then becomes a challenge. The audiences can vary from younger children in the same school to the elderly occupants of local residential homes.
The end of the twelve-week session is marked by an event often determined by the pupils themselves. Some may choose to write, illustrate and publish their stories, some to film or record them, but probably the most popular is to have a storytelling session
for parents and friends, where they can show off their new-found skills and have the pleasure of an immediate and positive response.
Reactions to the project have been very encouraging. The children?s literacy and oracy skills have improved immeasurably, but it is perhaps in their social and interpersonal skills that the most marked change has been noted by teachers and parents alike. The self-confidence gained from telling stories has enabled these children, one hopes, to live happily ever after.
Zoe Reid is Education Officer at Verbal Arts Centre. t: 028 7126 6946;
e: zoe.reid@verbalartscentre.co.uk