Multicultural Storytelling, Music and Community-Building:

Resources for Dual Language Learners in Head Start and Early Head Start

By Nina Jaffe and Asher Delerme presenters and co-producers

I: INTRODUCTION AND KEY CONCEPTS

National Dual Language Institute 2008

CLIP: Welcome eh!

Nina Jaffe: Welcome eh, welcome eh, we’ve come to tell you welcome eh… Welcome eh, welcome eh, we’ve come to tell you welcome eh….‌

When I learned this song from my friend Carol Davidson in NYC who hailed from Guyana. I love this song and I was working at that time in an Early Childhood setting. And I said wow, this song can do lots of things; let me see what I can do with this song. Welcome eh….

What else can we do with this song? Welcome eh, welcome eh, clap your hands and welcome eh…. I saw a great move in the back…

Welcome eh, welcome eh….

Welcome everyone. My name is Nina Jaffe. I am a children’s book author, storyteller, but before all that I was a musician at my mother’s knee. She taught me songs, stories and I’m so happy that we have friends here and friends that we can share all these wonderful musical traditions with.

So it will give me great pleasure to introduce my dear friend, colleague, long time brother and spirit, Asher Delerme. Hails from New Haven, Bridgeport. I hail from NYC. I am on the graduate faculty of Bank Street College of Education. Asher is also a featured musician with Mika Tal World they are known all throughout the state of Connecticut as artists in residents and artists in the schools. And he is executive director of CASA. Chemical Abuses Services Agency, which really says there is no healing without culture. Without people feeling and connecting with their own culture there really can be no true healing.

So with this wonderful pioneer friend of mine and all of you, let me say, Let it come and you say, Let it go. Ready? Let it come - Let it go -- let it come-- let it go!

Linguistic Democracy/Advocacy/Voice

“Just as all people should be considered equal by law…

so all languages should be considered equal as well.” Joshua A. Fishman – Georgetown University Roundtable

CLIP: Session intro

Nina Jaffe: So the lyrics of the songs, this workshop, we are really here to present and share with you, the worlds of oral tradition, of storytelling, songs, games, that are really the birthright of every human being. Where ever we live, however we grow up, even before we are born we know that before the child is born the child is hearing the sound of the mother’s voice and feeling the rhythm of the mother’s body. And when that child is born all the languages that were possible inherently available to be spoken by, the magic miracle of the human brain, slowly gets shaped into whatever the myriad of languages are that exist in the world today.

Nina Jaffe: There are approximately 6,900 languages spoken around the world …

Here is a list – by number of speakers – according to Ethnologue: Languages of the World

Mandarin – Hindi – Spanish – Arabic - Portuguese – Bengali – Russian – Japanese -

Panjabi – Javanese – Korean – Vietnamese - Telugu – Marathi – French – Urdu …

And many more …

Tagalong – Swahili – Mixteco – Hausa -‌

What are the languages and dialects spoken in your community?

CLIP: Plena

Nina Jaffe: If we don’t have drums, what can we use to keep our spirits ? Now I’m going to teach you a secret rhythm (Well it’s not really a secret but it feels like a secret). Since we don’t have all the drums, this rhythm you are hearing right now is called plena. And it is an indigenous music created by the people of Puerto Rico combining three of the major traditions of the island. The rhythms of West Africa, the güiro of the taíno, and the language and melodies of español, of Europe. And all together we create this wonderful brew, this wonderful music called plena. Clap Clap….Hear it? We call that a conversation. That’s right. Language and Identity

Reclaiming Yiddish - Nina’s story

CLIP: Ale brider

Nina Jaffe: My grandparents were immigrants. They lived in Poland, in a town called Bialystok. And because of the circumstances of the Jewish community at the time, it was important for them to leave their home and come to the United States. So my grandmother, Celia, rest in peace, came to this language speaking Yiddish. I think she spoke Russian. That was always a matter of pride.

But there were no bilingual programs when she came. And because of that my mother could not speak Yiddish. And therefore I don’t speak Yiddish, but I can sing in Yiddish. So ash, here is a little song that really is for the end but we will sing it now. You don’t need to look in the back because the one word that’s there is a universal word from Yiddish. You ever heard the term OY. Oy can mean, I’m so happy, and it can mean, oyyaya. But today we’re in the Oy.

Singing : Oy yoy yoy yoy yayoy… Un mir zaynen ale brider Oy oy ale brider

un mir zingen freileche lider oy oy oy

un mir halten zich en eynem Oy oy zich en eynem

Azelches is nito ba keynem Oy oy oy!‌

Nina Jaffe: The words mean essentially: ‘we are all brothers and sisters, we need to stick together, we need to be unified’.

Growing up bilingual Asher’s story

CLIP: Asher speaking (recorded July 23, 2010)

Asher Delerme: For me it was a little bit different in that I was torn between two languages and really two cultures in a way because we spoke Spanish at home, nothing but Spanish, but I would go to school and we spoke English. So I was a bit confused about where, first of all, culturally where I stood, what place I was in.

And I felt comfortable at home, and sometimes I didn’t feel comfortable and sometimes I would feel comfortable at school, but sometimes I didn’t feel comfortable there. So there was a lot of, sort of a struggle, just trying to figure out where I fit in and also linguistically where I fit in, so that, you know, which was my voice, what was my true voice.

And so I struggled with that up until about junior high school, or middle school, some people call it, where I met a teacher, who, a bilingual teacher, who was teaching us Spanish. And not only did she teach us Spanish and speaking Spanish correctly, but also she taught us to respect our own heritage and where we came from and that they had value and that had a place in this multicultural society. So that meant a lot in terms of my own self esteem and ultimately my own self-confidence about who I was.

Cultural transmission in school settings across boundaries of age, language and ethnicity

CLIP: Nina speaking

Nina Jaffe: I went to school at PS 198. Yey! And at PS 198, where I went to school -- One afternoon there was a special arts program. I will never forget it. I was maybe 10. My mother said: “You have to go to this arts program Nina, because you are going to see two amazing performers. A wonderful dancer names Pearl Primus”.

And Pearl Primus was an African-American modern dancer who said" Okay I see what’s going on here with ballet and Martha Graham and all that, but where are the roots of African-American movement?” She traveled to West Africa as an anthropologist and became an anthropologist of dance. And because she was a performer, she and her husband moved back to the United States and really transformed the language of African-American dance and modern dance and world dance. Alvin Ailey, the whole way of moving that is now part of modern dance idiom, we owe to Pearl Primus.

But on that day I looked up at the stage at this woman dressed in beautiful colored clothes, and her husband was playing a drum, something like this. And she told some wonderful stories of West Africa, and she was moving all over the stage. And she sang a song that she had learned in Nigeria.

And this song may be familiar to some of you because it has traveled through especially the world of education and schools and performances. And the words are in the Yoruba language. And the words say: “Welcome”. And the words say…

Fanga Alafia, ashé ashé…… Fanga Alafia, ashé ashé……

‘We come in peace and may there be peace for you’. Some of the words also mean – ‘we come with open hands’. There’s a whole dance, I never learned the dance, but you can help me gesture the dance – ‘We come to you with open hands, our hands are open, we have nothing hidden. We welcome you in peace’.

Fanga Alafia, ashé ashé … Fanga Alafia, ashé ashé … Fanga ilaya, ashé ashé … Fanga Alafia, ashé ashé …‌‌

    INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING:

    Examples and techniques

    CLIP: “We do not mean….”

    Nina Jaffe: But here is a story that I learned, heard, read in various traditions and I’m going to share it with you. It is a story from West Africa, from the Ashanti people.

    We do not mean, we do not really mean that everything you are about to hear is the truth. A story, a story, let it come, and let it go.

    Can you say it with me? A story, a story, let it come, and let it go.

    Now long, long ago my friends, the Ashanti people say, that there were no stories anywhere on earth. And that is because all the stories were locked in a golden box next to the throne of Nyame, the sky god. Many people wanted these stories, and many of the great chiefs of the Fanti, Ashanti and Akwapim tried to pay the price for these stories.

    But none could do it, until word of this golden box came to the ears of someone we may know – is anyone here familiar with Kwaku Anansi? Let’s say his name “ Kwaku Anansi”… you can imagine him any way you want…He can be fat, thin, tall, short sometimes he wise, often he’s foolish, and when I say: “Anansi sem se so!” You say: “se se so awara” which in Ghana is the way to welcome Anansi into the room. So Anansi heard about this golden box and he said to himself “hmmmm” it’s boring down here, no one has anything to say we need this golden box.

    And so he went up to Nyame and he said: “Nyame, I have come to pay the price for your stories. And Nyame said, what you miserable little creature, you think you can pay the price for my stories when none of the great chiefs could do it?

    Anansi said: Just tell me I have to do.

    Nyame said: ‘If you want my stories you must bring me Onini the python, you must bring me Mmoboro the hornets and you must bring me Mmoatia, the sprit of the forest, whom no one has ever seen’.

    And Anansi said: ‘I can do that, and I’ll bring my grandmother too!’ -- and he came back down to earth to find Onini.

    So Anansi came back down to earth and this time he had an idea of his own, he had to catch Mmmoboro -- the hornets. To do that he picked up his gourd, his shekere. What’s it called again? Shekere! And he had a cup of water and a leaf and went off through the forest to find mmoboro.

    Obo esi me nsa na na -- he walked through the forest, through the trees singing … and he walked until he saw a large tree and on that tree was a hornets’ nest and it sounded like ‘Good day mmoboro’ - ‘good day Kwaku Anansi.’

    He took the cup of water and sprinkled it all over the nest. ‘Mmoboro can’t you see it’s raining? And your beautiful wings will get all tattered’. ‘Oh what should we do?’ Just fly inside my gourd it’s nice and dry in there.

    So one after the other the mmoboro flew so we’re going to count: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28 – the magic number and “ Fom!” – he covered it up. ‘Huh. You mmoboro – you may sting like fire, but you’re also the biggest fools –because I’m going to take you up to Nyame to pay the price for his stories’.

    And it was then and only then that Anansi came out from behind the tree and said mmoatia you may have the strongest magic in all the forest but you’re also the biggest fool because I’m going to take you

    up to Nyame to pay the price for his stories but before he did that he had to bring one more thing I was going to bring. Who remembers? His grandmother so he went to his grandmother and said grandmother would you like to meet Nyame?

    And she said oh I have always wanted to meet Nyame and he took her up to Nyame and when Nyame saw all that he had brought he said: ‘Anansi you are the only one who has been able to pay the price for my stories, a blessing on you Kose, kose, kose’. And then he had a great feast in honor of Anansi. And all of the people and the creatures of earth and the musicians came to this great feast and danced and sang.

    Su mo yeh mi – eh ah eh…

    So Nyame and all the people and the musicians were playing and dancing. And since we too are at the feast, we get to stand up. And move any way you want because we’re here to celebrate… Su mo ye mi (music ends)

    So the people had been dancing and singing, and when they sat down, Nyame picked up the golden box and he gave it to Anansi, and he said Anansi here is the box of stories, now they belong to you which is why in Ghana all stories are named for Anansi they are called Anansi sem (Anansi sem).

    Anansi took the golden box and came back down and all the people gathered around as he opened this golden box one by one two by two three by three all those stories started flying all over the world speaking in every different language including the one that we heard here today.

    Visualization Strategy The role of imagination‌

    CLIP

    Nina Jaffe (NJ): So I just want to give you one small little technique you can use with children, with young children, to get them ready to hear a story and using their imagination. I’m going to ask you all to close your eyes and I’m going to say three words, and whatever you see, just see it with your eyes closed:

    Tree, River, Bird

    Slowly open your eyes. What did your tree look like?

    Participant No. 1: I’m from Texas so we don’t have a lot of green…. NJ: Wonderful, anyone else, what your tree looked like?

    My grandmother had a weeping willow in the yard. NJ: What about the river?‌

    Participant No. 2: I spent a good deal of my older childhood in North Florida, and we have tons of beautiful crystal rivers.

    NJ: And that bird, that flying bird?

    Participant No. 3: Mine was a swan, I saw a swan. A swan on a calm river, right.

    NJ: And from sharing these, what have we learned? The words are in common, but what you see is completely unique. Everyone has their own way and their own experience.

    And so for me, this is the most important key, the gift of storytelling to children. Is to give them the gift and the power of their own imaginations, which of course we need for all kinds of things. Not only listening to folktales, but imagining numbers, reading without pictures and being able to imagine what we see. So in a way, this is really the core of what literacy and learning is all about, a very, very important aspect of it.

    Linguistic diversity in Head Start centers - stating the challenge

    CLIP

    Nina Jaffe: How many people here work in settings where the children, where more than one language is spoken? Can we just hear what some of those languages are? I won’t be able to call on you, but ill sort of just point.

    Any other language? Mandarin, Cantonese. Say it again, Farsi, Yoruba, Croatian. Keep on, let’s hear, its reality. Are there any languages such as Hopi, Keresan, Swahili.

    So, unless you grew up speaking one or two or three languages, even with your best intentions, could anyone educator learn to fluently speak? It’s not totally realistic, right?

    But, if we can begin to pull some of that linguistic information from that deep cultural code of oral tradition, and see if we can build that into our repertoire and our repertoire of the class, than its amazing the power of that as an invitation of children to learn and to see themselves as part of a group. And I just really want to share with you an example of how that works today.

    “Aku saying” – I love my family

    Sharing a song from Indonesia at the Child Center of NY Head Start (May 2010) with lead teacher Sandra Martinez and parent Amanda Ritanti‌

    CLIP: Singing with Amanda

    Sandra: Remember the song that we were learning the other day? [Amanda] is going to sing that with us today, and then we’re going to continue with two more songs – ok?

    Sandra: One, two, three

    Amanda: Satu satu - akusayang ibu [Note: subtitled on film as below]. (One- I love my father)-‌

    Dua dua - jugasayang ayah (Two- I love my mother)

    Tiga tiga sayang adik kaka

    (Three – I love my brother & my sister)

    Satu dua tiga - sayang semuanya (One two three- I love everyone)

    Sandra with Amanda: One more time, ok? Satu satu - akusayang ibu

    Dua dua juga- sayang ayah Tiga tiga sayang adik kaka

    Satu dua tiga - sayang semuanya

    Sandra: Very good guys. So now we’re going to hear two more songs and then we’re going to go -- where?

    Children: Work time!

    Sandra: And what are we going to say to Amanda? Children: Thank you Amanda!

    FOLKGAMES: GUIDED PLAY & COMMUNITY BUILDING‌

“While play is universal - games are culturally specific” - Sutton-Smith

Nina Jaffe: Ah, so the other part of the universal language of childhood in addition to stories and singing is games. And so the game that we wanted to share with you today so we can learn, and logistically we are just going to stay in the line, is the game that goes with the song that you heard us singing, obo si mi sa?

Okay? That is a song that is a passing game. Has anyone played those games where you pass rocks? Pass things around? In Ghana, if children originally are in the village or somewhere will take rocks but Asher has some substitutes for you. And the point of the game is for everyone to sing and pass the rocks around so that they’re moving at the same time – coordinated.

“Obo esi me nsa” demonstration with friends at Bank Street July 2010

So we grab, pass, grab, pass, grab, pass… Obo esi me nsa na na - Obo esi me sa– Obo esi me nsa na na - Obo esi ni sa–

Draw me a Bucket of Water learned from the Georgia Sea Island Singers

CLIP:

Nina Jaffe: Pour a bucket of water -- for my oldest daughter

There's none in the bucket and four out the bucket - You go under, Sister Sally Just one person is in the middle, we got that? Great!

Pour a bucket of water -- for my oldest daughter

There's one the bucket and three out the bucket - You go under, Sister Sally How’s it going? You can do the wave!

It’s looking good right? Let’s clap so they can feel the energy. Pour a bucket of water -- for my oldest daughter

There's two in the bucket and two out the bucket - You go under, Sister Sally Pour a bucket of water -- for my oldest daughter

There's three in the bucket and 1 out the bucket - You go under, Sister Sally Frog in the bucket and he can't get out! (x3)

Loose them froggies and let them go! (3) --

Woohoo, Head Start, yey! Give a hand to all your friends.

Pavo, pavo, pavo! – February 2010

39th Annual Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Conference

CLIP:

Nina Jaffe: Bueno, like a circle, okay lets go around one time, okay, this is going to be a children’s game from the Dominican Republic.

Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó. Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó.

Which means, turkey, turkey, turkey, turkey with rice, whoever doesn’t eat it is going to have left over turkey or might sort of be the turkey; it’s like a double entendre.

Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó. (and the other way) Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó.

Now the part of this game that makes it fun for children, is after we sing that, yo soy el lider primer, okay, I’ll be the leader first. At some point when we’re singing I’ll say, “Pavo, pavo, pavo” and then

everyone has to go find a partner and say, “hi, what’s your name? So great to be here!” Or whatever, okay? And here we go.

Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó PAVO PAVO PAVO

Busca una pareja, find a partner! Okay, no one is left over. No hay PAVO. Okay everybody, and we go back to the circle. Esta vez, porque es que no había [un pavo] todo el mundo ha buscado a una pareja right? Everyone found a partner right? Okay we are going to play this time, yo estoy jugando tambien. Okay, let’s see what happens!

Pavo pavo pavo Pavo con arroz

Que el que no lo come - pavo se quedó PAVO PAVO PAVO Sigue -- tenemos el pavo.

Okay now, tu debe hacer algo y nosotros hacemos lo que es porque ya [eres] el pavo. Just raise your hands, or stretch, or jump or turn around, that’s great.

And now we play again and this time, tu eres la persona que es el lider. El que era el pavo ahora es -- el lider. Y tu dice pavo pavo pavo, y otro vez, vamos a buscar. Okay, ready?

Program Recommendations:

Multilingual folklore and oral traditions in Head Start Centers

CLIP:

Nina Jaffe: So, these games…can you see ways or think of ways of using games like this in your setting? Okay, the question now is, if we don’t have these as materials, you can’t necessarily order every single songbook of every single language – yes?

What are some ways that early childhood centers of Head Start can operationalize the building in of oral traditions into your settings?

So now is a three-minute assignment. Okay. Umm, umm first just with the people around you, we would like you to, if you don’t know each other already, we would like you to quickly introduce yourselves. (This is quick, I’m timing, okay, I know what can happen).

And then, begin to share; are there any songs and games that you remember from growing up? Yes? Such as …? So the important thing is, let’s begin with ourselves, who are we as bearers of tradition? Does anyone remember songs or games that you might have played or learned.

So just take a moment to share, as if you were in a staff development session, or having parents come, this is an activity that you can do as part. So we are going to do that for three minutes and it would be wonderful if at least one person could right down at least the names of the person you are talking to and some of the songs or games you’ve learned. And then well be collecting them, and then well be writing them all up so you can get them back. Okay, so three minutes, and… Go!

Here is a list of games participants shared at the 2008 NDLI conference! (scrolling slide)

Circle and Partner Games:

    A la rueda a la rueda de san Miguel (Puerto Rico)

    A la vibora de la Mar (Puerto Rico)

    All around the mulberry bush (U.S)

    Little Sally Walker (U.S.)

    London Bridge (U.S.)

    Ring around a Rosie (U.S.) Singing Games:

    David Melekh Yisrael (Hebrew)

    Steal Eliza – Little Liza Jane

    Down by the River

    Mary Mary Quite Contrary

    Rockin’ Robin Clapping Games:

    -A Sailor Went to Sea

    Cinderella Dressed in Yellow

    Down, Down Baby

    Meo Meo Meo (Vietnamese)

    Miss Mary Mack

    Pat a Cake

    Suzy had a Steamboat Dance and Active Games

    Chinese dance song

    Head, shoulders knees and toes

    Stick Dancing (Philippines)

    Red Rover Red Rover Jump Rope Chants Cinderella

My Mother Your Mother Out Spell Out

Contributors: Sandy, CA.- Deborah; Louisville KY

Vi Nguyen; Yvette Spencer Birmingham AL and Melissa Paiva Honolulu HI. “Mama, mama can’t you see” courtesy Pilar Jolley

FEAST: Folklore Education and Storytelling for Teachers

AUDIO CLIP: Nina voiceover [with slides]

Nina Jaffe: The program that is currently called FEAST, which is an acronym for: Folklore Education and Storytelling for Teachers, has developed out of the need that our students see for reaching out to the many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the children they teach. How do we find authentic material? How can we find material that is perhaps in Spanish if you are not a Spanish-speaking teacher? Or Haitian Creole, or in Russian or in Arabic? So one very direct source is people themselves. Teachers have found that they have a lot of interesting stories and songs. And by bringing these together in an archive, we’ve created and are building a resource so that teachers from any part of the country can start to access this as a way to get ideas about how to use s family stories, songs and games in their own settings, as well as some of the other resources that we have to offer.

Multicultural Principles in assessment, training and staff development

AUDIO CLIP: Asher voiceover [with slides]

Asher Delerme: What MPACT does, is really tries to incorporate some of those principles for multiculturalism for Head Start, which is obviously valuing a person’s cultural background and their identity being rooted in that cultural background. And sort of giving people an opportunity to voice that cultural background and incorporate it in that particular operation whether it’s an institution or a community at large so that people can begin to feel confident and good about who they are and can perform to their optimum level.

IV: BUILDING BLOCKS FOR EARLY LITERACY:

Culturally responsive techniques and resources

Transition Activity - Fanga Alafia with music and stretching

CLIP:

Nina Jaffe: Fanga Alafia ashé ashé… Clap your hands high

To the ground, clap your hands low. Wiggle your fingers…

Reach your hands way up, it feels good doesn’t it, you can even do the yawn, okay.

Folktales in picture book form: What are the criteria?

Nina Jaffe: “…including “The Golden Flower: A Taíno Myth from Puerto Rico”, which is a taíno tale. And it was illustrated by a wonderful artist from the Dominican Republic named Enrique O. Sánches. And his illustrations [of] the book were given an award by the American Library Association called the Pura

Belpré Award. It was originally published by Arte Publico who are based in Houston and therefore we also have the book published in español, “La flor de Oro”.

And both books, either one include some of the source and the background, the history of the taíno etc, so that if you need to touch base with that and be able to speak about it, it’s part of the book.

And also, that wonderful Yiddish Cinderella, is in this book, “The Way Meat Loves Salt: A Cinderella tale from the Jewish tradition”, illustrated by Louise August. And what’s particularly wonderful and so important about retelling folktales that then become picture books, is that the illustrations are also as reflective, as close to reflective of the original cultural context as the telling.

And of course there are changes, it’s in a book format, it’s not performed, etc. But these are among the criteria that librarians look at and I think is also part of we as teacher and storytellers and book writers need to really try and make sure that children are getting as close a representation as possible of the cultural traditions.

So again, I was so happy that my publishers understood that, and when they chose illustrators the books are really able to project a sense of that other world.

Call and Response:

Deepening our capacity for listening

CLIP: Demonstration with audience participation.

Nina Jaffe: Music and language development are deeply connected. And music often offers a basis for children to strengthen their own language skills as well as learning a second language. Sometimes it is important for children just experience the sounds themselves.

So for this exercise I am turning the mic over to Asher.

Asher Delerme: Well one of the things we’ve been doing, if you haven’t noticed already, and I’m sure many of you have noticed, is doing this thing called call and response. You’ve heard it in the stories, you’ve heard it in some of the music, you’ve heard it in just some of the sort of normal conversations that we’ve been having.

And that’s one of the things that fascinated me about music and language, this whole concept of call and response. And I’m not sure who is responsible for influencing who, whether it comes from the language or whether it comes from the music, but what we are going to do is we are going to try to demonstrate it at least musically with your help, you’re going to be involved in this exercise and then Nina is going to talk a little bit about it more. Sort of the oral tradition and sort of the way we use it in standard language.

But what I’m going to do is, actually the simplest form of call and response is probably what you would call an echo. So if I play a rhythm, you would play the same rhythm, you would clap the same rhythm. We’ll try that. But eventually we are going to change it because again, language becomes more sophisticated and we are going to show that musically as well too. And this is again one of the things I think is so cool about doing this in a multicultural way because call and response is identified and found in many settings, many cultural groups all over the world so many people can identify with this.

But let’s try a very simple version of the call and response, which is the echo. So I’m going to play something on the drum and you’re just going to mimic that same rhythm with your hands, clapping. So I’m going to go… [plays percussion phrases] …Very good.

It doesn’t take a lot of musical skill, but it does take a certain other type of skill, which we want children to develop and that’s listening, really paying attention. So now you really are going to have to pay more attention because I am going to play a rhythm but you aren’t going to mimic it, you aren’t going to eco the rhythm, you are going to answer the rhythm.

But there’s a sort of natural answer to the rhythm, and I’m going to change it up, go back and forth but you’re going to find that you’ll be able to follow me just by listening to the cadence, there’s a certain kind of cadence. Almost like in language when you ask a question and you’re looking for an answer. So now, this is probably the phase that we would call question and answer instead of call and response

[plays advanced percussion phrases]

There we go, we got some ringers in the house. Very good.

Beginnings and Endings

Storytelling Techniques for Group Participation

CLIP:

Nina Jaffe (NJ): Storytellers had to find ways to bring their listeners also, from whatever their daily activities were or if its children who are restless and it’s the end of the day. How do we help people to get into the world of the story? Through call and response. In Haiti, the storytellers says Krik and the listeners say

Krak.

Krik Krak… Long ago in Haiti there lived… And then lived happily ever after. Krik, Krak

Okay, we learned the West African story that I told. I just want you to know that although the story that I told in the beginning, how stories came to earth, is in a collection by Harold Courlander who [was] a great folklorist - in his Treasury of African folklore, that is in the bibliography.

This is also a book that became a Caldecott winning picture book that is called “A Story, A Story”. And so if you want to tell it and then perhaps share it with the children, you’ll know that you can have an early childhood appropriate book. And that’s a wonderful piece of children’s literature. And its “A Story, A Story” by Gale E. Haley …

“Anansi sem-se so” - “Se se so wa ra”

Long ago Anansi …, and that is how stories came to earth. Ananse sem-se so! So what does this building for children as your incorporate beginning and endings? A sense of ritual? Right, something predictable so that no matter what happens in the story, you know you can participate.

In Japan, mukashi, mukashi -é - In Korea, yenna yennaré. You can make up story beginnings… I hear a story coming. Can you say it with me? I hear a story coming. It’s getting closer, it’s getting closer, here it is.

And so we’re going to end our session here with a story from Puerto Rico and the story is called: “Canta saquito” . Yah. We’re going to end with a story and then I’ll be going out but I hope you all have enjoyed the workshop and gotten what you need.

(credits voiceover): Duermete mi nina, duermete mi sol, duermete pedazo, de mi

corazón. … This story tells of a little girl, and her name was Marisol, and she lived in a town called Aguadilla with her mother… that was her family…]

with thanks to Jeff Hall, media coordinator and Jessica Kelman, editorial assistant

with the support of the Graduate School at Bank Street College of Education in NYC

Dedicated to our teachers…

Abraham Kobena Adzenyah

Ghanian master drummer, Wesleyan University

Bessie Jones ( 1902-1984)

and The George Sea Island Singers

Awilda Orta (1942-1967) pioneer bilingual educator

This video was produced and funded through the Head Start Resource Center under contract #: HSSP 233-2007-0300G

NJ. 10.18.10

Bank Street College

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