MALAWI: STORYTELLING

Alice BickerstethMay 2010

The Story of the Starfish.

A father and his son were walking along a deserted beach after a particularly high tide had washed up

thousands of starfish on to the sand.

The boy started picking them up and throwing them back into the water one by one.

The father quizzed his son saying "You can't possibly save them all, there are millions, you can't possibly

make a difference"

The boy smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish and as he threw it back into the sea, he

replied, "Made a difference to that one."

Day 1 – 5th April This lesson will introduce the writing activity regarding storytelling.The children will be asked to narrate traditional stories. These will be scribed in note form for use in my final research report and will be accessible to you. The children will then have the opportunity to explore traditional stories written by children from England* Primary School. A selection of these stories will also be read to the children.

Day 2 – 6th April This lesson and the following three lessons will provide the children with the opportunity to create their own story books in groups. It will be explained to the children that their stories should be based on traditional stories. Although the children will be working on their stories independently, myself and colleagues will be there to assist, encourage and support them.

Day 3 – 7th April As aboveDay 4 – 8th April As aboveDay 5 – 9th April Within this lesson the children will be asked to complete their stories and bind them in book form, with equipment that

we have taken out with us. The children will then have the opportunity to read their stories to their class peers and teacher.

Day 6 – 12th April This lesson will introduce the role play activity regarding story telling.The children at England* Primary School will have created a short video clip of themselves participating in a role play activity, whereby they are acting out a story. The children at Malawi* Primary School will be shown this video clip in order to demonstrate to them the outcome of what they will be participating in over the next couple of days.The children at Malawi* Primary School will be asked to role play their stories that they created the previous week. They will be asked to begin to act out their stories. In order for the children to gain confidence in their role they will be invited to be participants in a ‘hot seat’ activity. ‘Hot seating’ is a technique which is used in drama lessons to encourage language, cognitive development and confidence. Hot seating in the classroom involves a child sitting on a chair in front of their peers and adopting the role of the character they are playing. Their peers will then ask them questions related to the story they are a character of.The hot seating technique will be demonstrated to the children by myself and colleagues before the children carry out the activity.

Day 7 – 13th April Within this lesson the children will be given a further opportunity to create and develop their role play.Day 8 – 14th April As aboveDay 9 - 15th April The children will be asked to complete their role play of their story today. There will then be the opportunity to film those

children who would like their role play to be filmed.Day 10 – 16th April This is the final day of the storytelling activities. On this day the children will be invited to watch their role plays that were

filmed the day before.

Human Development Index: 160 out of 182

Population: 14.2 million people

Capital: Lilongwe

Area Size: 118, 484km2

Independence from Britain: July 1964

Languages: English and Chichewa

Google images (2010)

Eight standards (years) at primary school.

The pupils are aged between six and nineteen years old.

There are eight teachers and four hundred and twenty one children.

Storybooks created by year four pupils at a primary school in England.

The pupils in Malawi looking through the storybooks sent over from England and beginning to create their own stories.

The pupils in Malawi creating their scripts for their plays.

The pupils had the opportunity to watch their plays via a laptop.

Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 11.30amPupils are invited to orally tell traditional Malawian stories. One pupil told two stories after persuasion. He appeared to be actively involved however, slightly uncertain and embarrassed. There appears to be no sign of pleasure or extreme discomfort. The pupil told the traditional Malawian stories in his native language, Chichewa.

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Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 10.10amPupils were invited to being writing their own stories and illustrate pictures to go with them. The pupil being observed appeared to be very uncertain of what he was supposed to be doing.

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Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 11.00amThe pupils were invited to continue with writing their own stories. The pupils being observed appeared to be more confident than in the previous session showing signs of obvious satisfaction in his group work.

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Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 11.45amThe pupils were invited to continue with writing their own stories. They began creating front covers for their story books. The pupil being observed expresses confidence in this activity and smiles opening with group peers.

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Leuven Involvement Scale Observations6th-9th April

Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 10.15amThe pupils were invited to act out their story whilst being filmed. The pupil being observed appeared to really enjoy this activity. They appeared to be relaxed and expressed confidence in their acting.

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Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 11.45amThe children were invited to ‘hot-seat’ a character from their story. The child being observed showed obvious signs of satisfaction yet this was not always consistent.

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Description of 2 minute period 1 2 3 4 5Time: 10.25amThe pupils were invited to watch their plays, via laptop, that they had acted out in the previous session. The pupil who was being observed looked happy and cheerful and conversed with peers during this experience.

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Leuven Involvement Scale Observations. 12th-14th April.