DIVERSE project-The creative learning method

DIVERSE

Promotion of democratic values and diversity in schools through Creative Drama and FairyTales CENTRE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THEATER STUDIES

The creative Learning Method

“The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”

We are all born as storytellers Our inner voice tells the first story we ever hear

Coordinator ACTION SYNERGY SA Partners KENTRO SPOUDON LAIKOU THEATROU UNIVERSITAT DE GIRONA HEALTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION INSITE DRAMA OKTATASI, KULTURALIS ES SZOLGALTATO NONPROFIT KOR IS LUIGI EINAUDI

DIVERSE Promotion of democratic values and diversity in schools through Creative Drama and Fairy Tales The creative Learning Method by Nicholas Kamtsis

Apendix • • • • • • • • • • •

Introduction The Folktale Definition and Subtypes History Origins Functions Reasons for using folktales in school Narration as a pedagogical tool Using folktales in the classroom Listening and speaking The creative learning through the folktales and narration • Don’t forget to…

• Before the action & case studies • Case studies

Introduction Theater is a phenomenon of plurality.

Theater, is an ark. We are all on board and on “stage” we are all equal.

When we choose to dress as a role and we pretend to be someone else or travel to imaginary places elsewhere, all differences and all diversities disappear.

That is what we propose: to use theater techniques in the classroom.

Stories and fairytales are available to offer their universe in order to provide a safe, collaborative environment and pass knowledge to the students without social obstacles whether of color, religion or origin.

In Diverse project, creative learning method use existed well known fairytales or create new in order to attempt to transfer the interest of the educational process from “have to” to “want to”.

We will depend upon activities that are enjoyable for the students and try to include these within the educational process in order for the students to naturally enjoy the lesson.

First of all, however, we will consider the definition of folktales and explain the hidden subtypes behind the term. Apart from looking at the origins of a folktale, or folklore in general, we will take a look at their function.

Later on, we will also discuss the reasons for using these in school. Finally, we will describe a variety of compli-

mentary activities that combined can be used with reading folktales.

We will try to bring out the intriguing charm of Knowledge. The adventure of discovery, the conquering of the unknown learning fields for the sake of education, knowledge, students and teachers.

Nicholas Kamtsis Theater director and educator CENTRE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THEATER STUDIES

The Folktale Definition and Subtypes

Folktale is a general term for the various kinds of narrative

prose literature found in the oral traditions of the world. It is used for various related types of stories, which can include legends, myths, fables, parables, allegories, fairy tales, ghost stories and many others.

Folktales can contain religious, imaginary or mythical elements and deal with the sometimes ordinary traditions of everyday life. The telling of stories appears to be culturally universal, because the different forms of folktales often resemble one another.

In her book British Folk-tales and Legends K. Briggs differentiates between two major categories, Folk Narrative or Folk Fiction and Folk Legends or “Sagen�. Alongside folk narrative, the subtypes animal tales, ordinary folktales and jokes, as well as anecdotes and formula tales, are also mentioned.

Legends are said to be stories of persons with important accomplishments and describe plausible, but extraordinary past events. These are represented for example through the 12 ancient Gods, Hercules, Perseus and Andromeda, RobinHood, Faust, Hamlet, Beowulf and many others.

Myths on the other hand, usually involve supernatural beings and explain how something came to exist, with protagonists such as Medusa, Prometheus or Orpheus. Furthermore, the subgroup Fables generally embrace animals, plants or inanimate objects that show human characteristics and have an obvious moral lesson (e.g.: Aesop’s fables).

Parables are short narratives about human-beings that

ought to teach moral and ethnic principles, told by Jesus Christ, such as “The parable of the prodigal son” or “The blind man and the lame”.

Allegories, which appear in both the Old and New Testaments, are more complex, because they have a double meaning, as in the story of “Gulliver’s Travels”. Fairy Tales are normally written in prose and include magical elements such as charms, disguise and spells. They deal with the fortune or misfortune of a hero or heroine who experienced various adventures ( Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella,...).

Some of the stories are rooted in real events, while most of them are completely fictitious. They generally have no known author, and different versions of one story sometimes exist.

Folktales can include moral or psychological aspects.

Usually they also incorporate entertainment value, depending upon the nature of the teller or the story, the style in which they are recounted and age of the listeners.

By describing the different subtypes of folktales it can be noted that there are numerous types of folktales, which are very useful for specific lessons (language, geography, religious, history or math and physics) and also useful for teaching of different ages.

However, it is important to look at the origin and function of folktales before we move on to reasons for the use in school.

History Origins Folktales belong to the more general category of folklore.

The word folklore was first used by the English antiquarian William Thoms in 1846. Folklore also includes music, dances, legends, oral history, riddles or customs. Narratives cover only a small part of folklore studies. Folktales belong to the oral tradition and are passed on from one generation to the next.

The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism and lead to a remodeling of oral traditions. In the 20th century Ethnographers began to record folklore. One of the first sets of oral tales to be collected and published were the “Children's and Household Tales" by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.

Where, when and how the custom of telling stories generally began cannot be determined. It can, however, be assumed that folktales came into existence with the lives of people.

As a result, the tales are widely distributed having been carried from tribe to tribe, people to people or continent to continent. Oral folktales above all are not fixed in writing, but depend upon human imagination and memory for their preservation. This explains why may times numerous version of one story exist.

Additionally, there have been collections of tales from all over the world, such as from Indonesia, Africa, North American, Indian for example or in Ancient literature, such as Egypt, Babylonia or Greece. The stories may differ in subject from place to place or the conditions and purposes of tale telling may change, but they always try to suit social and individual needs. As a result, the spread and exchange of folktales continues to this day.

Functions Having looked in, at the origins of folktales, one can see that the stories also have various important functions.

These functions make folktales suitable for the process of Education and teaching.

The tales might explore a common theme in the lives of people, such as for example birth and childhood, challenge and adventure. But also, they sometimes explain something about nature: why the seasons come and go, why animals look or act in a certain way or why the weather changes.

In parallel folktales give behavior lessons to children, lessons of opinions, of social experience and look into the actions and adventures of people. Aside from telling things about a certain country (social and cultural expression or behavior), friendship or love, they could recount the story of a brave young hero. Moral teaching also plays a significant role in many of the tales. In this matter a story can, for example, tell us about what happens to lazy children or to children who do not do as they are told. Folktales, do not just have moral teaching – they also exist for the purposes of entertainment. Most of the students have fun reading folktales, because they deal with everyday problems. As a result, the tales are filled with hope, dreams, sorrow and pain, feelings that we all share.

Reasons for using folktales in school An important reason for using folktales in school is that they address listeners both young and old at the same time, affecting them equally but in different ways.

Aside from raising essential questions, such as “What is our duty toward the elderly/ parents/ poor or nature?� they help to work on a variety of lessons. To the language/ literature subjects for example folktales can develop language and cognitive skills. Folktales also have a timeordered story structure, because they tell about certain events in the order they happened. The frequent redundancy and repetition of main themes, phrases, or building refrains can be especially useful for language learning, as new vocabulary and grammar are reinforced. As a consequence of the frequent repetitions readers can easily predict what is coming next, which makes it easier to understand the text as a whole. The normally simple grammar, with short sentences and past or present tenses assist in understanding the story. The concrete vocabulary, with most of the words being things you can see, feel, taste, touch and smell, is easier to grasp than abstract language.

The concrete ideas, with plain and concrete goals, but with characters that represent abstract qualities, such as greed, patience, humility, arrogance, foolishness and kindness, contribute to the teaching of abstract vocabulary.

Furthermore, if educators enhance their folktale based lesson with images and projections or even drawings, it acquires an aesthetic/artistic function in parallel with the cognitive subject. Apart from making the folktale more fun to read, the images help with understanding difficult parts of the story and correspond directly or indirectly with the text itself. Moreover, the unique reader-writer relationship, being a kind of peer relationship and so on the same level as the student, provides for a better level of identifica-

tion and interaction with the story. On the other hand, there are also important cultural aspects when teaching multicultural issues. The students are able to read stories from different cultures, which help them to build bridges between different countries, because of relational themes. They can also learn a wide variety of things about other countries, because the folktales are part of the people’s heritage and cultural identity.

Folktales are important for addressing listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Additionally, folktales offer a range of activities for school lessons, which will be introduced in the next section.

Narration as a pedagogical tool The pedagogical role of the modern storytelling in the contemporary educational teaching environment is very extended.

Since 1998 famous pedagogues like Abrahamson, Deniston-Trochta and many more insist that as a pedagogical tool, narration has been recognized and exploited long ago in various ways, as : 1. a teaching and learning method , 2. a way of communicating and socializing, 3. a means of psycho-spiritual expression and developing of the personality of the students, 4. a device in the improvement of the verbal communication and literacy.

It can be implemented with every kind of learning.

Lessons like Language, history, religion, literature and civilization topics, art and also science can very well be taught in the form of a narration and make the educators work more functional.

Antony Amato, Robert Emans and Elsie Ziegler since 1973

declared that the students with their fantasy and the rich-full emotional way they perceive the world in an authentic way. They get involved, identify and are easily influenced from the characters of a story, the relationships and the situations experienced. Moreover that these adventures are said and presented with the directness of the oral speech. So, narration becomes an experience and affects children’s psychology making them more sensitive and socially esthetic.

For children narration is an excellent way to develop their concentration skills as well as to listen and receive the messages that are addressed to them. In parallel as Tacker explains, they develop the ability to create their own stories and narrations involving their own experience and way of thinking. And here is the key. Students become subconsciously expressive and creative, they acquire immense wealth of physic world and imagination. Enhancing their vocabulary and verbal abilities for expression develops way before the written and oral, structured speech.

We need to make clear that we are referring basically to the narration of folktales, legends, myths and real stories and not just to know a story. Narration in the educational process has the same value regardless the content that the educator narrates each time. Therefore, the educators has the ability to use not only known stories and myths but their own innovative narrations that can connect and be adapted to the needs of their specific teaching subjects.

In this way, traditional teaching forms are enhanced.

Forms that have elements taken from theater, dance, the animations and video art. Kieran Egan was very precise when he said that the narration of any kind of stories expands its limits and through the sound making of speech of the traditional narrator, he proceeds to the embodiment of the speech of the modern performer.

Using folktales in the classroom Listening and speaking Folktales can be used in a school lesson with many and different various ways.

Teacher as a reader

Instead of letting the students read the story for themselves, the teacher can read it aloud (with comments on pictures) and have the students summarize it. The teacher can also tell the tale orally and have the students draw, sort pictures, complete a timeline or make an event map of the story. While he narrates the story of the lesson teacher can use small elements which help the lesson to be more visual and understandable

Pictures tell the story

Another language learning approach is the discussion of story pictures. To do this the teacher can gather appropriate pictures from various sources and make the illustrated folktale of the lesson. This form is good for lessons like history, art, civilization etc where the teacher can easily find pictures.

The student can participate by telling each other what they think. Depending on the grade, the teacher can also prepare questions link with the pictures, that help formulate an answer. It is also possible to leave out the last few pictures, so that there is more opportunity for creativity.

Strips with sentences

If the lesson is the language, a discussion of the pictures before reading the folktale also helps to introduce the language needed for the story. By preparing strips with sentences that summarize the tale, the students have to put them in the correct order, while the teacher recounts it orally or reads it out aloud. On the other hand, the students can create a story from the strips (ambiguous

strip story), then share their versions with the class and compare it to the original story.

The dramatic presentation and improvised performance

An additional use of folktales is their dramatic presentation. In this case students act out or convert a folktale into a drama and then perform their results. The activity can be varied by, for example, creating a multipart story drama, where the class is divided into groups and each group has to act out a certain part of the story. This gives the students the opportunity to understand and learn the lesson while they live it through the characters and relationships between them. Especially the history lessons.

The Puzzle of the lesson

A reconstruction activity can take place in the frame of the lesson. If the lesson and the topic is convenient the teacher can divide it into sections, and each group of students can receives one section. After they have been read as a group and collected in again, the students have to retell their sections from memory and form new groups later on. The aim of the activity is to recreate the story, find the right order of sections and compare the results with the original story.

The creative learning through the folktales and narration Creative learning can come in the form of narration. As a story telling or a fairy tale. In this case the teacher can follow theater paths and methods.

Creative learning is an acquisition of knowledge and skills through active participation. Story telling has the same characteristics. And narrating folktales as a teach-

ing methods have to step on the same routes more or less.

It is a combined procedure of a creative exchange between the individual and his natural or social environment.

Learning is a complicated human function which

has roots both in the psychological, and the physiological part of man. It is the outcome of internal as well as external operations, aiming at acquiring knowledge and skills. The process of Learning becomes more interesting and compound once it moves out of the state of memorizing, to a state where fundamental human functions are involved.

Learning can be called creative if it stimulates imagination, memory, sensitiveness and the sentiment, mimesis, [following the Aristotelian idea], play, art and creation and also, learning, is creative, when it gains experience from the above. Using folktales as a teaching method, we do nothing less that placing all the above characteristics and elements into the Educational process.

By using narrative techniques, adapting the lesson to tell it like a story recruit all the functions of the performing arts (theatrical and narrative) for the sake of the educational process .

The teacher-student relationship for years has been undergoing many changes, and using methods. Along with the narration and the use of folktales avariety of other functions are recruited such as theatrical games, the game of roles [role playing, or participation theater] and story telling. However, the target is always one; the conquering and evolution of man’s knowledge of himself, of his environment and the laws that govern it.

The narration of stories and folktales as a teaching method The narration of stories and folktales as a teaching method makes use of many theater techniques while comprising a methodology for teaching. Creative and practical elements originating from a range of other arts, are likely to be used. However, the narration is likely to be the main source since, here we have the action and the experience incorporated, mainly the collective experience rather than the individual.

Here we have an alternative kind of learning, a methodology which takes elements from narration and the performing arts sector that could serve amateur purposes or not, but which however, are indispensable for creating the setting in which we are to work.

The narration in the classroom differs from the

performing art and theater. In a theatrical play or in professional narration, our main interest lies in the final outcome that it is integral and perfect, in other words, that the play is worth attending. In the narration of folktales as a teaching method our main interest covers the medium, the techniques, and the various ways we use within the boundaries of teaching, whereas the final outcome depends on the extend of learning the students have acquired in other words, how well each time they grasp the learning object .

Once more we should make clear that creative learning should by no means get involved in the requirements of a ‘work of art’. The ‘beautiful’ we seek in a work of art, has an entirely different meaning in the issue of narration learning. In the specific case when speaking of the

beautiful, we make reference to the extend of knowledge gained through playing, acting or creating. Our interest and preoccupation should be dedicated in the field learning, on how well we assimilate knowledge, and to what extend we conquer the object of learning.

It is therefore within this scheme which is formed according to our educational aims and the manner in which the lesson is planned that we should take into consideration the following:

1.

2.

3.

Human field

From the moment that narration moves on as the characters and the heroes are caught up in the “adventure”, we have to deal with a context of human attributes. This happens both if the heroes are human or other entities but again with human characteristics (animals, plants, elves, dragons etc)

Imaginative realm

Weather the teachers use a well known folktale or invent one for the needs of the lessons cognitive subject, they enter the fantasy realm and have to follow these roads to complete their lesson from start to end.

Heroes – characters

The lesson through the narration methods will develop in between “entities”. Humans, animals or anything else that uses language and movements that are familiar to us.

4. The dramatic conflict

These characters will built up a constructive conflict between them, that will have as a result the lesson, the cognitive subject and its understanding/ learning by the students.

5. Imaginative place

The narrative action takes place in an invented

place where time has no meaning or matters.

Especially regarding the actual understanding of the lesson.

6. Symbols

Characters and actions naturally escape the context of reality and become symbols. This is one more advantage. Symbols are poetically energized and carry away not only the mind but also the emotions of the students. Therefore learning becomes more concrete and permanent.

Our aim is that the children achieve the best possible understanding and comprehension.

The teacher therefore, is the one to choose the best possible way in handling each educational topic. It is known that there is a variety of issues and topics that we can approach and teach in the form of narration.

A lecture could also come as a combination of narrative and action. It could begin with storytelling, continue with action, and end with a story.

Teachers know that repetition and routine spoil the children’s interest and concentration span, and therefore finding new teaching methods and presentations that could initiate the unpredictable, the astonishing, or simply the novel, is highly advisable.

If we are to introduce an instructional proposition to a lesson of such kind, we could begin by mentioning the following;

DEFINING THE TARGET What meaning do we want to convey by teaching the specific lesson. What do we want to prove.

Use our inventiveness in choosing an interesting fable which has…

• Conflict in the middle of the plot • An interesting plot o beginning like… once upon a time… , o development of the theme o and finishing like….they lived happily ever after…

• conflict between two antithetical main characters or two controversial themes • By the end of the story, we should be ready to have reached our goal.

Defining opposites factors…

Which battle – discuss each other- so as with the confliction to reached our final goal (Result-conclusion-message)

Defining-bring out main conflict results If our narration was lapidary, children with the appropriate encouragement will express by themselves their results.

The frame work Here is the story form framework as it appears in Teaching as Story Telling:

The Story Form Model

1. Identifying importance:

What is most important about this topic?

Why should it matter to children?

What is affectively engaging about it?

2. Finding binary opposites:

What powerful binary opposites best catch the importance of the topic?

3. Organizing content into story form:

What content most dramatically embodies the binary opposites, in order to provide access to the topic?

What content best articulates the topic into a developing story form?

4. Conclusion

What is the best way of resolving the dramatic conflict inherent in the binary opposites?

What degree of mediation of those opposites is it appropriate to seek?

5. Evaluation:

How can one know whether the topic has been understood, its importance grasped, and the content learned?

Don’t forget to…

1. Have an Enemy and a Hero

Stories need a good guy and a bad guy – also called a hero and an enemy. The enemy can be a thing, like a desert or “the system” or even a fear within the hero. The arc of the story is how the hero beats the enemy.

Questions to ask yourself about this might include: What’s the core enemy of my customers or clients? Is it danger?

Wasted money? Unfulfilled dreams? Bad hair?

2. Use Conflict

Conflict is how the friction between the enemy and hero manifests. Maybe it shows up as the hero deciding to cross the desert, or when you, the business owner, decided to figure out how to defeat a problem. Conflict also describes the obstacles you encountered on your way to success, whether they were problems with your bank or with a tornado. If the hero has no struggle, then it’s a lame story.

3. Omit any Irrelevant Detail

Omit any detail that doesn’t move the story forward or develop the characters. This is about keeping the readers’ attention. If they don’t need to know about your red bicycle to understand the arc of your story, don’t tell them about the bicycle. If they don’t need to know what kind of awesome, high-tech sneakers you used to cross the desert, don’t tell them about the sneakers.

4. Tell the Story Like You Talk

This one’s pretty simple. Corporate-speak ruins stories.

Talk like you would normally talk. If you sound a little too corporate to pass as an average person, hire a storyteller.

Visual stories are powerful vehicles to convey a message.

Add visual elements to your business storytelling to make it more convincing.

5. Make It Visual

There’s a reason children’s storybooks are mostly pictures, and that so many of the greatest stories ever told have been made into movies. Images bring a story to life. You can tell a story just by standing up and talking, but it had better be one heart-clutcher of a story. And even then, added images will make it more powerful.

6. Make It Personal & Easy to Relate To

To immediately borrow from the last point: Use images of what actually happened, or where it happened. Use images of the real people in the story, not stock photo models.

And again, talk like you talk. Show your personality. Reveal a bit of your weaknesses and your fears. Everybody else has those weaknesses and fears, too. This leverages a subtle power of storytelling: When we tell our own story, often we are telling other people’s story too. Those people are your ideal audience, and your ideal customers or clients.

7. Add Surprise

A story with no surprises is boring. You knew this already (because you’re already a storyteller, remember?), but it bears repeating. Whether it’s a good surprise or a bad surprise, every good story has at least one surprise. This is an essential to a story as conflict.

CASE STUDIES We believe that is quite easy to present a history or a literature lesson in the form of narration as they have to do with human acts and therefore one can narrate them as stories.

So for the beggining we have chosen a subject from physics that provides a higher level of difficulty so as to present the way such a lesson can acquire the narrative form of a story when applying the above mentioned characteristics.

1 An example from Science – A more complex case study

Topic: Properties of the Air 1. Identifying importance An important function of education is to enrich our everyday environment with meaning. In the case of air, we tend to take it for granted as a kind of emptiness through which we move. One of the delights of education is the discovery of wonder in what is commonly taken for granted.

This topic should matter to children because it can enlarge and enrich their perception of the world and their understanding of their experience. It can be affectively engaging through its power to evoke, stimulate, and de-

velop the sense of wonder and engage it with reality.

2. Finding binary opposites One usable binary set for a unit on the properties of the air is empty/full. This may seem a bit simple, with no evident affective "pull." But I think we can invest emptiness with the affective components of starkness, nothingness, uselessness to life, and fullness with the opposites — varied richness, complexity, and supportive of life.

3. Organizing content into story form The first sub-section here calls us to organize our opening teaching event. In this we must show dramatically that the air, which is taken as largely empty, is in fact full. We could begin with a single dramatic instance. Among 2 student there is “nothing”. The teacher asks if there is something. The answer is “No”.

But we can approve that this space is full of things and air. We can also demonstrate that the air is full. A beam of bright light in a darkened room can display a million dust particles calmly moving around. Where did they come from? Where will they go to? Or we might turn on a battery-powered radio. How does the signal reach the radio? Switch it off and move to another part of the room and change radio stations. How many signals are there? Are they all in the room all the time?

The teacher can make a story and narrate it to the classroom. And then he can organize a creative activity with theatre techniques, dramatized the story he narrated minutes ago.

4. Conclusion What is dust? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Children will have some grasp on the elements that fill the air by this time.

Mediation is not so appropriate here, given the choice of binary opposites. The resolution is rather the discovery that what was thought to be empty is in fact full. The fullness is one of massive forces, tiny delicate organisms the endless "dust." Given the fictional element, we might conclude with the brother and sister returning to tell their friends and family how crowded the air is, what wonders it holds unseen. (An imaginative teacher might think up a better fictional story line than this!)

5. Evaluation One may use any of a range of traditional evaluation procedures to see whether children understood the variety of things that fill the air. One might additionally or alternatively ask them to write and/or draw an images of the space and what subjects travel into the air.

LIKE Theater action The air and space The folktale of the loneliness of the flag which think that the air doesn’t exist and the space is empty Once upon a time it was a flag.

AND she had a philosophical existential question which tortured her.

But lets take the story from the beginning.

It was hung and forgotten on a pole high above a large building. In front wrote "School".

To tell the truth It had been forgotten there long enough from the pre-pre-pre-national holiday.

And she was boring. Very boring. The time was passing by and it was getting older. Her colors faded, and the edges were torn from the air that was beating her.

And as we said air ... it was a long time now that the air didn’t passed through that place and our flag hung sad and motionless.

In her sadness she began to wonder why the air was not passing, to blow her and to breathe a bit freshness. Only a strong and bad smell came and whipped her up there.

And who is this air anyway? And why didn't he go through 'there? And why is it so arrogant and obnoxious? Does it no longer exist, does it die?

One day he decided and shouted at a flying seagull.

FLAG Sir sir, would you like to come a bit closer?

SEAGULL What you want, I have a job, the boats came in to the harbor with a bunch of fish in their nets and I'm hungry.

FLAG Well ok…ok. Come a bit closer I want to ask you something and I will let you go. Tell me why the air does pass from here anymore. Is he arrogant, he left from our territory or he died?

SEAGULL What are you talking about? The air is always here and there and everywhere.

FLAG How is it always here? If it is such why I'm not waving anymore? I'm down, sad and poor; SEAGULL Look there on the sky. What do you see?

FLAG Clouds. Still clouds like me.

SEAGULL And what is cloud?

FLAG Cloud is a cloud dummy. What else?

SEAGULL No, clouds are air. Air with different thickness.

FLAG You are insane. You say that the clouds I can see don’t exist and the air that I can not see exists.

SEAGULL Believe it or not YES. The air is here but it's not in a harry, rushing and savage.

FLAG No it is not. Because I know the air. It's clean and cool. I have a bad smell on my nose only.

SEAGULL It's from the exhaust gas, cars and motorcycles down the road.

FLAG Whatever it is. As it passed by, the air cleared all that. So now it's not here.

SEAGULL Oh Yeah? And how do you think the smell

FLAG SEAGULL FLAG SEAGULL FLAG SEAGULL FLAG SEAGULL FLAG SEAGULL

comes up here? And 'how do you think I'm flying? And look there at this shining sunbeam? What do you see?

(Someone blows a little talc in the light beam of a lens) Dust. Small pieces of dirty dust.

Right. And how do you think this dust flies right and left?

I do not know.

From the air, into the air. The air is everywhere. Whether rushing or calm, cold or hot is here.

You say so?

Yes. Let me leave now because the sail ships enter the port quickly and their nets have a lot of fish. I am going to eat.

Hahaha! Quicly? Quicly???? And how do you know that they come quickly. How do see them from here.

I see them. I'm not blind. Don’t you see their sails full.

Full? Full of what?

Full of air poor woman. Air is everywhere, and make everything. Make the dust going here and there, the sail boat to go everywhere captain wants, the smells to come up here to your nose, even me to fly. That’s enough now I m living other wise I will be hungry for the rest of the day.

The flag was alone again but now she has many things to think.

Is the air there or not?

Is the air invisible but exists and it is everywhere in the space.

And to solve the existential philosophical question.

2 An example from botany.

A plant is born . The procedure of sowing, growing, and bearing fruit ,up to the time a new plant is reproduced We define our target: our intention is teaching the children the reproduction of the plants, and under what circumstances this takes place.

We make up an interesting little story , like : The adventure of the restless spirit of a tiny seed of chickpea that decided to seek its fortune to unknown world and places.

• A beginning that might run as following… once upon a time (dialogue with mother chick pea and declaration that she wants to leave) • Development : meeting a number of remarkable people [air, soil, sun etc ] • End (The end could be something like… they lived happily ever after…)

• Repetition of the same story, the same plot, and same dialogue with the new seed , the outcome of this • We define the controversial factors who talk to each other, fight (1) , and so that the outcome brings out the desired final goal[outcome , deduction, message] • Our first hero is the seed

• The other could alternatively be the air [ that picks the seed and carries it elsewhere ] • A lump of soil that happens to be next to where our seed has fallen.

• The water running nearby , that waters the seed.

• A pebble that temporarily obstructs the seed’s roots to expand and it’s leaves to grow the sun the most indispensable element for • And the story goes on and on until our new plant is ready to produce seeds of it’s own DEFINITION – CLEARING OF THE FINAL CONFLICT (1) In the given example we have many: Talking with the sun, the air, the soil, with the pebble, etc CONCLUSIONS How nature operates, spring, winter, conditions permitting etc.

3 An example from History.

Elementary school – grade 3

Based on the book http://ebooks.edu.gr/modules/ebook/show.php/DSDIMC103/737/4824,21988/

HERCULES A history serie in 14 episodes Narration by the teacher. (he can use puppets, mask, shadows, objects etc according to the lesson concept)

Once upon a time in a village lived an old man.

Plato. He was very old and wise. There was a dark and deep forest around the village and the villagers went in the forest to kill birds and rabbits to fit their families. But many time one or two of the lost in the forest and never return back again. The other villagers stared to afraid of the forest and they refused to go hunting.

Plato thought about it and find a method to encourage the hunters not to afraid and risk to go hunting in the forest. More over he managed to make them brave, to be all together and collaborate, to help each other and manage not to lost in the forest. How? By narration.

Plato gather all the villagers around the fire in the middle of the village and starting to say stories.

One story just before hunting.

He said Once upon a time there was a young man name Hercules. He was very strong and brave. Because Zeus the king of the all Gods when Hercules was baby took a little milk from Hera (his Goddess wife) and fit the baby. So the baby became strong and unbeatable.

EPISODE 1 The villagers came to PLATO and announced that they will not go to forest anymore because yesterday, when they hunted, snake appeared and kill three of them.

Plato thought for a while and said them to sit down on the ground. He had something to say.

PLATO: Listen to me. When I was young I went to school. My teacher has a little baby who was very strong. Because my teacher went on the mountain and invite Zeus and told him that he want the God to be the Godfather of the bab. Zeus accepted his proposal and became the Godfather of the baby. He promised to protect the baby and when he will grow up he will make him…almost God like him.

When Hercules was baby. Hera –who didn’t like what is happen before with the stolen milk by her husband Zeus- sent two poisoned snakes to bite Hercules and kill him.

But Zeus understand one minute before the snakes bite Hercules and throw a thunder in the room. Hercules waked up grabbed the snakes and killed them.

Plato saw the villagers in the eyes and said them : Well, if a baby can kill two poisoned snakes sent by Hera, then you adults can go in the forest and hunt unless you are cowards. And if snakes appear, you will do what the baby did.

Go hunting Now. The villagers πήραν θάρρος και πήγαν στο δάσος να χωρίς να φοβούνται.

Episode 2 and next.

The action continues like this where the villager come to PLato in every episode and say that they are afraid to go hunting because a lion appears.

Plato say the story of Hercules and Lion od Nemea.

The same happen with the wild bull of Minoa in Crete.

Stymfalides birds Lernaia Hydra and so on.

Appendices

key books, key links, key international organizations, key concepts, where to learn more

• https://emea.scholastic.com/en

• https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/unit-plans/teachingcontent/myths-folktales-and-fairy-tales/ • https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teachingcontent/myths-folktales-fairy-tales-grades-4-6/ • The Revival of Local Fairy Tales for Children Education • Fathu Rahman (ISSN 1799-2591-Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 336-344, May 2017) • Tell Me A Story-A New Look at Real and Artificial Memory. A Reader’s Journal, Volume 2: • Aronson, E. (1995). The social animal (7th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman • Storytelling in Teaching, Melanie C. Green (https://www. psychologicalscience.org/observer/storytelling-in-teaching) • Teaching as Story Telling, by Kieran Egan Simon Fraser University (Article in Canadian Journal of Education / Revue comedienne de l education • January 1988) • Multicultural education in the CLIL primary classroom through fairy tales Christina Garcia-Barrero Baldo (Universidad de Oviedo) • Historical Development, Dimensions and Practice, James A.Banks, University of Seattle, Washington state. USA • Complete information on story-telling method of teaching, by Gauri Dushi (Article) • A Study on the Educational Strategy of Using Folktales in Kindergarten, Guo Huiyu, Xi’an University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province (participation to the 5th International Conference on Education, Management, arts and social Science • Bettelheim Bruno (1976) suggests that classic narration of fairy tales, in addition to being entertaining, enriches children’s lives, stimulates their imagination and helps them clarify their emotions, recognize their difficulties and find so-

lutions to the problems that trouble them. http://www. ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/bettelhe.pdf • Bruner Jerome (1986) https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/260160910_Jerome_Bruner_and_the_Challenges_of_the_Narrative_Turn_Then_and_now • Highlights the cognitive, social and emotional value of storytelling for children by asserting that stories are elective tools that foster language development and build and enrich vocabulary and knowledge about the world, in accordance with the active forms of learning(Fontichiaro K., 2007). https://dinamico2.unibg. it/lazzari/doc/EL-lazzari-2016-sito.pdf • The importance of storytelling is not limited to early childhood, but crosses age barriers and reverberates across multiple fields of knowledge, from literature to philosophy and from the social sciences to physics (Christopher Nash, 1990) and mathematics (Schiro, 2004).

• Donna Hancox, 2011 • http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/439

DIVERSE Promotion of democratic values and diversity in schools through Creative Drama and Fairy Tales