[Repost] [Reading Viewpoint] Teacher Ajia’s sharing: “Storytelling” and “Reading Club”

    Thank you very much for orga­niz­ing the wan­der­ing stop space!

    By the way, I’d like to add a piece of advice to teach­ers from Sukhom­lin­sky that I shared the oth­er day: “I strive to make a word, for chil­dren, not just a sym­bol of a thing, object, or phe­nom­e­non, but one that car­ries with it an emo­tion­al hue—a fra­grant aro­ma and rich, vibrant hues. It’s impor­tant to make chil­dren lis­ten to words as they would to a beau­ti­ful melody, so that the beau­ty of the word and the beau­ty of the part of the world it reflects can arouse their inter­est in the lit­tle pic­tures that express the music of human language—the lit­er­al words. If chil­dren haven’t yet sensed the fra­grance of the word and seen its vibrant, vibrant hues, lit­er­a­cy instruc­tion should­n’t begin. If a teacher insists on doing so, they’re doom­ing them to a dif­fi­cult path. (Chil­dren will even­tu­al­ly over­come these dif­fi­cul­ties, but at a great cost!)“Orig­i­nal address:【Read­ing Viewpoint】Teacher Aji­a’s Shar­ing: “Sto­ry­telling” and “Read­ing Club“author:Wan­der­ing space
   
[Inspi­ra­tion Pic­ture Book Study Ses­sion on Octo­ber 13, 2010]
 

    I have lis­tened to Mr. Ajia’s class more than once, and I have gained a lot every time. After many prac­tices, I have a new under­stand­ing of the “Return to read­ing itself, return to calm, ele­gant and cre­ative read­ing“View­point, I have a deep­er under­stand­ing.

   
How to tell sto­ries to chil­dren has always been a top­ic of great con­cern to adults.

   
What kind of sparks would emerge when a group of sto­ry­tellers and edi­tors gath­ered to share their expe­ri­ences? And what if the per­son lead­ing the shar­ing ses­sion was the sea­soned Ajia, a mas­ter of all trades, a mas­ter of singing, recit­ing, act­ing, and a quick flow of inge­nious ideas? On the after­noon of the 13th, in a small meet­ing room at Qifa, I had the priv­i­lege of expe­ri­enc­ing this unique and excit­ing event with these long-stand­ing “sto­ry­tellers.”
 

   
I lis­tened intent­ly and only took notes, half recall­ing and half edit­ing, to orga­nize what Ajia had to say and savor it with my friends. If I mis­un­der­stand any­thing, I hope the atten­dees will point it out.
 
1. Regard­ing Sound

   
Teacher Ajia’s shar­ing start­ed with the recita­tion of ancient poems, lead­ing us to expe­ri­ence how sound con­veys words and mean­ings, and appre­ci­ate the pow­er and atmos­phere of sound.

   
For par­ents, telling sto­ries to their chil­dren is first and fore­most a fun expe­ri­ence; for the “sto­ry­teller”, it is first and fore­most about con­vey­ing the beau­ty of sound, using sound to con­vey three-dimen­sion­al emo­tion­al col­ors, fra­grant aro­mas, and tempt­ing tastes that can­not be expressed by flat pic­tures and words… bring­ing the lis­ten­er into the con­text of the sto­ry.
 

    Exam­ple 1: The Sto­ry of Peach Blos­som Spring 
Text (Japan­ese) Trans­lat­ed by Mat­sui Naka­mu­ra, Tang Yam­ing
Illus­tra­tions by Cai Gao. Pub­lished by Shang­hai Peo­ple’s Fine Arts Pub­lish­ing House, March 2009.

   
How do we tell chil­dren about this book with a com­pli­cat­ed back­ground, “Peach Blos­som Spring”, which is based on the famous work “Peach Blos­som Spring” by the great poet Tao Yuan­ming of the East­ern Jin Dynasty, adapt­ed into Japan­ese by Mr. Mat­sui Nao, trans­lat­ed back into Chi­nese by Mr. Ya Ming of the Lat­er Tang Dynasty, and illus­trat­ed by Cai Gao?

   
Teacher Ajia’s prac­tice is to use Tao Yuanming’s orig­i­nal text with pic­tures and recite it direct­ly to chil­dren (indi­vid­ual parts can be explained slight­ly accord­ing to the age of the young lis­ten­ers).

   
Even with this expla­na­tion, the chil­dren still under­stood it very well, and even con­tin­ued to recite Tao Yuan­ming’s orig­i­nal text. [My per­son­al under­stand­ing: This requires a high­er lev­el of sto­ry­telling: famil­iar­i­ty with Tao Yuan­ming’s orig­i­nal text, and the abil­i­ty to com­bine it with the images.]

   
There­fore, as adults, we should not under­es­ti­mate chil­dren’s abil­i­ty to under­stand and appre­ci­ate beau­ti­ful lan­guage;
 

   
Exam­ple 2: Two exam­ples of ancient sto­ry­tellers:   

   
1. Mo Houguang: “Dur­ing the dog days of sum­mer, I would often stay at a small tem­ple and tell sto­ries about Jour­ney to the West and Water Mar­gin. Hun­dreds of peo­ple would lis­ten. Although the scorch­ing heat would burn rocks, every­one for­got their tired­ness and not a sin­gle per­son broke a sweat.”

   
2. Quote Liu Jingt­ing, a famous sto­ry­teller from the late Ming and ear­ly Qing dynas­ties, in his Biog­ra­phy of Liu Jingt­ing: “Sto­ry­telling may be a minor skill, but it must be in tune with one’s own char­ac­ter and local cus­toms, like You Meng shak­ing his head while singing, only then can one achieve suc­cess.”

   
There­fore, sto­ry­tellers need to do their home­work: how to grasp and con­vey the inten­tion to be expressed:
 
   
Exam­ple 3: Approach­ing the Gar­den of Life   
By Fare­nan et al., trans­lat­ed by Ke Lei, Chi­na Nation­al Pho­tog­ra­phy Art Pub­lish­ing House
Pub­lished in April 2010
   
  
 -> There are many ways to read, one of which is “read­ing with music”.

   
-> Back­ground music selec­tion:

    when a
Child is Bron” “Chopin Noc­turne in E‑flat major”, intro­duc­tion to the back­ground of the music com­po­si­tion, and con­sid­er­a­tion of the degree of fit between the selec­tion and the mean­ing of the pic­ture text.
 
 

 
 
 

To the gen­tle and sooth­ing music of Chopin’s “Noc­turne in E‑flat Major”, the sto­ry­tellers on site recit­ed “Approach­ing the Gar­den of Life” one page at a time and expe­ri­enced it first­hand.
[Coin­ci­den­tal­ly: When I start­ed the sto­ry of “How are you, Moon?” at the Mid-Autumn Fes­ti­val Inspi­ra­tional Read­ing Ses­sion, I used the phrase “moon
Riv­er” instru­men­tal ver­sion]

                               
-> The mean­ing and thoughts of the end­ing “The child decides to be born”.
 
 
 
 
2. The Sto­ry­telling Process

   
The sto­ry­telling process may seem like the sto­ry­teller’s job, but it actu­al­ly requires col­lab­o­ra­tion between the lis­ten­er and the sto­ry­teller. How to get the lis­ten­er involved is some­thing that requires thought.
    Exam­ple 1: Anton Niebründ and his Shape Game
Trans­lat­ed by Song Pei
Pub­lished by Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press in Jan­u­ary 2010

   
  
  -> Antho­ny Brown him­self shared a video of play­ing the shape game;

    
-> Live shape game inter­ac­tion
 
 
 


   
Teacher Aji­a’s final sketch on the white­board resem­bles the out­line of the field mouse Ah Fu. My guess is that he’s just too fond of the image and let it slip with­out real­iz­ing it.
 
   
Exam­ple 2: The charm of sto­ry­telling by crosstalk mas­ter Liu Baorui:

    
-> Enjoy clips from “Tian­wang Tem­ple” and “Pearl Jade White Jade Soup”

   
[Major coin­ci­dence: Zhuangzhuang has recent­ly been super obsessed with Liu Baorui’s crosstalk, from “Tongue Twisters”, “Crit­i­cism of the Three King­doms”, “Tian­wang Tem­ple”, and “Fight­ing Mag­ic”]

    
thus:

    
-> The sig­nif­i­cance of blank spaces in crosstalk: the same applies to sto­ry­telling, which requires the skill of “wait­ing”;

    
-> Speak calm­ly and peace­ful­ly, with­out haste, hur­ry or pan­ic: under­stand­ing depends more on the audi­ence’s feel­ings after lis­ten­ing.
 
   
Exam­ple 3: “BoA“John Burn­ing­ham, with illus­tra­tions and text, trans­lat­ed by Song Pei, pub­lished by Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press in Octo­ber 2008

    
 
 
->
Inside Page Appre­ci­a­tion: There is a kind of paint­ing that is not about real­ism, but about depict­ing moods…
 
 
 
 
 
 

   
Exam­ple 4: Sophie’s Mas­ter­pieceText by Cianel­li (US), Pho­tos by Dell (US), Trans­lat­ed by Ke Qian­hua
Pub­lished by Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press in May 2008

    
-> The con­trast between “respect­ing the orig­i­nal text” and “adapt­ing it in a sim­ple and col­lo­qui­al way”.

      
Sto­ries have their own life scenes and cul­tur­al back­grounds, and when telling them to chil­dren, nec­es­sary flex­i­bil­i­ty is required.

    
-> And again, the blank space in the nar­ra­tive.

My per­son­al under­stand­ing: Allow time for the child’s gaze to con­nect with the image; allow time for the child to search and match the image with the sto­ry they’ve heard.

   
 ->
The way of telling the sto­ry and whether to tell it word for word depends on the audi­ence and the sto­ry itself.
 
3. Between Books and Peo­ple

   
The bond between books and peo­ple should not be forced.
   
Exam­ple 1: “A Train Depart­ing Far Away”  Text by Yves Bunting, Tuhim­ler, trans­lat­ed by Liu Qingyan
Pub­lished by Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press in Feb­ru­ary 2010

 
  
[Per­son­al Reflec­tion: The Tem­pera­ment and Courage to Face Real­i­ty and Embrace Hope]

   
-> The qui­et yet pow­er­ful tem­pera­ment is not to every­one’s lik­ing.

   
 
 
    
Exam­ple 2: Com­par­i­son of dif­fer­ent books on the same top­ic:
  

<– “Good­bye Grove” is a first-per­son auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal nar­ra­tive;
 


<– “This Grass Is So Beau­ti­ful” is nar­rat­ed in the third per­son;
 

<–Gar­bo the Mole
 
 
 
 
 
4. FAQ sec­tion
Q1. How can you tell a sto­ry that will move the audi­ence?
  
A:The most down-to-earth secret is the sto­ry­teller’s love for the sto­ry itself. The sto­ry should first move you, and then move oth­ers.

My per­son­al take: When a book touch­es me, the sto­ry­teller will tell it with a rich voice and emo­tion, and be more able to grasp the over­all sto­ry. How­ev­er, if I must tell a sto­ry about a book that has­n’t touched me, the bot­tom line is: respect the orig­i­nal text and don’t add my own per­son­al inter­pre­ta­tions or emo­tions.
Q2. How do you feel moved by a par­tic­u­lar book?
 
 A:Patient­ly wait­ing is a nec­es­sary process. If you still can’t be moved, it’s okay to let go for now. Going with the flow is also a state of mind; avoid using the word “force.”
<–
Exam­ple 1: “Wan­der­ing Around”Dur­ing the two months of wait­ing, I accu­mu­lat­ed and stud­ied back­ground infor­ma­tion.

   

 <–
Exam­ple 2: “Tues­day Sham­poo Day”:I was moved when I came across it acci­den­tal­ly.
 

   

 
 
<–
Exam­ple 3, “Open Your Mouth”:A book that chil­dren can look up and con­sult on their own, and it does not nec­es­sar­i­ly require the entire book to be read word for word.
 
 
 
Q3. About the voice in sto­ry­telling.

   A:It is impor­tant to grasp the dis­tinc­tion and con­trast between the voic­es of dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters and the same char­ac­ter in dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions, but avoid exces­sive exag­ger­a­tion, arti­fi­cial­i­ty, or over-the-top pro­cess­ing.  

Exam­ple: “A Sun­ny Day”: Dif­fer­ent pro­cess­ing of the lit­tle fox’s voice.
  
-> The sub­tle changes in the nar­ra­tor’s tone in dif­fer­ent dia­logue sit­u­a­tions require care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of the sto­ry con­text.
 
 
 
Q4. How to con­duct sto­ry­telling?

  A: 4.1
Try dis­cussing the theme of fear of the dark: Make a list of books to read and choose the books to use.

     
4.2 Shar­ing the orga­ni­za­tion­al process of a read­ing ses­sion on Red Mud:

        4.2.1. Pub­lic­i­ty of read­ing ref­er­ence list: Pro­vide alter­na­tive books relat­ed to the theme of the read­ing ses­sion for the audi­ence to choose from, espe­cial­ly chil­dren — the order of read­ing is deter­mined by the chil­dren.

        4.2.2. The orga­niz­er will present a book titled “A Dark, Dark Sto­ry”

       
4.2.3. The moth­er holds her child in the front and reads a book, while anoth­er per­son stands beside her, turn­ing pages and show­ing the same book.

       
4.2.4. Game ses­sion: Expe­ri­ence dark­ness in the small house you built.

       
4.2.5. Act­ing in a play: “Grand­ma Xi Who Hates the Night”

       
4.2.6. End­ing with a heart­warm­ing sto­ry: “Lit­tle Owl”

     4.3 Dis­sect­ing the spar­row:

       
4.3.1 What are the keynotes and hooks? What threads con­nect them? How does the event design inter­act with the on-site audi­ence?

            
 Empha­sis on “flex­i­ble han­dling in exe­cu­tion”:

          
 
Event design should take into account on-site prac­ti­cal­i­ties: The goal isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly to strict­ly adhere to the plan; instead, it should be approached with a play­ful, relaxed atti­tude. The ulti­mate goal is to cre­ate a pos­i­tive mood and pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence for the par­tic­i­pants. This requires the abil­i­ty to adapt and adapt to the sit­u­a­tion. This means prepar­ing a wide vari­ety of dish­es while also main­tain­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty to adjust plans based on the actu­al reac­tions of par­tic­i­pants. Plans and pre­sen­ta­tions are often intend­ed for adults; in prac­tice, atten­tion should be paid to the expe­ri­ences of the chil­dren lis­ten­ing to the sto­ries, often beneath the sur­face of the plan.

       
4.3.2 The more you par­tic­i­pate, the greater the rewards.

   
“Read­ing ses­sions” are not “sto­ry­telling ses­sions” on the Tian­qiao plat­form. The audi­ence must become true par­tic­i­pants. Sto­ry­tellers should focus on the essence of read­ing. Too much per­son­al expres­sion will replace the audi­ence’s “read­ing” process, leav­ing blank space for mean­ing.
 
5. Ques­tions from the audi­ence
Q1. How do you grasp the sto­ry­telling method? In the process, do you dis­cuss the neces­si­ty of props?

   
A:Two extreme forms of sto­ry­telling:

   
A com­plete­ly unadorned, plain nar­ra­tive with inter­ac­tive inter­jec­tions (Tai­wan: Cater­pil­lar Chil­dren’s Phi­los­o­phy Foun­da­tion oper­at­ing mod­el)

   
->
When you’re telling a sto­ry for the first time to an audi­ence of strangers, keep the sto­ry as the main theme. Props can be fun, but they’re not essen­tial. Don’t let extend­ed activ­i­ties take up too much space in your first sto­ry, as they can over­shad­ow the main theme.

   
-> When read­ing again, the sto­ry­teller needs to strike a bal­ance between the “two poles” based on the sit­u­a­tion.
Q2. Cru­el­ty in the pic­ture (the fox’s tail being cut off in “A Sun­ny Day”)

   
A: In many cas­es, adults first form an inter­nal con­nec­tion between the pic­tures and the con­tent of pic­ture books, form­ing pre­con­ceived assump­tions and prej­u­dices that they project onto chil­dren, lead­ing them to believe that chil­dren, too, will be unable to dis­tin­guish between real­i­ty and fic­tion. This is pri­mar­i­ly an adult issue, not the child’s.
Q3. Intro­duc­tion of the sto­ry?

   
A:There are many ways:Exam­ple: I Don’t Know Who I Am       
 
Q4. Anoth­er mean­ing of the sto­ry­telling process:

   
A:Estab­lish a trust­ing rela­tion­ship between the sto­ry­teller and the audi­ence; in the process of sto­ry­telling, let the book and the chil­dren teach you more.
 
Thanks again to Mr. Ajia for his won­der­ful shar­ing, orga­niz­ing cul­tur­al­ly inspir­ing events, and the enthu­si­as­tic par­tic­i­pa­tion of sto­ry­tellers.