Students at Cleveland elementary ramp up for an oral storytelling event April 30.
KELLY MCMANUS, North Shore Outlook, April 23 2008
Spinning yarns
Cleveland elementary students talk about the influences of popular novels in their own creative writing.
What’s the deal with teen vampires in young people’s fiction? Not just teen vampires, either. What about teen werewolves, teen ghosts, teens with super powers…
Invoke the word “Twilight” in a seventh grade class anywhere in North America – and other places too, the Harlequin-type books about a teen-vampire romance, published in several languages have recently been translated into Arabic – and chances are a host of girls, and maybe even a few boys, will respond with the same enthusiasm.
“I got kind of obsessed,” confesses one student at Cleveland elementary, sitting with a group of avid readers and writers, grades 6 and 7, to consider the trend.
They start by rhyming off their favourite titles at the moment: Elsewhere, Breaking Dawn (the fourth sequel to Meyer’s Twilight), The Vampire Diaries.
What’s the big attraction of fantastic stories, or “paranormal romances” as they have been called? Across the board, the young readers say they dig the thrill factor of mixing the everyday (school, homework or small town life) with juicy surprises (boyfriends who can fly or the secret of the afterlife).
Take Elsewhere, explains Charlie Muir.
“In Elsewhere after you die you go somewhere else and you age backwards and then you go back to earth,” she says. “It’s really a series you can read and get into.”
The “hot guys,” in the story don’t hurt either, adds Samantha McCabe.
The girls explain they feel the same pull to exploring fantasy in their own creative writing.
“When I work on creative writing I find… you can just go to another place and it’s more interesting,” explains Olivia Startup. “In a more realistic story I find it hard to imagine myself in.”
Startup, Muir and other young writers at Cleveland have been writing stories for a school anthology. Some students have chosen to write non-fiction, as in Allie Donaldson’s interview with her gymnastics coach.
Saboura Ahmadzadeh, recently emigrated from Iran, chose to talk about her transition to Canadian schooling.
“In Iran we don’t have the same school for boys and girls,” she writes, “but in Canada, the boys and girls study in the same school. That was interesting and scary for me.”
Some have chosen to write fictional mysteries or paranormal romances a la Twilight’s Bella and Edward.
Some have even straddled the two disciplines, conducting interviews with fictional characters (one student interviewed the main character from her favourite book, The Rainbow Fish) or imagining fierce alien invasions and relaying that information in a newspaper-style brief.
Grade 4 student Gavin Lopez-Smith crafted a hard news take on an alien abduction as witnessed by a photographer, an Orangutang named Dinosaur.
The anthology launches in tandem with the school’s Standup Storytelling night, a celebration in oral storytelling.
The April 30 community event that will see kids, parents and special guests including author Brendan McLeod and RCMP Const. Chelsie Isobe spinning yarns and sharing tales. The Dancers of the Damelahamid, a performing group with the Gitksan Nation, will kick off the evening.
Students are invited to stand up and share stories, too, a prospect which might seem more intimidating than submitting a written copy. But don’t sweat it, explains teacher-librarian and event organizer Sandra Santarossa.
Plenty of Cleveland kids have been practicing their oral storytelling techniques, whether they are aware of it or no. A teacher team at the school has been developing a storytelling curriculum for the district, and that unit, implemented in Cleveland classrooms this month, is designed to give kids the tools to stand up and tell a story for an audience.
“For us, the big idea is all stories have a purpose that help us learn about ourselves, others and the world,” explains Santarossa. “They (stories) bind us together, ground us in meaning, and most importantly evoke empathy.”
For kids and parents puzzling over good story ideas for the event, Santarossa explains, the stories can be about anything, although preferably about things that have happened.
“Some kids have been using family stories that make them laugh or make them cry, stories that grandpa or great grandpa told about the war or maybe an immigration story, how families came to Canada,” Santarossa explains. “One parent was telling me about being sprayed by a skunk. Another child, her dad wanted to take the kids for quality time and they were attacked by a storm of bees.”
The April 30 Standup Storytelling event at Cleveland elementary begins at 6:30 p.m. in the school gymnasium. For more information, phone Cleveland at 604-903-3390.
Read student writing from Cleveland elementary here.
kmcmanus@northshoreoutlook.com
