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Making Room for Everyone. Bill Gordh
Читать онлайн.Название Making Room for Everyone
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781640652590
Автор произведения Bill Gordh
Жанр Религия: прочее
Издательство Ingram
Our Chapel Format
Our chapels consist of singing and sharing a story. Each chapel we begin by singing songs from our chapel songbook. Following a period of singing (around ten minutes), the school’s director joins us and we announce, “Page one!” Page one provides the lyrics to the song (“Chapel Story Time” found on page 233) we sing at every chapel before the story. The director then welcomes everyone, makes a brief comment about the day’s story, and acknowledges the group that made the artwork that will accompany the story.
The story is then told. Following the story, the director reflects on how it relates to life at school. Then she announces the name and page number of the thematically selected sing-along song. After the entire group sings the song, the director directs the families to accompany their children to their classrooms.
The format offered above is excellent for very young children. This basic outline can be expanded upon for older children (first through fifth grades). Singing together is welcome with any age group; with older children you can sing more verses of songs as well as ones with more complicated music. Often a class will prepare a special song to open or close a chapel. You can expand the story by including the students as singers or actors (or narrators). The refrains are in good keys for young singers. Some schools also have students read a passage from the Bible to accompany the story. At Saint Mark’s School in Altadena, California, students light and extinguish the candles on the altar followed by a moment of silence to appreciate the flame (or smoke). Often the chapel in elementary grades is also a time for announcements. Trinity School in New York City uses chapel as an opportunity to share anecdotes of when students helped someone. Actively involving the children in the chapel gatherings should be a focus of elementary chapels.
The Stories
Stories are the centerpiece of our chapel program. There are many excellent stories that can be used for a chapel gathering. Picture books, folktales, personal stories, and Bible stories can all contribute to a vibrant program. Picture books for young children offer a story they can revisit on their own or with others. Folktales demonstrate to children that we learn from many cultures. Personal stories remind children that everyone has experiences in common and that we learn from events in others’ lives. Bible stories offer a wealth and depth of story that is central to our culture. In Building a Children’s Chapel, the vast majority of stories are Bible stories; for this volume folktales from around the world have been selected and retold especially for chapel gatherings. Refrains have been created for many of the stories; the pacing and intent have been attended to with care for the young listener. As with the Bible stories in the previous volume, the stories have been crafted to be meaningful for quite young, while still exciting for older children. Likewise, the stories chosen are deep and significant and not dumbed down for younger children, but rather told in a way they can be engaged.
Pay attention to pronouns in animal stories. There is a tendency in all of us to assign pronouns according to our sense of a particular animal. For instance, without even thinking, a bear or lion will become a “he” and a kitty or bunny will be a “she.” With the story game “Going on a Bear Hunt,” I specifically call the bear a “she” throughout. Sometimes after the story I will lead a storytelling follow-up so the children can express their ideas. I say, “Well after the bear’s picnic, some of the children went home; some went to the movies; some went to the ice cream shop. What do you think the bear did?” Most of the time, even with having said “she” for the bear multiple times, the children will suggest, “He went back to his cave” or “He went to get pizza.” You will note in this volume that sometimes I have assigned “she” to many animals to try and balance the book with important male and female characters. I have also used “it” for animals at times, but find when they are main characters, it is easier for the children to relate to either a “he” or a “she” than an “it.”* You do not need to try and remember which character is a “he” or “she”; it is more just being aware of how you are using your pronouns. This is part of our goal for Making Room for Everyone—using he/she/it and they and being aware that the Bible stories are heavily weighted toward male main characters.
You will also note that often the main character in a story has a specific name. When I found these stories, sometimes the characters had names and sometimes they were just “the young girl” or “the little boy.” With our focus on and openness to different cultures, it seems like a nice chance to normalize what might at first seem like unusual names. By having these names used in stories, children listening will come to like the names and if some of the listeners know the name, it will reassure them of their special place in our community.
The stories in this book were told many times before they were written down. They were told in many different ways and in a variety of languages. The fact that they have been written down does not mean that they are now in a definitive form. You are reading the stories the way that I tell them. I have often added songs or repeated phrases that were not found in the source material. I like to think that telling these stories aloud releases them back into the oral tradition. This allows them to stay alive and for you to let them grow with your own tellings in ways that suit your style and the young listeners. As a matter of fact you are reading the stories as I wrote them based on my own tellings. Still they are not fixed. When I tell them again they may change, because I discover something else I like and add it in, or a child asks a question that makes me realize I can make the tale clearer. That is even true of the Bible stories and why doing chapel year after year continues to be a learning experience about the stories and how best to tell them.
Once you know them, allow them to change. You will change how you tell them because of the listeners. You will tell the stories differently to a small group than you will for a full congregation. Some groups need to hear a phrase repeated—you can see that in their eyes or in their restlessness. Some groups of children require a more energetic telling, while others like a quieter delivery. It is true that you can be responsive to your listeners when you are reading, but it is easier for you and more meaningful to them if the story is told—everyone listening can feel the presence of the story being told. It exists in the space shared by you and your listeners.
I have tried to write these stories in a “spoken” way, where you can almost hear my voice. I have offered many places of repeated phrases that I know from many years that the children will join in with you. When they join in, they become even more engaged as they are now helping you tell the story. It is in the moment of the telling that you can keep active the interface of teller/listener in most meaningful ways. This is not something that will happen immediately, but will accumulate over many sessions. To further this growth, storytelling tips are offered at the end of each story. They are specific to the tale and often can apply to many of the other stories as well. Together, the storytelling tips become a mini-course on storytelling.
This does not mean that you should wait to tell the stories until you have read and practiced the whole book—not at all. The ideas and storytelling techniques will accumulate and you will become more comfortable and better at it as you go. The children and families will be your biggest fans and will grow along with you. The children sense your presence and will be attentive to it. As you become comfortable you will notice more ways of adjusting your stories to your listeners. To summarize and clarify:
What Telling a Story Offers