Story Revival

UNCW is breaking new ground in classroom education with innovative programs that take students out of the class and into the community. While lecture-based classes are still predominant, a new trend is budding in the academic community –service learning programs. UNCW’s Storytellers is one particular program that has become both a valuable ethnographic learning experience and a delight to local elementary schools. There are two Storytelling classes: one requires students to learn, memorize, and personalize child stories and recite them, and the other requires students to interview a person from a certain era, learn their story, and write it into a script that not only teaches students, but also excites them.

"I think the course is a great example of both applied learning and regional engagement.  The course has been going on for many years and is a flagship example for our department,” said Dr. Richard Olsen, department chair of Communication Studies. “I think it is effective both as a learning experience for our students and for the audiences that attend.  There are so few truly live performances we actually experience any more.”

There are two sections of the Storytelling in the Community class: Storytelling and Historical Players. The difference is, the Historical Players take interviews they conducted with people who lived in a certain era and turn them into interactive stories for the children, taking on the personas and characteristics of each character. Each story incorporates teaching important history lessons, such as civil rights or World War II, into an exciting, hilarious story. The ethnographic performance is the focus of the class, but it also introduces students to real world skills in interviewing, communicating, story telling, and memorization. Students are responsible for finding people to interview, extrapolating their important stories, writing an interesting narrative, memorizing it, and acting it out energetically.

“I think it’s important to have classes that interact with real world activity. Most classes you just sit you don’t connect things and visualize things. You’re connecting older people with younger people, and it’s fascinating,” said Bree Conti, a senior Communication Studies major at UNCW and Storyteller.

Elementary and college students alike are raving about the success of the program. Brett Scibal, 21, a senior and Communication Studies Major, could barely contain himself when discussing the syllabus and activities of the class. Students pick a children’s story, such as “The Stinky Cheese Man” or a Dr. Seuss tale, and spend the first half of the semester memorizing the story, creating their characters’ personas and putting their personal touches on the narrative. Then the class visits an elementary school, like their 2010 visit to College Park elementary school.

“You have to keep your energy up or else the kids won’t enjoy it,” said Scibal. “It’s really enjoyable though. My story was really, really funny and every kid just, like, loved it. It was so cool to see the kids react and interact with me during the story. As I would show emotions, I would see their face light up – that’s so cliché, I know – but it was really cool. I get something out of it, I’ll get a grade, but it’s more for the kids. I love it.”

Even the teachers were enthused. While they keep a dutiful eye on the children in their classroom, they too find themselves entertained by the changing personas and life in the stories. Teachers seemed to particularly endorse the Historical Players section of Storytelling in the Community, the part that incorporates real stories from local people who lived during a certain period into a vivid, age-appropriate and fun story for the elementary students.

“The enthusiasm the storytellers had was amazing… each one of [the students] enjoyed something different yet they all loved the enthusiasm!” said Monique Ellington, a teacher at Winter Park elementary school, the most recent host of the Storytellers troupe.

Storytelling in the Community is a milestone in innovative teaching programs. The classes incorporate miniature performance ethnographies and real interviews and require students to translate those stories into a theatrical monologue that is also instructional. The community outreach aspect of the class makes it unique.

“This program is highly effective and very interactive…  Overall the program was amazing and I would love to have them back!  As an adult , every story captured my undivided attention!” said Ellington.

In a time of financial distress for universities across the state, it’s uncommon – if not rare – that a department would be interested in expanding its programs. In the case of Storytelling in the Community, however, the Communication Studies department is looking to offer more sections of the class.

“We are actually looking to expand into various versions of the course to address different audiences,” said Dr. Olsen. “The challenge is getting students to understand the many other benefits and growth opportunities even if they don't expect to be 'performers' for a living."

UNCW is fortunate to have many talented professors among its ranks.  Other professors are supportive of Dr. Scott’s move to get her students out of the class and into action. For some instructors, modeling some of their course objectives and student learning outcomes off of the Storytelling classes is a brilliant way to engage otherwise bored students.

"We have several other COM classes that regularly integrate service learning such as field video classes and IMC and PR classes,” said Dr. Olsen. “However, we should never assume that it is right for every class.  Sometimes the best approaches for some material is to hunker down with a book and THINK!"