South High students win scholarships at Hub storytelling match
by Melissa McKeon CORRESPONDENT May 16th 2014WORCESTER — South High Community School Principal Maureen Binienda's students have been telling stories.
In fact, three of her students are noted for their storytelling.
And Ms. Binienda couldn't be happier. Tenth-grader Manasseh Konadu, William Lam and David Judkins and seven other South students told their stories on April 26 at the Boston Public Library as part of an annual high school storytelling slam by Massmouth's StoriesLive. The three were awarded scholarships for their efforts in South's initial appearance at the event.
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| South High Community School student David Judkins, who won the Audience Choice Award at Massmouth's storytelling competition in Boston, runs through his performance for his English class. Behind him is 10th-grade English teacher Pascalia Mattioli, ((JOHN FERRARONE)) |
It's part of Massmouth's effort to reinforce that the art of storytelling is alive and well and valuable. The program, the brainchild of Massmouth founder Norah Dooley, is curriculum-based. Teacher-artist-storytellers go to local schools to teach storytelling and end up teaching far more, it seems. StoriesLive representatives coach students through the first phase, when all students participate. They write down the outline of their stories and then tell and refine them.
It's a lesson in everything an English teacher would like to see students learn. And, in fact, it's part of what they are mandated to learn by the state's Core Curriculum guidelines, which include a public speaking requirement.
"This is a fun way to meet a Common Core requirement," says 12th-grade English teacher Joe McKay.
The success of the stories at the class level, where everyone must participate, is easy to measure: "They applaud (each other's stories) or they don't applaud," Mr. McKay said. "They let you know." The students get to refine the story for a schoolwide "slam," with voluntary participation, at which the success of the stories is once again measured by the students' reactions. Next, those students go to the regional slam in Boston, where, this year, three South students distinguished themselves by earning scholarship money from StoriesLive.
The money can be used for the purchase of a laptop or iPad/tablet, memberships online, educational accounts, college application fees, college visits, tuition for any school and even driver's education or travel.
To date, the program has given out more than $17,000 in scholarship awards to more than 6,000 high school students from 15 Massachusetts high schools.
And while the program is certainly a unique — and clearly successful — way to teach public speaking, the preparation of the story teaches another key literature and writing lesson: creating a plot that works.
"It turned out to be a great learning strategy," Mr. McKay said.
Once students moved from creating the outline of their story to telling it, the progress in learning the lessons English teachers try to reinforce was swift. "That's where you see the proof in the pudding," Mr. McKay said. "It becomes almost intuitive."
Learning those core skills through storytelling with StoriesLive was, Mr. McKay said, far more successful than the usual classroom experience.
"It's not like they're being pressured by some cranky old teacher like me," he joked.
The deeper lessons are clear, as well.
"It seems like in this day and age everyone has something electronic, no one's having conversations anymore. It's like a lost art," Ms. Binienda said. "But storytelling has existed for centuries. Oral tradition is how people learned about their culture."
For the students at South, Ms. Binienda finds it particularly important.
"We are the third most diverse high school in the state," she said.
That means the connections between these students from many different backgrounds can be tenuous, until they hear each other's stories.
The experience of hearing everything from where they're from to the first time they experienced something new to learning the hard way at once illuminates a new culture and breaks down the barriers between them.
"Kids' experiences are kids' experiences, the whole world over," Mr. McKay said. "You're not all that different."
The deeper lessons are clear, as well.
"It seems like in this day and age everyone has something electronic, no one's having conversations anymore. It's like a lost art," Ms. Binienda said. "But storytelling has existed for centuries. Oral tradition is how people learned about their culture."
For the students at South, Ms. Binienda finds it particularly important.
"We are the third most diverse high school in the state," she said.
That means the connections between these students from many different backgrounds can be tenuous, until they hear each other's stories.
The experience of hearing everything from where they're from to the first time they experienced something new to learning the hard way at once illuminates a new culture and breaks down the barriers between them.
"Kids' experiences are kids' experiences, the whole world over," Mr. McKay said. "You're not all that different." In addition to claiming that connection with their peers, they also claim something simple, yet profound, themselves.
"Being able to tell your story is important," Ms. Binienda said.
At the final slam on a Saturday during April vacation, 10 South students and their chaperones learned not only the excitement of telling their stories among their peers from schools all over the state, but also had the simple fun of what was, for many, the new experience that field trips provide. They took the train to Boston to participate in the final slam at Boston Public Library.
Mr. Konadu won first place (a $500 scholarship); close behind him was classmate Mr. Lam, who won a $250 scholarship. Their fellow South student Mr. Judkins won an Audience Choice $150 award.
For more information, visit www.massmouth.com and its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/highschoolstories.
