Yup, Bernie has a big footprint and does great things for the field of
sound. He seems to appear everywhere. How do you do that Bernie?
I liked your story that you use with sound. I have gone through it
and will comment more off list. The Wood Frog is one of those signals
of where spring is. It's season is very short and some years this far
up north that means maybe a few days. They also have a unique voice
that it would be easy to build stories about aliens around. Maybe not
a good choice for children unless you can do it around a campfire some
way.
Rich
--- In Robin Aurelius <>
wrote:
>
> Dear Rich:
> There is an article about Bernie is this months (March-April) VIA
the monthly magazine of California Automobile Association."Stop, Look
Listen" by Bill Donohue. The contents are about where to listen to
natural sounds, and be able to hear them. I'll see about reprints or a
website with this article.
> Tell me more about frog week, and what your museum is doing with
it. I d like to tell you more about my project which is to get kids to
listen for birdsounds as they go looking for birds. I attache a little
description of a public performance coming up, and a research paper
that tells others why we combined storytelling and scientific observation.
> Robin Aurelius
>
>
> Rich Peet <> wrote:
> For those that know what this means.
> It's Wood Frog week in the northern Midwest.
>
> Rich
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------
>
>
>
> Storytelling as Informance (The Marriage of Fact and Fancy), with
Support from Technology
>
> Mary Lynne McGrath, Sacramento City College
> Robin Aurelius, Sacramento City College, Retired
>
> Presented at
> The Imaginative Education Research Group
> 4th International Conference on Imagination and Education
> Vancouver, 12-14 July 2006
>
> Introduction
> I have used storytelling for many years as a teacher, librarian, and
festival performer and proposed using it as part of my final project
in a college geography class. Most of the students were studying
biology, botany, and other natural and life sciences. I began
thinking of ways a storyteller might use the story as a vehicle to
organize and express scientific observation, and use technology to
enhance it. This conjecture prompted the following questions:
>
> 1. What do I want to teach and why?
> 2. What is the advantage of teaching with a story as a means of
instruction?
> 3. What are the characteristics of a good story for an informance?
(the marriage of fact and fancy)
> 4. What is the role of emotion in a storytelling informance and what
is the listener doing?
> 5. Can the art of storytelling survive embedded information?
> 6. How can learning be evaluated in an informance?
> 7. Can storytelling survive in a setting with explicit educational
goals? 8. What support from technology is needed, (the nuts and bolts)?
> 8. What support from technology is needed for a good informance?
>
> This paper will provide answers to these questions and detail the
technology used in this program titled "The Two Baby Herons". I have
significantly adapted this story which is found in "From the Winds of
Manguito", a book of folktales from Cuba retold by Elvia Perez (2004).
A similar story , Kanji-Jo, the Nestlings, from Africa, collected and
published in Look Back and See by folklorist, librarian and
storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald (1991) was also a source of
inspiration for my version. (see Appendix A). My husband and I have
performed this story once at Cosumnes River College, once at the 2006
Clear Lake Heron Festival, and four times at the Yolo Basin Foundation
Nature Center, a non profit agency that assists in managing a large
wetland wildlife refuge system and a comprehensive conservation
education and interpretation program for elementary school students in
the Sacramento Region.
>
> 1. What do I want to teach and why?
> I decided to teach the students to identify the song/call of eight
wetland birds, and to match them with the appropriate bird's name and
picture. This choice was made while working with students
> K-4, at the Yolo Basin nature center. This refuge is where I am
becoming an enthusiastic beginning birder. There are many birds at the
refuge, and the bird song is magnificent. Often they can't be seen in
the bushes or the rushes, but I can hear them. I wanted to learn the
song/calls myself, and identify them for my students. It was
surprisingly hard to sort them out in the field, or remember them
after repeated listenings to the best available recordings (Gibson,
2004, LaFleur, 2006, Thayer, 2003). This led to a plan to design a
more humane and effective way of learning aural material.
>
> Also, I'm a grandmother, and want to help my grandchildren enjoy and
learn more about birds, so naturally thought of storytelling as a
medium of instruction. There is great value in listening to nature and
learning how bird song can provide species identification.
>
> Of course the story, a folktale from Cuba, is a lively and very
satisfying story of parents lost and found. It stands on its own
merits as a piece of folk literature, and carries the bird song as a
natural extension of the narrative.
>
> 2. What is the advantage of teaching with a story as the medium of
instruction?
> Kieran Egan (l985) maintains the story is the only unit in language
that fixes the meaning of incidents and determines their affective
meaning while offering a haven of clarity. The story form organizes
contents into basic polar categories, puts them into a binary
conflict, and adds elaboration and resolution. Learning to follow a
story requires a sense of causality, problem solving, analyzing events
and situations, forming hypotheses and reforming them in light of
further content. Egan asserts that in the early years (up to age 8)
educators should immerse students in story and any content we can
organize in story form.
>
> My experience indicates that listening to an oral telling of the
story is the most intense immersion a student can achieve. Stories
can evoke moods, generate response, and create images that "please the
inward eye" so necessary to a vivid imagination. Because a story calls
upon emotion, it engages attention, meaning and memory. (Jensen, 1997)
> (What teacher doesn't wish that the lesson will be remembered?)
>
> 3. How to choose a good story for a storytelling informance
> The story of "The Two Baby Herons" was chosen because it is
exciting, involves the theme of danger to the baby birds, and employs
a cathartic joyful ending. The danger present in the story provides
an opportunity to imagine the emotion of fear, which produces a
heightened state of awareness, (Goleman, 1995)
>
> Equally important, the birds ask every wetland bird they meet to
sing for them. This suggests (to the storyteller) a natural entre
into the world of authentic bird song/call recordings (Gibson, 2004,
LaFleur, 2006, Thayer, 2004) that are commonly found in birding
stores, and the Cornell University Ornithology Lab collection and
documentation (Macaulay, 2006) of nearly every bird song ever recorded.
>
> In addition to having qualities that provide a potent learning
environment of strongly felt emotions, the story structure is
predictable. It is episodic and provides the right pacing for the
inclusion of short bits of information, and the information enhances
the storyline. It features animal characters (birds) suitable for
this age group (Egan, l985), and provides a place between nature and
culture where the animals act as a buffer zone for the emotional
content of the story. The two baby herons provide a different dynamic
than that of Hansel and Gretel. They are not human, but mediated
characters, and belong in the mythic realm of talking animals (Egan,
l985). As wetland birds, of course, they have the "right stuff" for
the nature center.
>
> The two baby birds are on a journey into the world before they are
ready to be out of the nest. They sense that they might die if they
don't find their parents. The listener experiences, in imagination,
the fear of the birds, and the joyful catharsis of the bird family
when they are reunited. It follows Egan's (l985) definition of
classic story form organized around binary conflict (afraid:secure),
and is based on childrens' experience in the family.
>
> Embedded in this story, technology contributes the authentic
songs/calls of the birds and bird photos. The story is told in front
of a small screen where photos of the birds appear from a rear screen
projector so that I have freedom of movement as a storyteller, and
never break a beam of light. In a classic storytelling session, the
listener would imagine the way the birds look and sound. But this is
a marriage of fancy and fact. It is an informance and I have goals
that involve learning some identifying characteristics of the birds.
The facts of authentic song and photos are made explicit and not imagined.
>
> 4. What is the role of emotion in a storytelling session? What is
the listener doing?
> A storyteller is a specialist in emotional memory and these emotions
can be channeled into the service of education. Goleman (l995)
provides neurological data on the windows of opportunity for shaping
our children's emotional habits. A storytelling session provides such
a window, and an exercise in empathy. He states that emotions are, in
essence, impulses to act, the instant plans for handling life that
evolution has instilled in us. For example, when the listener
remembers and imagines the emotion of fear, impulses in the brains'
emotional centers trigger a flood of hormones to the amygdale that put
the body on general alert, making it edgy and ready for action. Cahill
and his colleagues at the University of California Irvine, have
determined that there is a consonance between the level of arousal and
the retention of associated information in central memory. The more
emotional arousal, in the form of narrative, associated with pictures,
the better the recall of the details in the pictures. (Cahill, et al,
2006). Attention fixates on the threat at hand, although, in this
story, the threat is imagined. The listener brings intense listening
to the story, and processes it with both the rational and the
emotional mind. These intertwine their different ways of knowing to
guide the listener through the story. In addition, in a storytelling
session, a kind of emotional contagion takes place. The bird sounds,
when they occur in the story, also evoke the emotion of surprise. The
lifting of eyebrows and other body language tells me that the
listeners are surprised, and this is demonstrated in a larger visual
sweep which permits more light to strike the retina, a physiological
advantage in this learning environment. Goleman (1995), refers to it
as a low-key version of the Stanislavsky method, where the listeners
re-create themselves in the mood of the teller.
> (I think, therefore I am. I feel, therefore I am more.)
>
> 5. How much information can the story carry and still be entertaining?
> This is a matter of conjecture at this point. I decided on eight
bird characters, photos, and no more than eight sounds because of
memory research indicating that a series of seven or eight numbers
could be recalled by most students. (Cusimano, 1995). The story plays
out to about twenty minutes, which is close to the limit of the 5/ 6
years old child's ability to attend to a structured presentation. The
amount of time spent in narrative versus the time spent listening to
bird sounds is about 8:1 narrative to sound, and the pictures continue
to stay up on the screen under my voice, changing as new bird
characters are introduced. Audience response tells me the length of
time and the amount of material is acceptable. There is little
squirming, yawning or distractive behavior. Faces remain engaged.
> (The goal of a story is to entertain and to instruct.)
>
> 6. How can learning in an "Informance" be evaluated?
> Individual evaluations have not been used, although I could use
paper and pencil response to the "dream sequence" ending. This ending
was devised as a way to review all the bird songs heard in the story,
and the audience responds as a group during the pauses provided as I
tell the story. The bird sound is played in these pauses, and they
have time to tell me what bird the herons are dreaming of. This is a
review of the song material, and lets me know how many students can
come up with the right bird. I reverse the sequence and add the bird
photo after I've given the class enough time to name the bird and
arrive at consensus. This they readily do, and I have not experienced
any "stumpers".
>
> As a storyteller, I prefer this evaluation method because it is
organic to the story, and is a spirited group activity. The group is
small enough with thirty students that I can see anyone who does not
respond. Since response by the audience is a natural part of a
storytelling session, I also use it in an informance. It provides an
adequate evaluation of the learning that has taken place and this
learning will be used within the hour when the students visit the
wetland home of these birds and hear their songs.
> (Every listener takes away that part of the story they
most need.)
>
> 7. Can the art of storytelling thrive in a setting with explicit
educational goals?
> As the teller I must constantly monitor the emotional involvement
of the listeners. This is what makes the difference between the
informance and a lecture. While the narrative can carry facts, the
appeal to the listener to imagine detail in the story, including the
emotions felt by the characters, must be maintained. If this is lost
through an overload of fact, the advantages of storytelling have been
lost and the session has become more didactic.
>
> While many nature centers offer hands-on activities, the appeal of
storytelling to create a sense of caring for the birds could be called
a hearts-on activity. A skilled storyteller must maintain emotional
rapport with the listeners and constantly determine the viability of
the story. Richard Chase, the noted folklorist, cites one of his
informants, "No, it'll not do just to read the good old tales out of a
book. You've got to tell 'em to make 'em go right". (Chase, l948)
>
> 8. What technical support can usefully be given in assistance to the
story
> Embedded in this story, technology contributes the authentic
songs/calls of the birds and bird photos. The story is told in front
of a small screen where photos of the birds appear from a rear screen
projector so that I have freedom of movement as a storyteller, and
never step in front of the beam of light. In a classic storytelling
session, the listener would imagine the way the birds look and sound.
But this is a marriage fact and fancy. It is an informance, and I
have goals that involve learning some identifying characteristics of
the birds. The 'facts' of authentic song and photos are made explicit
and not imagined.
>
> What equipment was used?
> Windows laptop computer with Power Point 2003. Digital (DLP or LCD)
projector (600x800 resolution) which can reverse images on screen.
VGA cable. Sound amplifier and speakers, and/or microphone setup.
4x6 foot table, or two desks, on which to place the computer and
projector. Translucent Screen (about 27x36 inches) which can be
positioned about 4 feet in front of projector made of a 27-30 inch
wide window shade or embroidery backing material. Rigid stand or
freestanding support for the screen-- a large picture frame or laundry
rack. Set of digital picture files of individual bird pictures.
Resolution 600x800. ( .jpg is best format.) Set of sound files of
individual bird songs. (.wav or .mp3 format). Table of picture and
sound file names correlated by bird name
>=20=09
> What did we do?
> We needed was to obtain the use of professional pictures and sounds
and a software program to display them in concert with the narrative.
Eight birds was the magic number. Each of the eight=97great blue heron,
snowy egret, mallard duck, wood duck, Canada Goose, Red Tailed Hawk,
and Great Horned Owl could be easily observed and heard in most
seasons at the preserve. The digital pictures we got from our nature
center volunteers were very good. We could see the outline of the
heron's body; the characteristic feathers on the head; the enormous
wingspan; the long spindly legs; the long beak. The habitat
background, especially the nest, is correct for each species. The
pictures were in .jpg format, at a high 600x800 resolution, and about
1 MB in file size. (Internet thumbnails do not have enough resolution
and picture quality to be projected.) We used them "as is" without
enhancements other than cropping
>=20=09
> The sounds were another matter. None of our local contacts had the
specialized equipment to record in the field. We needed the adult
heron croak, the sqwawks of immature herons in the nest, the quack
quack of dabbling and diving ducks, the cackling geese=85the scream of
the red tailed hawk and the great horned owl.
>=20=09
> We asked permission to use the Cornell Ornithology Lab's (Macaulay,
2006) recorded sounds of our eight birds. After six months we got
them. They needed to be amplified and converted to .mp3 format for
convenient use in the Power Point presentation program. We imported
the pictures into Power Point in the order they were to appear in the
narrative. Then we embedded the sounds onto the pictures. A small icon
is displayed wherever it is needed on the picture allowing the
operator to double click on it in order to produce an instantaneous
response of the bird's traditional sounds, and another click to
silence the sound, so as not to override the storyteller's voice or
interfere with the progress of the story. The storyteller cues in the
sound by requesting a specific response to the phrase, "If you are my
mother, could you sing me your song?" The requested bird sings, digitally.
>
> How did the marriage of Fact and Fancy work out?
> As the storyteller moves through the story, the individual bird
pictures are projected onto a 24x36 inch rear projection screen
surface. Power Point has the capability of image reversal, as do most
digital projectors, so that the image is displayed correctly. The
pictures are advanced by clicking the proper arrow, either on the
keyboard or the PowerPoint screen. In slide show mode the icon for
stopping the sound doesn't work well, so the operator needs to bring
the sound volume down, and then back up for the next picture. A
student could be retained as the operator.
>
> The beauty of rear projection (as opposed to front projection) is
that it allows the room lights to be left on and does not require room
darkening shades or curtains. The other advantage of rear projection
is that the storyteller can stand next to the picture and not walk in
the path of the light beam, and can maintain selective eye contact
which is necessary for a genuinely successful storytelling experience.
>=20=09
> The screen material is a choice of the least expensive light
transmitting window shade (with the spring-loaded core removed), or a
similar sized piece of embroidery backing fabric stretched between two
vertical supports. We used a freestanding metal laundry rack and some
clothespins to stretch the screen taut and flat. Two woodshop clamps
with the screen stretched between them would work well on a typical
classroom desk or table. In the field, tent poles or badminton poles
would work well as long as the screen is arranged so as not to flap or
catch the wind.
>=20=09
> When the story is finished, the projectionist moves backward through
the sounds, without the pictures (by blocking the light from the
projector with a manila folder). This is to allow audience recall by
sound alone. If prompting is needed, the operator can remove the
folder and momentarily reveal the picture. Power Point is not yet
sophisticated enough to achieve this effect. If the picture is turned
off, or a blank picture frame is inserted, the icon is not available
to bring up the sound.
>=20=09
> What could you do?=09
>
> Could this informance project be done by one teacher working alone?
Not likely! It requires collaboration. You will also need a capable
and responsible student assistant. He/she must be familiar with
manipulating digital photographs, and playing sound files from within
Power Point, operating a laptop computer and a digital projector
together, controlling sound playback and being able to remember where
the pictures and sounds fit into the story. There is a new digital
presentation program called "Inspiration" (Inspiration, 2006) which
seems better suited to teacher and student use.
>=20=09
> Could this informance project be adapted and used for other birds or
animals? Yes! One particularly good use would be to scan student art
work that relates to the story and project it on this system As long
as your informance program stays in the classroom, you could use other
pictures under fair use provisions, and copyrighted work with
appropriate written permission. You should think very carefully before
loading any of these pictures or sounds onto a public website.
>
> References
>
> Cahill, Larry, et al. (2006), "Enhanced Human Memory Consolidation
with Post-Learning Stress: Interaction With the Degree of Arousal at
Encoding", downloaded from www.learnmem.org on July 3, 2006.
> Chase, Richard (1945), Grandfather Tales, Houghton Miflin, Boston
> Cusimano, Addie (2005), Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional
Workbook, Achieve Publications.=09
> Egan, Kieran (1985), "Individual development in literacy", in
Literacy, Society, and Schooling: A Reader, Cambridge University Press
> Gibson, Dan (1999), Songbirds by the Stream, Solitudes Ltd, Toronto
Canada
> Goleman, Daniel (1995), Emotional Intelligence, Bantam, N.Y.
> Inspiration (2006), Inspiration Inc, Portland, OR
> Jensen, Eric (1997), Teaching with the brain in mind, ASCD,
Alexandria VA
> La Fleur, Joseph A. (2006), Better Birdwatching in the West: DVD
Field Guide, Loveland, CO
> MacDonald, Margaret Read (1991), Look back and see, H.W. Wilson, NY
> Macauley Library (2006), Cornell University, Department of
Ornithology, Ithaca, NY
> Thayer, Richard (2004), Our Birds: California (DVD),
www.thayerbirding.com
>
>
>
>
>
> Appendix A.
> The Two Baby Herons
> copyright 2006
> by
> Mary Lynne McGrath
> 3279 D Street
> Sacramento CA, 95816
>
> 950 words
> (adapted from a Cuban folktale retold by Elvia Perez, in the book,
"From the Winds of Manguito"
> (*) =3D the place in the story where the real bird song/call is heard
on the CD/DVD
>
> One day a male and a female Blue Heron met and fell in love.
Because it was Spring, they made a nest and laid two eggs. Every day
they sang to the chicks growing inside the eggs. But before the eggs
could hatch a terrible thing happened. Something scared the Herons
and they flew away and left the two eggs alone in the nest. The sun
was shining and it warmed the eggs, and before long, two Blue Heron
chicks hatched out. The first thing they said when they looked around
was , "Where is my mother and where is my father?" They were babies
but they knew that every living thing has a mother and a father. They
waited and waited, but nobody came for them. Poor little Herons! They
decided to go out into the world and look for their parents. They
didn't know how much danger waited in the big world for two baby birds.
> Close by to their tree they saw a beautiful large bird, as
white as snow. They hoped this would be Mama or Papa, but they had
never seen their mother or father. They didn't know what they would
look like, but they did know what they would sound like. "Didn't we
hear them when we were inside the egg?" one asked the other. So they
asked the Snowy Egret if she would sing her song for them. She was
very surprised to see the chicks, but she sang, and they listened.
(*) They both knew it was not their parent's song. Sadly they waved
goodbye and walked on to the pond. When they looked back they
couldn't see their tree or their nest anymore.
> On the shore of the pond, they saw a pair of birds floating
in the water. The male had a sparkling green head and the female had
a blue stripe on her wing. When they asked, the female sang her song.
(*) No, it was the wrong song. The Mallard Ducks were not their
parents.
> The little Herons took a drink from the pond, and watched
as two beautiful ducks swam by at the far end where the cattails grew.
> Could these splendid ducks be mother and father? The Heron
chicks really hoped so. They wanted all those colors and especially
the helmet of feathers that the male wore on his head. "Would you
sing your song for us?" The Wood Ducks began their very surprising
song. (*) Wonderful, but not the song they heard in the nest. The
chicks were so discouraged, they had walked a long way, and they were
tired and hungry. Then they heard a joyful noise in the sky over
their heads.
> When they looked up they saw a flock of Canada Geese,
honking up a hullabaloo. (*) They knew this was not the song they
needed, but it was so much fun watching all the geese land in the pond
that they didn't notice a shadow passing over them. Something was
watching from high up in the sky. Something that was very hungry.
When they finally looked up the Red-tailed Hawk was plummeting down
and screaming its call as it plunged toward them. (*)
> Now the little Herons were not afraid. They thought this
amazing, swift bird might be just what they were looking for. After
all, wasn't this bird coming for them? As the hawk got close one
called out, "Mama?" and the other "Papa?" The hawk froze in mid-air.
She was confused. Never before had her meal called her Mama. She
wheeled around and muttering to herself, she flew back up into the
sky, looking for another breakfast. Now the little Herons knew they
had been in danger. They had seen the hungry look and sharp talons of
the Hawk. The littlest asked, "What was that bird going to do to us?"
They decided to get out of sight, and wait, as they were too tired,
too hungry, and too thirsty to go on looking. Where could Mama and
Papa be?
> They had traveled all day, and still hadn't found their
parents. No one had fed them or helped them. They huddled together
under a tree and cried and cried. The sun was setting in the West,
and they knew they couldn't live another day without their parents.
Up above their heads, a bird who sleeps in the daytime and hunts at
night was waking up and calling. (*) They listened to the song of
the Great Horned Owl and cried some more, because it was the wrong
song. Then just as their little heads began to droop, they heard
another sound.
> As they looked into the sunset they saw two birds flying
toward them, with great strong wings. (*) They listened and their
hearts began to thump. It was the song they had heard in the nest.
Finally, it was the right song. This was the song of the Great Blue
Heron. Now the little Herons were crying for joy. The parents
swooped down, picked up the babies and held them close. They flew
back to the nest with them and fed them until their stomachs were
full. Safe under the wings of Mama and Papa, the two little Herons
went to sleep and dreamed of all the songs they had heard that day.
(all the songs can be replayed) And in the morning they heard the
best song in the whole world. The song of Mama and Papa Great Blue
Heron.(*)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
|