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DISTRICT NEWS & PR |
St. Louis storytellers visit Collinsville school children
April 30, 2009
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Aaron Sudholt
Collinsville Herald
April 30, 2009 |
In the Collinsville High School auditorium Tuesday, more than 300 grade-schoolers all leaned forward, eyes centered on the stage, as their minds floated to another land where talking coyotes and turtles fled evil fire spirits. No, they weren't watching TV.
They were listening to storyteller Marilyn Kinsella tell "Coyote Brings the Fire." She was one of five storytellers from the St. Louis Storytelling Festival that visited CHS Monday and Tuesday .
"Because we have so many storytellers on this side of the river, we wondered if it would be possible to bring (the event) here to the east side," said performer Ron Adams. "This is our trial year. The teachers will evaluate it; if it goes well, we'll bring it back."
Adams had been a history and mythology teacher at CHS but retired in 1999.
Five performers were at CHS on both days telling stories to a total of more than 2,000 children from kindergarten to seventh grade from each Collinsville elementary school, Collinsville Middle School and Dorris Intermediate School.
Two storytellers told a few stories in each session. Brian "Fox" Ellis told "Once there was an Old Witch," which he went over twice so children could memorize it and tell their parents.
"One of the things I love to emphasize is St. Louis Storytellers Festival is one of the best storytellers festivals in the world," Ellis said. "It's a wonderful immersion in storytelling."
The St. Louis Storytelling Festival is conducted by a group of performers funded by the University of Missouri-St. Louis. They perform at various locations in the St. Louis area each year. This year performances with the festival are being held from Wednesday to Saturday.
The performers gave teachers from each class that attended evaluation forms that asked what they thought.
St. Louis Storytelling Festival staff will use the responses they got back to determine later this year if the festival should be brought to Illinois schools again for next year.
"If there's anything we're lacking nowadays it's skills in listening and reading," Adams said. "This expands (students') skills beyond typing at a computer and texting."
Teachers asked said they enjoyed the stories, as did their students.
"I think it's great," said Webster Elementary second-grade teacher Susan Gallacci. "It's hard to get over there for it so it's nice they're bringing it over here."
Colleague and teacher for the visually impaired Ellen Nicholl said the stories held particular value for her student.
"I think it's absolutely excellent," she said. "My student is blind and the way they described what they were doing... they were just very descriptive and just wonderful."
Other children seemed to enjoy it as well.
Third-grader Jacob Thiel enjoyed the part where students had to tell the story back to Ellis and try to scare him.
"It was pretty good. It was funny when he fell out of his chair when we scared him," he said.
To see additional photos:
http://websites.kahoks.org/CHS/News_Articles/2008_09/Storyteller/myalbum.html
www.stlstorytellingfestival.org.
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