Development Unit: Telling Stories
Telling stories—the art of narrating real or imagined experiences—is central to all cultures. As Leslie Marmon Silko, a Pueblo storyteller studied in this unit, has said, “The urge to share our experience, to tell our stories to another human is so strong that humans invented languages—sign languages and spoken languages but also dance, music, and painting.” The importance of storytelling leads us to wonder: Why do people tell stories? Where do stories come from? How do stories pass along the experiences of people, families, and cultures? How do people become storytellers?
In this unit, we will study storytelling by reading a collection of short narratives—folk tales, short stories, memoirs, narrative essays, and historical narratives—and view related informational videos to explore these questions in light of the Central Question: What makes a good story? We will develop skills for reading stories closely and an understanding of the elements authors use when writing narratives. To explore how storytelling happens in a variety of visual forms, we will also view a series of short videos about storytelling, as well as documentary films. To demonstrate what we have learned about the art of telling stories, we will write an original narrative—either personal, fictional, or nonfictional.