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Water Stories: The River Within
Us
Inspiration
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Give students a few minutes of quiet time to think
of their own personal "water stories": an experience they have had
with a river, creek, pond, puddle, stream, lake or ocean. When ready,
have each share his/her personal water story in brief anecdotal
form. An example:
My childhood home was a farm that lay in a deep and green valley.
The "crick" came to us from higher ground, flowed through our pasture,
and out into the neighbor's. In good times, it sang a salute to
the family's happiness as it passed through. In the bad times, the
creek brought the possibility of change and escape, a connection
of the past, to the present, and the reassurance of a future.
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From the group, solicit reactions to the stories.
Are there commonalities within the stories? Did certain themes occur
more often than others? What generalizations can be made about the
stories?
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Stories can be shared orally and informally. A story,
when written, is told differently. In what ways, specifically, does
a written story differ from a story told orally?
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Give students a few minutes to write the first paragraph
or two of their stories. Ask for volunteers to share their written
versions but before they do, instruct the audience to listen for
particularly visual and/ or clear descriptions as they hear one
another's work and note phrases and images that they consider to
be interesting and effective.
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Solicit reactions to the writing/listening process.
Ask each to find and share a work describes his/her writing experience
and one sentence to explain the word choice. E.g., frustrating-because
my mind was so full of the picture and it was hard to put it into
words; Enjoyable-because it is a favorite memory of mine and it
felt good to be close to it again.
Reflection
What other topics, other common nouns, would be as readily
available in story form to each of us? (Maybe the other elements:
air, fire, earth. Some emotions, possibly.) What might explain the
almost universal accessibility of "water stories"? Refer to quote
at the beginning of this lesson: "The River lives within us." Discuss
students' interpretations of its meaning.
Creation
Teacher can chose from several options at this point:
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Students can create an illustration to accompany
their "started stories" and submit both illustration and story beginning
to be posted in the classroom;
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An assignment could be made to complete stories
that could then be collected to form a class "River Anthology,"
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Story beginnings could be used as a cover (with
illustration as background) to a Rivers Portfolio into which all
ensuing work would be entered;
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An audiotape of the story beginnings could be made,
complete with background music and/or sound effects.
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