lesson plans | The Modern Story

Long ago, before the Railway school had their first batch of quarterly exams Ilana and I created a three-day lesson plan revolving around a short story we wrote and titled “Kavita and the Magic Dance Shoes.” Our students’ photos have been up on Flickr for a while, but now I’m going to share the details of the lessons, which are ideal for a short-term storytelling workshop. Since we did this activity in early September, the girls had really only begun to deal with the idea of stories. Looking back at it now I can see how far they’ve come, with the exercises below serving as a fun and fundamental start.

Step 1–Creating a Story Sequence

Divide the students into small groups. Give each group a copy of the story, cut into 8 pieces. The students’ task: put the story in order.

How it worked out: In contrast to some verbal exercises Ilana and I had tried, the girls understood the expectations of this exercise immediately and worked together with great focus. It was from this activity that we learned how useful it is for us to type out instructions or definitions for our students–they can read at their own pace, without getting caught up/befuddled by our American English speech!

Step 2–Understanding Story Elements

Each group writes the story on poster paper in the order they chose. Hang around the room and ask groups to share why they chose the order they did. Use these examples as a catalyst for discussing story development and introducing story vocabulary (e.g. setting, characters, plot, beginning, conflict, resolution, theme, moral).

How it worked out: Each group’s story varied greatly. Because of time constraints, we were only able to have two groups share theirs with the class. Our students are used to classes where there is one correct answer only, so our compare/contrast technique with the two stories confused them at first. Fortunately, Neha and Asma, our TFTP (Technology for the People) teaching assistants cleared up the confusion by communicating with the girls in Hindi. Ilana used the metaphor of different floors in an apartment building to explain the way that certain pieces of information must lay the groundwork to understand the rest of the story. We drew on our communication lesson from the previous day by giving each girl a printed copy of the story vocabulary and definitions to paste into their notebooks.

Step 3–Telling a Story in Multiple Ways

Split students into 8 groups. Each group receives one section of the story. They must choreograph a 30-60 second dance that illustrates what happens in their part of the story. Perform these dances for the class.

Next, the groups choose one freeze frame from their dance that best represents what happens during the dance. A student photographer takes a photo of the freeze frames. (Upload now or in next session). Now we have three ways of understanding this story: in its written form, through dance, and in photos!

How it worked out: Even though we’d been doing drama exercises all week to make the girls comfortable being expressive in class, they took a bit to get comfortable planning their dances. The results were a delight, but we ran short on time for the photography portion, so we chose a photographer before each story segment was performed. At some point during each performance, I yelled, “Freeze!” The photographer snapped a shot and then the dancers continued. The girls were excited about dancing, but even moreso about taking pictures and Ilana and I promised more photo storytelling activities would come after our break for exams.

On Kavita's 12th birthday, she found a pair of old red dancing shoes under the mango tree in the maidan.

Kavita loved to dance. As soon as she finished her studies she always turned on the radio and practiced the latest Bollywood moves with her friends.

As soon as Kavita put on the old red dancing shoes, she realized that she could do any dance move she'd ever seen. Her family and friends were amazed. She realized they must be magical.

Kavita danced so well that she was invited to audition for a performance at a big festival in Hyderabad.

When Kavita arrived at the dance hall, she realized that she had left her red dancing shoes at home. She began to cry, and thought, "how will I ever be chosen without the magic shoes?"

When it was Kavita's turn to audition, one of the smaller girls told her that she was a beautiful dancer and that she couldn't wait to see Kavita dance. Kavita went onstage.

Kavita danced better than she had ever danced before. All of the judges applauded and told her that she would perform in the festival.

Kavita was elated and proud, and she realized that she didn't need the magic dancing shoes to be a wonderful dancer.

Oct, 22

tms@themodernstory.com

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Girls' education in India, Government High School, high school creative writing, lesson plans, Storytelling, Women's education in India

Our first day teaching The Modern Story at the Railway Girls School

In the Head Mistress’s office, a painting of scenic India is accompanied by the caption: “To know the world one must construct it.” Mr. Pravakar, a teacher and assistant at the Railway Girls School, said,

“It took me three days to select this quote. I believe it captures the spirit of our school.”

The quote also resonated in me the spirit of The Modern Story (TMS). My goal as a TMS fellow is to both ‘bridge the digital divide’ and instill a sense of individual expression that ‘constructs,’ as the quote says, a student’s world view through images, sound and moving images to help themselves and others better understand their lives.

During a brief orientation discussion, Mr. Pravakar also noted,

“In the U.S. there is talk about first generation college students. Here, these girls are first generation learners. Their parents never had any schooling of any kind.”

He went on to describe a story of a former student,

“One girl, a student of ours, has been very successful. Neither of her parents went to school. She attended classes here at the Railway Girls school. She wanted to go to college. She told her father ‘No, now I want to study. I know how much you’ve spent on me my whole life. It is not much. Now, I want to go to college. I want this and you’ll give it to me.”

Her father was a carpenter on the railway. She went to college. She is a successful working woman. Mr. Pravakar says that 1/2 his classes are spent teaching and the majority of the rest of the time is devoted to motivational speaking and exercises.

With regard to our curriculum, I feel that motivation is inherent in many of the exercises of telling stories that are of interest and inspiration to the girls. Our first day went amazingly well. The girls are bright. They internalize the material quickly and demonstrate above average discipline. We have started classes here three weeks behind schedule. We have a lot of work to do and I can’t wait to go full steam ahead.

For today’s class we talked about images, sounds, and moving images. TMS fellows used an elevated platform in the classroom to give an example of images and moving images by imitating a fashion runway. One of the girls said she wanted to be a fashion designer and I like to keep in-class examples related to student interests. To demonstrate ‘subject movement,’ one student walked down the ‘runway’ and posed for the camera modeling her ‘dress.’ To demonstrate ‘camera movement’ I then showed the students how a cameraman can move 360 degrees around the model to show off the dress, or how he can pan down the runway as the model walks etc. The students giggled but immediately understood the point: Moving images are developed by things moving in the frame and/or moving the camera itself. Still images can be taken when the model stops to model her dress. Having enough light is important for the dress to look inviting to the crowd. TMS Fellow Vidya Putcha then did an excellent presentation on different kinds of sounds that are involved in telling digital stories.

Vidya also showed her example of a digital story on powerpoint. She talked about her family and showed photos accompanied by text. The students then did the following exercise. They chose an issue in their community. They drew a frame. They drew something in the frame demonstrating their community issue. They then answered the following three questions. ‘What is in the frame. What is not in the frame. Why are these choices important.’ For an example, I chose a pressing issue in my community which is gun violence. I drew a frame. I drew in the frame two men and a gun. I responded to the questions;

“What is in the frame: Two men and a gun.”

“What is not in the frame: Policemen, ambulances, families, children playing, people smiling.”

Why are these choices important: The absence of police suggests that this is a problem related to gun violence. The absence of children playing suggests that kids are not safe to play in the streets where gun violence is a problem. The presence of a gun and two men suggests that gun violence is a problem people are concerned about where I live.”

The Modern Story, with support form The America India Foundation’s Digital Equalizer Program, now has two classes operating at the Railway Girls School. Today was our first day. I am looking forward to a successful semester.

-Danny Thiemann
2009/2010 Fellow