Las Condes, Santiago de Chile. 20.20.
I’ve been assigned a task to do for the Middle Lenguaje department that is right up my street. The students of 6° Básico are working toward familiarisation with Criterion C of the MYP (already!) and, to liven things up a little, they’re going to start working on a myths and legends project next week, which they will explore during a parent-teacher conference event in two weeks’ time – one which I shall sadly miss, being somewhere totally different by the 10th of August. But I still won’t say where!
To really bring their presentation and storytelling skills to life, they’re going to create their own kamishibai (the one word in our meeting on Monday that I could not decipher for love nor for money, being neither English nor Spanish!). A kamishibai is a sort of slide theatre, with the script on the back of the cards so you can tell the story moment by moment using the images on the card. Think of it as an ersatz cinema.
I’d have been all over a project like this one in Year 7. We did do a poetry writing challenge around a set theme, which was really fun (and I did reasonably well, if memory serves), but nothing as arty as this.
To help out, I’ve been tasked with offering six additional folktales from around the world to complement the North and South American stories the kids will have the chance to work with. After careful consideration, I chose the following:
- Gawain and the Green Knight (UK) – I felt an Arthurian legend had to be in there for England’s sake, and the Green Knight’s tale favours a standalone event.
- Mr Seguin’s Goat (FR) – A rogue choice, but I needed an animal-centred story and a French folktale and this one ticked both boxes. I slightly tweaked the ending so that it might be a bit more appealing. I hope Charles Perrault would forgive me!
- Martin Tkiki (ES) – A Basque legend I have always taught to my Year 8s when practising the past tense and consequently one I know really well. I also like the idea that it might even hint at our earliest interactions with Neanderthals and what we may have learned (or even taken) from their society.
- How Maui Slowed the Sun (PF) – A lot of these kids will have seen Moana, but I first learned about the mighty Maui in a beautifully illustrated Myths and Legends book. Disney’s Maui merely alludes to his great deeds in You’re Welcome, but they’re worth reading for yourself.
- Urashima Taro (JP) – I could have gone with any number of Japanese folktales, but this East Asian parallel to Rip Van Winkle is both short, imaginative and easily accessible to non-native readers.
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (IR) – Probably one of my favourite folktales of all time and easily the longest in the collection, but it could not be strimmed down without losing the magic. It was Ali Baba or Sinbad and the former is, admittedly, a lot easier to follow.
If I can get my hands on a functioning school laptop tomorrow morning – as planned – I should have them written out and tied up by lunchtime tomorrow. I wonder which ones they’ll choose? BB x
The Book of Barnabas 