RSS Feed
Twitter
Story telling is a tradition that has been loved and practiced for hundreds, even thousands of years, by native people across the globe.
Perhaps without realizing it at first, in an age without Internet, TV, radio or even the movable type printing press, storytellers were passing down culture and heritage to new generations who would in turn do the same.
As with many other traditions, the 20th century mass media revolution has all but wiped out story telling amongst those whose culture survived upon it, including the native Alaskan people. However, they’re not going down without a fight it seems, with the arrival of a new initiative to reinvigorate the tradition.
Elizabeth Jones, a native Alaskan and key speaker at the First Alaskans Institute’s Elders and Youth Conference in Fairbanks, which aims to restore storytelling amongst younger people, said that the older generations who participated in story telling will have to work closely with the local youth population to teach the art of story telling and as such keep their culture and heritage alive.
The conference, which finished last Wednesday promoted Alaskan native culture through song, dance and of course story telling. This however is just the start of the initiative, headed by several key people within the Alaskan community. (more…)
Posted in 
Tags: 
Blogging can help children further their literacy learning by providing an outlet for personal thoughts and ideas. Blogging is the act of writing consistent articles creating a website about a topic or personal experience.
Reading is such an important and rewarding skill for children to learn. The library and, of course, book stores offer a wide selection of children’s books, but it isn’t always convenient to make a trip to these places.
For three years, I earned my living as an English teacher, teaching English as a second language to Germans. A lot of my clients were corporate guys, wanting to learn English for their next trade negotiation with investors.
One of my pet fascinations is banned books. There’s something rebellious about finding out what is banned and then doing it anyway. As kids, we were always told what not to do, and then we went ahead and did it regardless, as an act of youthful defiance.
Reader’s Theater is a fun and imaginative way to teach literacy in the classroom. Students study a book inside and out from different character’s perspectives to eventually act out the book in front of their peers. This process makes books exciting for the children and at the same time it increases their fluency.
Journal writing is a great tool for teachers to use to get students thinking, writing and focused at the beginning of class. Simply giving students 5-10 minutes to get their thoughts together and write an entry can have many positive outcomes. Teachers have found that children gain confidence and fluency in their writing from this daily exercise.
Writing poetry as an activity with your child can instantly bring you closer together. The very creative quality of this genre encourages the sharing of deep, personal thoughts between parent and child. There are few activities that truly demand your undivided attention and imagination.
Children love to use their imaginations as they create through writing. Once a teacher that is teaching creative writing prepares students for a writing activity, she simply needs to step back and allow their creative juices to flow. The following are five strategies that will enable a teacher to start students off on the right foot.
Writing a book report is a necessary task for students, and it helps to know how to do it. There is a great deal of work involved in how to write a book report - between reading the book, taking notes and writing the actual report. The following tips will keep the student writer on task while improving the quality of her work.