"Classics with a Twist" Residency
The “Classics with a Twist” arts-in-ed residency is a language arts-based residency combining storytelling skills with creativity and creative writing skills. Students in 3rd grade or above learn some of the story development tools and tricks of The Storycrafters through example, discussion, and oral and written exercises done in class. Follow-up activities to the residency, done with the classroom teacher, complete the students’ story projects.
Performance Assembly
The “Classics with a Twist” residency begins with a Storycrafters assembly for the particular grade level to be worked with during the residency. In the assembly, The Storycrafters present several folktale types, and several ways of re-working traditional materials into original stories. These can include:
• Geographical and/or historical re-placing of tales
• Rap and rhyming versions of stories
• Spoonerism and word-play
• Adapting classic story structures to enhance
curricular material and activities
Stories are used as 'imagination kick-offs' for the students' creative writing and story creation. Tools for creating similar stories are explored in classroom workshops following the assembly.
Follow-up Workshops
Following the performance, classroom workshops with one of The Storycrafters focus on the stories presented in the assembly. The stories are discussed interms of the steps of their development. The steps are outlined so that the students can then take the steps to create their own original pieces, either as written pieces or oral presentations. Finally, projects are begun with students using various written and oral language exercises to develop their skills in the particular ‘story form’ to be worked with by the class.
The number of workshop sessions with each class can vary from one, for an economical introduction to various forms of ‘story-twisting’, to multiple sessions, allowing for more in-depth work with the various exercises toward a finished piece of work. Either way, follow-up activities with classroom teachers enhance the residency and allow for final completion of the written or oral works begun by students in the residency.