Preparing for the Class (in an Ideal World)

These entries are from my fictional journal as the classroom interpreter–since I have so much time built into my day for preparation. (Remember, this is the Ideal World.)

Doug Bowen-Bailey

Entry #1

I just found out from Holly that there will be a guest speaker, Lise Lunge-Larsen, next week in English class. Nice to have a little preparation time. Holly told me she is an author and storyteller from Norway. I asked Holly to check with Lise for an overview of her talk. Hopefully, I can get a little information that way, but in case I can’t, I’m going to check in the school library to see if I can find one of her books.

Entry #2

Just back from the library. Found one of Lise Lunge-Larsen’s recent books: The Troll with No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls, from Norway. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

The jacket notes say that Lise has been telling troll stories to American children after she moved to the U.S. from Norway. She’s also known as the “Troll Lady” so I guess I better think about trolls. In the Author’s note, Lise writes about the importance of story for children’s development. She relates a psychologist’s perception that stories such as the one she tells “bypass the later brain development and go directly to the ancient part of the brain, where they reside right next to fire.” She goes on to write:

This means that love of story is part of what makes us human; it is innate, and it helps us to survive….While ritual and storytelling now may seem unnecessary for the survival of the body, they are necessary for the survival of the soul. (p. 9.)

Seems I better be prepared for some engaging storytelling.

It reminds me of a project I did on involvement in language. I remember reading an article written by Sue Mather and Elizabeth Winston on a case study on creating involvement in ASL storytelling in classroom settings. They studied different ASL reproductions of the story, Too Much Noise and found that the most engaging telling utilized a consistent spatial map. Addi-tionally, it used constructed action (showing the action through classifier use, rather than talking about it) and visual patterns to increase the level of involvement on the part of the audience. These seems like some things I might want to be sure I include in my interpretations.

I wrote a paper about that for the Discourse Analysis class I took. I’ll have to dig that up and review it. (Click here to see the complete paper.)

Entry #3

Had some more time to look through the Lunge-Larsen book. Has a variety of stories in it. Some are new to me, some are familiar. The first story is The Three Billy Goats Gruff. In reading through it, I was reminded of seeing a videotape version of Patrick Graybill telling that story in ASL. Come to think of it, I think that’s the only time I’ve seen a troll described in ASL. I know the videotape is available from the Minnesota Resource Center. I’m going to e-mail them to see if I could get it to watch in time before the presentation.

(The title is: Four for You, Volume 3 from Sign Media, Inc. It’s available for free loan for Minnesota residents. Info at: http://education.state.mn.us/mdeprod/groups/SpecialEd/documents/Publication/001489.pdf. Also available for purchase from Sign Media, Inc. at: http://www.signmedia.com)

I also noticed that she ended almost every story in the book with the Norwegian phrase: “Snipp, snapp, snute Her er eventyret ute!” which means “Snip, snap, snout, This tale’s told out.” I think I might want to be prepared for some interspersing of Norwegian in her stories.

Entry #4

Just got some information from the classroom teacher, Holly. Lise Lunge-Larsen sent this short outline of her lesson. She plans to talk about Folklore Genres, explain a little bit about each genre, and then give an example of each one. After the example, she will try to connect it to more contemporary examples that the students will know. We have been studying genres of literature in this class–like Science Fiction, Mystery, that sort of thing. So I know “genre” means a certain type of story that has particular forms and patterns you can expect. That sounds interesting.The genres she is going to focus on are: cumulative; explanatory; talking animals; numbskull/noodlehead; and fairy tales. Hmm, sounds interesting. I wonder if the talking animals example will be The Billy Goats Gruff. That would be nice.

Entry #5

I just got a call that my daughter has a fever of 104 degrees. Looks like I won’t be here tomorrow when Lise Lunge-Larsen comes. Glad I kept these notes for my preparing so that I can pass them on to the sub. So, since you’re reading them now, I wish you luck. Seems like it will be a fun class.

Posted in: Goats, Trolls & Numbskulls