Storytelling Week 3: What Did You Learn?

What Did You Learn?

 Illustration of The Tortoise and the Ducks

            Here we are with a couple of interesting, but knowledgeable figures, in which we are going to be asking them a few questions about certain situations that they went through to see what they learned from that situation, and see what guidance or wisdom they would be willing to give to all of us because we all know that each one of us can always learn from other’s mistakes, so we do not make the same mistakes that they did.

Our first guest of the day will be the Billy Goat Kid:

Reporter: “What is it that made you wonder away from you flock, whom you had been traveling with?”

Billy Goat Kid: “I just got too distracted with my surroundings instead of staying with the ones I knew I had protection with.”

Reporter: “How did you come up with the idea of seeing if the wolf would let you dance and sing before the wolf ate you?”

Billy Goat Kid: “It was the only idea I had in my arsenal to save me from being dinner, I guess you could say I got really, really lucky. Plus, I knew if I could sing the song that Wolf’s do that maybe, just maybe my flock would hear me and be able to come back for me.”

Reporter: “So what was the most important thing you learned from this situation?”

Billy Goat Kid: “I would have the say the most important thing I learned was, “Do not let anything turn you from your purpose.”” (Winter)

For our next guest, we have The Ducks from The Tortoise and The Ducks:

Reporter: “I know this might be a touchy subject for you two to speak about regarding what happened during this situation, but if you could elaborate on what happen, it would greatly benefit the rest of us.”

The Ducks: “QUACK, QUACK, QUACK!”

Reporter: “Uhmmm… English, please.”

The Ducks: “Oh sorry, we’ve been having lots of problems since this happening. Let us take a deep breath and gather our thoughts.”

(Takes deep quacks)

The Ducks: “Okay, here we go, there was this tortoise, who was extremely disappointed in the fact that he could not move about the countryside and see more of nature. We intervened and gave him an option to carry a stick in his mouth as we flew up into the sky to let him see what he wanted to see. We warned him that if he opened his mouth it would be the end of his life, so he bit a stick and we lifted him up in the sky. He was beyond astonished, which was his downfall, as soon as he saw the country, he opened his mouth to say how beautiful it looked, but that is when he let go of the stick and fell to his death…”

Reporter: “Wow… I am sorry that you all had to bear witness to that. What is the most important thing you pulled away from such a tragic event?”

The Ducks: “The most important thing that we learned from this is that just because you are upset and disappointed in the spot you are, it doesn’t mean you should try and go all out to seek something that isn’t meant to be.”

Author’s Note:

I decided to use the storytelling style of an interview because I thought it provided the greatest format to talk about the stories in such a way that allows the reader to pull some advice from the stories of Aesop for Children (Winter), both the Billy Goat and the Wolf, plus the Tortoise and the Ducks. These stories allowed me to ask question regarding each situation and talk about what happened and what they learned from it, but also what we can learn from these short stories.

Bibliography:

Aesop for Children,Milo Winter, 1999

Week 3 Reading, continued: Aesop for Children

Reading Diary

Illustration of The Bear and the Bees

Aesop for Children:

·       I think it is outstanding the way they use the quotes at the end of each story, I really, and I mean REALLY like this concept because it gives you a little bit more to chew on and think about. I believe it is crucial to give the reader something to take and apply to life, which they do an excellent job at doing.

·       The bear should not of taken out his complete anger out on the beehive because he let his temper get the best of him and it cost him more pain than getting any type of revenge. The story is saying that we should take our one bump and keep on going instead of trying to fight back and cause ourselves more pain.

·       The Wolf and the Shepherd is a short story detailing an account of the wolf misguiding the shepherd’s mind by always helping him, this lead to the shepherd forgetting how sinful the wolf could actually be. (This is something most people could relate to in real life, in which they ended up trusting someone to much just to be stabbed in the back.)

·       The Fighting Bulls and the Frog tells a story of being at the bottom, and when something bad happens, it is those at the bottom will suffer the most. This something we can all relate to, as in when a crisis happens in economy it is the people who are at the bottom it affects even more. 

   Aesop for Children, Milo Winter 

Week 3 Reading: Aesop for Children

Reading Diary

Book Cover of Aesop for Children

Aesop for Children:

·       I like how the Billy Goat Kid was able to think of a distraction to spare him time, using the song and dance to not only allow himself to be merry for a bit longer, but alert/signal his flock, who were moving homeward.

·       Also, a nice little tidbit is the quotable line at the bottom of the stories to give you a line that you can analyze and think about, such as “Do not let anything turn you from your purpose.”

·       I liked the concept behind The Tortoises and the Ducks, in which it showed that just because you are upset and disappointed in the spot you are, it doesn’t mean you should try and go all out to seek something that isn’t meant to be.

·       The friendship between the dog and rooster was a very tight knit relationship and it came in beneficial when the fox tried to be sly/deceitful to try and trick the rooster into becoming friends with the fox, so the fox could eat the rooster.

·       The moral behind the story of The Eagle and the Jackdaw is that don’t let something you see someone else do override what you are actually capable of because it could end up costing you in the end.

The Boy and the Filbits tells us to not try and do too much at one given moment because then you 

will get stuck in the moment, what you should do is do small steps at a time, and in return, you will 

complete the same thing as what you were trying to do at once.

Aesop For Children - Milo Winter

Brainstorming Mythology & Folklore Storybook Style Topics

Portfolio Storytelling Styles

Portfolio

1.    Possible Style: Breaking News

As I am a big time sports fanatic, there are not many better options for telling a story about a happening in sports than Breaking News. Any time there is something major that happens with in the sports world it comes in the form of Breaking News. This gives me a platform to express an exciting announcement regarding my sports news, in a form like ESPN breaking enormous sports news. 
Research So Far: 
I looked into the “CZECH News 9” Storybook to find this style. It gave me a good sense of how I can tell a story through the sports news segment, in which I can use the news as a way of an interview and getting great information right from the source or people very closely connected to the source, instead of words being passed down through the grapevine.

2.    Possible Style: Object In a Museum

This is another way I can construe a story about sports because it allows me to put an object of great standing to those in the sports world, but also those who are interested in the history behind that object in the museum. It gives me a great platform to indulge into the tradition and all of the stories that are behind whatever objects are in the museum for my story.

Research So Far:

I looked at the description of what I can do regarding using the style of the “Object in a Museum” style. I see that I can give a brief description of the museum, and place the story from the perspective of a museum worker telling brief stories of the object, or allowing the display and placard do the storytelling.

3.    Possible Style: Motivational Speaker

What else helps people in the sports community or world than a good ole fashioned motivational speaker, they bring energy to every occasion, on and off the field. Motivational speaker may not get the glitz and glamour, but do a lot of beneficial things regarding helping any sports teams get through any situation, no matter what the subject matter is at hand. This style would allow me to give a motivational speech to team before they play a big game.

Research So Far:

 I looked at the description of a Motivational Speaker led story could be like, so it would allow me to deliver a really positive message that I can construe from the story that you might never know help one of us, if it is a message that we can relate to. I can fit that positive message in the story, turn the story into a motivational speech, in which I choose the storyteller to be a parent, a coach, or whoever I can think of that would best suit the direction in which I am driving my story towards.

4.    Possible Style: 5 Motifs

In my opinion, this is my best option of writing each of my stories because it gives me a lot of artistic freedom, which is something I really like to have when I am constructing and developing a story. I love this concept of 5 Motifs because I can take 5 characteristics from the stories I decide to read and pull them out, then integrate those objects into my story in a way that I feel comfortable with and fits the overall feel of the story. I feel like the other styles put a constriction of what I can do with my stories.

Research So Far:

The biggest point of my research so far is what I used for my first story in this class being the map I 

used to develop my story by pulling out certain structures and characters from the map and legend, it 

gave me a lot of artistic, creative freedom for my writing process and I could easily flow through my 

writing by developing my own thoughts and ideas for the setting, character’s characteristics, etc.