Sheffield_Todd_Storytelling_Experience_1
Personal experience with Storytelling: Introduction
Last blog post, I mentioned that I interned at a living history museum called Mission San Luis in Tallahassee, Florida during my MLIS program with Florida State University. The goal of Mission San Luis is to educate about the Spanish mission to the Apalachee natives of Florida, the involved history, and what daily life was like for the missionaries, the natives, and other occupants (n.d.). There, chief among my duties was providing daily tours of the mission site to students, primarily elementary and middle school students. While I briefly touched upon this in the previous reading reflection blog post, I will expand upon that and provide more detail in this post. Dryly reciting information to children does not work, and not only does it not work, they tune out and refuse to learn entirely. To educate children, you must captivate and entertain as well as educate. I personally learned that as an intern at Mission San Luis, and am glad I did as it taught me lifelong storytelling skills. While I will include some outside references when appropriate, much of this post will reflect upon my experience as a tour guide, as it was my most recent and consistent experience with storytelling to children.
An image of the mound, inside is where the Apalachee chief and his council met, as well serving as a community center and tavern for travelers of sorts.
An image of the mound, inside is where the Apalachee chief and his council met, as well serving as a community center and tavern for travelers of sorts.
Technique and its importance
Storytelling requires, or at least is greatly assisted by, technique to enhance the experience and therefore avoid merely reciting facts. Srividhya Venkat discusses the importance of technique in her personal experiences as a children's' author. Whenever Venkat tells a story orally, or without a book, she involves the usage of things like gestures or facial expressions, voice manipulation (changing tone, emotions, and so on), and rhythmic or song usage (2020). There are several advantages to using these techniques, like allowing listener participation and engagement, reinforcing the message of the story, allowing for roleplay and language development, and even storyteller enjoyment (Venkat, 2020). After my internship at Mission San Luis, I can confirm everything Ms. Venkat discusses as helpful advice. While I was primarily reciting facts as the tour guide, I was assisted by interpreters who took on the roles of natives, Spanish settlers and missionaries, and other appropriate characters. They acted out the lives of the people who lived at the mission in that time period, and the children loved seeing the interpreters act out everything. I also treated the interpreters as their historical characters during the tours, which helped make the experience organic, and also provided myself entertainment.
Storytelling works best as an interactive experience, and failure to be lively and interactive can prove fatal for the enjoyment of the listener (Underdown-DuBois, 2011). I had to learn this myself, and it was not easy given my naturally monotone voice and focus on facts. Indeed, an overtly dry, monotone voice can outright bore children listerners and cause them to tune out (Underdown-DuBois, 2011). As Underdown-DuBois puts it, storytelling with children requires the teller to not be afraid of “making a fool of one’s self," in other words the teller should be willing to act lively and emotive during the experience (2011). As I improved my ability to speak up and change vocal range, as well as learning what language and expressions to use with children, my performance increased. The interpreters understood this too, and were often lively and interactive with the children. Props were used, such as historical objects one would find in the mission, and the interpreter blacksmith even allowed a volunteer to help him smith metal during a tour session (with supervision of course). Personally, I was always too scared to help, but from my memory, the blacksmith was usually the favorite portion of the tour for the students.
Storytelling works best as an interactive experience, and failure to be lively and interactive can prove fatal for the enjoyment of the listener (Underdown-DuBois, 2011). I had to learn this myself, and it was not easy given my naturally monotone voice and focus on facts. Indeed, an overtly dry, monotone voice can outright bore children listerners and cause them to tune out (Underdown-DuBois, 2011). As Underdown-DuBois puts it, storytelling with children requires the teller to not be afraid of “making a fool of one’s self," in other words the teller should be willing to act lively and emotive during the experience (2011). As I improved my ability to speak up and change vocal range, as well as learning what language and expressions to use with children, my performance increased. The interpreters understood this too, and were often lively and interactive with the children. Props were used, such as historical objects one would find in the mission, and the interpreter blacksmith even allowed a volunteer to help him smith metal during a tour session (with supervision of course). Personally, I was always too scared to help, but from my memory, the blacksmith was usually the favorite portion of the tour for the students.
A photo of the interpreters (taken from the Mission San Luis photo gallery). As you can see, accurate costuming is an integral part of the interpreter performance.
Advice for tour guiding, a refresher
I worked as an intern for Mission San Luis from January to April 2020, so it has been a while since I last gave a tour there. However, I would love to give tours again, especially historic tours. As such, I independently researched some advice on how to give the best tour guide experience. Chief among the best advice is to be personal and approachable with the tour viewers, and to face them rather than what you are touring about (Potter, 2016). I remember being bad about facing the material on site rather than the students, but that changed over time, especially since keeping students safe was of upmost priority. In addition, it is best for tour guides to move organically and with proper pacing, and not to get hung up on one part of the tour too long, especially the introduction (Potter, 2016). I love this bit of advice especially, because from personal experience from the internship, elementary and middle school children tire easily. Their attention spans are short, and they get restless, so I was provided a timer to help with that particular issue.
Another way to help improve as a tour guide is to ask for help to perform and organize better (Potter, 2016). I also remember the importance of this, as when I first began touring, my supervisor was there to help. His name was Matt Smith, though he has moved on from working at Mission San Luis shortly after my own departure. When I first toured as part of my internship, he would walk with me, help me keep pace, and help with facts I may have missed. The advice I found also encourages tour guides not to focus too hard on being perfect (Potter, 2016). Getting over that sort of anxiety really helped me perform better as a tour guide, and practice makes perfect in this sort of situation. Funnily enough, the advice article also encourages tour guides to tell a story about the tour, rather than just reciting dates and names (Potter, 2016). This is the big one for historical touring like with Mission San Luis. Listeners, especially students, love to hear engaging stories about the history, not just listen to the human equivalent of a textbook.
Another way to help improve as a tour guide is to ask for help to perform and organize better (Potter, 2016). I also remember the importance of this, as when I first began touring, my supervisor was there to help. His name was Matt Smith, though he has moved on from working at Mission San Luis shortly after my own departure. When I first toured as part of my internship, he would walk with me, help me keep pace, and help with facts I may have missed. The advice I found also encourages tour guides not to focus too hard on being perfect (Potter, 2016). Getting over that sort of anxiety really helped me perform better as a tour guide, and practice makes perfect in this sort of situation. Funnily enough, the advice article also encourages tour guides to tell a story about the tour, rather than just reciting dates and names (Potter, 2016). This is the big one for historical touring like with Mission San Luis. Listeners, especially students, love to hear engaging stories about the history, not just listen to the human equivalent of a textbook.
The Mission San Luis visitor center (taken from the Mission San Luis photo gallery).
Conclusion
Though I have yet to create new storytelling experiences with students since my internship at Mission San Luis, I will always hold a special place in my heart for my time there. It showed that even I can entertain and educate schoolchildren, and that doing so is an extremely enjoyable passion and duty. Given I currently live in Savannah while studying for my Specialist degree, I am in the ideal city to try and become a tour guide again, or perhaps try my hand at being an interpreter. My internship at Mission San Luis was meant to last until May 2020, around the end of the semester. However, as everyone reading this post likely already knows, COVID-19 hit during that time and thus the museum had to close to the public. That ended my internship slightly early, but it did not set the clock back on the invaluable storytelling skills I learned from my time there.
WORKS CITED
Potter, E. (2016, January 5). 10 Tips for Being a Good Tour Guide. Natural Trust for Historic Preservation. https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-tuesday-tips-good-tour-guide
Underdown-DuBois, C. (2011). Bringing Storytime Alive with Acting and Storytelling Techniques: an Interactive Article. Tennessee Libraries, 61(2).
Venkat, S. (May/June 2020). Using Oral Storytelling Techniques in Reading Sessions. Knowledge Quest, 48(5), 54–56.
Hi Todd!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing your experience as a tour guide at the Mission San Luis in Florida! I have never heard about it before, but through your description of the site and the beautiful pictures you provided, I think my family and I would enjoy a visit there. I loved how you related the job of a tour guide to that of a storyteller. I had not made that connection until reading your post, but it is so obvious to me now. Your reference to Venkat really stood out to me since I referred to her as well in my blog post. For my storytelling with a book, I tried to incorporate facial expressions and voice manipulation. I am not too embarrassed by my first attempt, but I know that it could be better. I really want to engage tthe listeners. I believe that we are similar in the tendency that our voices have to be monotone. This is something that I need to work on as well, especially with the different character voices. I also need to work on the angle of my body while reading a story aloud. I want to face the audience more so that I can have more eye contact with them. I think that it is wonderful you had the opportunity to practice doing that during your tours and that you were able improve with time! I hope that the same will be true for me! Additionally, I found it interesting that you included the importance of pacing while being a tour guide. I definitely struggled with pacing during my storytelling with a book. At times I went too slow, and other times I read too quickly. I plan on watching videos of storytellers to help me with this. I hope that they can become a type of mentor like Matt Smith was for you. I look forward to watching your next storytelling endeavor in class! I hope that you have a great week!
Best,
Cameron