Service-learning in childrenu27s literature : teaching young Filipino learners local narratives and oral storytelling tradition

摘要

A service-learning project undertaken by my Childrenu27s Literature students was mentoring Grades 4-5 pupils (in cooperation with homeroom advisers) from selected Dumaguete City Public Elementary Schools in oral storytelling. The project was designed for student s to apply the principles in oral storytelling they learned in class, and to let them and the pupils gather local oral narratives from which they could draw traditional beliefs and practices for discussion in the context of Filipino identity, values, worldview as well as relevance in their everyday realities. It further aimed to heighten both sets of participantsu27 awareness and appreciation of their storytelling tradition as they listened to the local folk stories and historical narratives. Each team (composed of 2 university students and 3 -4 elementary school kids) was tasked to gather 3-5 oral lores from acknowledged storytellers/historians in their community to be retold in stylized oral storytelling then discussed during the service-learning sessions. For authenticity and ease of delivery, the Cebuano language was used. All the excellent storytellers from each school would eventually be selected to join a planned inter-school oral storytelling in Cebuano contest.Based on data gathered, ghost stories and malevolent spirit narratives were most favored by the informants followed by stories about how local places acquired their names or legends of focal places in the community. Narratives about life in the olden days also abounded. The compiled stories and narratives, especially the supernatural ones, had all the right ingredients for good oral storytelling. The pupils enthusiastically participated in the storytelling activity and even engaged their student-mentors in quite critical discussions of certain issues gleaned from the stories such as the prevalence of the u22white ladyu22 in local ghost stories and the feeling of shame an d pain in having a womanizing father.Local memory and oral storytelling projects, especially in the elementary curriculum, should be encouraged to give children a sense of ownership of their local history and folklore, which could translate to a deeper sense of rootedness in the locality and, ultimately, would make them more involved community members.