Students will solve and create riddles, tell riddle tales, create original stories based on Arthurian legend, ballads, lyrics, and fragments from medieval manuscripts. Working as bards and scribes, they will create intricate manuscripts as they tell, draw, and write their tales. In this panorama of ancient mythology to modern fantasy writing, students will immerse themselves in the task of myth making. They will turn the descriptive language of natural history field guides into poems and bestiaries of mythological creatures. Working to develop illuminated manuscripts of stories and writing, they will write and tell modern-day myths.
Special workshops require additional supplies that can be arranged for in advance.
Stories open up new awareness when applied to various subjects, including language, literature, history, social studies, music, dance, visual arts, science, and natural history. Teachers will be given resource materials to help them integrate storytelling into the curriculum and explore their own potential as storytellers. Community members or families can participate in oral history projects. Collaborations with other artists or members of Native American communities is possible. Chamberlain has performed extensively, and her performance-art work includes Native American storytelling traditions in Washington State.