Ideas for Modernizing Stories1
- After listening to an oral history recording or to an Elder telling a story, literacy
group members can write the story, but set in modern times.
- Imagine that the story is happening today, in present times.
- What present-day people would be in the story?
- How would the setting change?
- How would the details of the story change?
- Would the story end differently?
- Record people’s ideas on lip chart paper so they can refer to them as they
write.
- Continue through the writing process, using peer consultation and editing to
get feedback on the stories.
- The facilitator teaches mini-lessons on the writing process, syllabic
keyboarding, grammar and any other topics as they come up.
- Try to use some of the vocabulary used by the storyteller. While listening
to the stories, you could make lists of unfamiliar words or keep a personal
dictionary.
- Consider publishing the modern stories and the traditional stories side-by-side
in a booklet.
- The modernized stories will make interesting reading for your literacy group
and future literacy groups.