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| BECOMING THE ANIMAL. Embodying the animals they study, observe, and track in their freshman seminar course, "How to Interpret Behavior You Did Not See," gives the students a new way of thinking about science. Here in this InterPlay following and leading activity, Emory students are experiencing "flocking behavior." (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
Bi-annually, my husband Tony
Martin, an Emory University professor, teaches a freshman seminar titled
“How to Interpret Behavior You Did Not See.” Enrollment is restricted to
eighteen students, who during the semester will learn the art of nature observation
and then how to make hypotheses using the evidence they have collected. In March near the end of spring semester,
Tony invited me to this class as a guest instructor to offer InterPlay improvisation storytelling
activities. My facilitation was to provide his students with the tools to breathe life into
their nature reports. I was to offer them the avenue of becoming impassioned
storytellers, inspiring wonder both in themselves and their listeners!
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| BIG BODY STORIES. Students took facts from their nature observation journals and had the experience of expanding their enthusiasm both vocally and physically by taking incremental steps with different partners, first in 30-second short "tellings," then a minute-long story, and finally a longer fuller bigger story. On the far right, standing, telling his "big body" story is Tony Martin, who paired up with a student. (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
Identifying tracks of deer, squirrel, raccoon,
feral cat, coyotes, and other animals in the areas surrounding the Emory campus
is just the beginning of what these first-year students learn. Tony teaches
them how to look at gait patterns and determine if the animals were walking,
trotting or galloping. In fact, he gets them out of their desks early on to “become”
the animals and act out the gait patterns—a creative way to stimulate the
students’ imaginations by getting them to think and move like the animals they
are tracking in this Georgia Piedmont.
A regular part of this animal tracking class is
venturing outdoors with Tony to nearby creeks and tree stands on campus so the
students can examine tracks, discover other sign like scat, chew marks, and nests.
They also listen to bird calls to discern together what these animals were or
are doing. Traditionally, tracking animals has been a communal or shared
endeavor by both women and men to hunt down their food source or to avoid
predation—so its fitting that the elder—the professor—initiates the youth in ways
of observing animal sign, its significance, and how to talk about it.
Apart from these class activities, students are
given the assignment of choosing a semester-long “sit spot” on the Emory campus
with its 154-acre nature preserve, Lullwater
Park, and other creek-rich forested landscapes. On their own, they are to
spend time in this designated spot twice a week for periods no shorter than 15
minutes, recording in journals what their senses reveal to them. In addition to
verbal documentation, Tony encourages them to draw what they see, as well as
writing down temperature, the direction the wind is blowing, and more. All
great fodder for storytelling!
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| DESCRIBE YOUR "SIT SPOT." Students were directed to turn to the diagram in their journals that they had drawn of their designated "sit spot" on the Emory campus. Then with their partner "witnessing" or listening and not talking, they were to describe the diagram in detail speaking slowly, pausing, and then speaking normally again. Practicing playing with speed (regular, fast, stopping, and slow) provides students with new delivery skills. They can see for themselves what works to communicate the ideas they want to express. (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
Can you imagine what a treat it was for me to
join this class mid-to-end of the semester and facilitate the sharing of their
recorded journal experiences using InterPlay activities? Yippee! For those of
you familiar with InterPlay, you know that one of the four components of this
improvisational system is storytelling (the other three being movement, voice,
and shape and stillness). InterPlay was a perfect fit with its improvisational
toolkit for these students at this time in their animal-tracking curriculum and
storytelling skills! The world becomes more alive when you share information
through stories, especially when those stories can be stream of consciousness,
free form, and impassioned.
Jon Young, one of two authors of Animal
Tracking Basics, the textbook Tony uses for this course, says that we
tell stories “to elucidate the edges of our experience.” We also use storytelling
to propel us to perceive more deeply, discern what we are seeing, link
disparate concepts, know our place, know ourselves, develop a passion for
living, learn and laugh—to live more fully in the moment.
Both fifty-minute InterPlay classes included
physical warm ups, introductions, playing around with expanding verbal range
(volume, speed, and pitch) and physical range (face, hand gestures, moving off
“the spot” and using available space), leading and following, and “embodying”
the story.
During the first workshop, I asked the students
to do short storytellings (in InterPlay we call these tellings “babbling”) at
30-second and 1-minute intervals about different native animals, weather
observations, bird language and more. Students then had longer time periods to
open their journals and describe their “sit spots” in detail playing around
with speed by lengthening their words, pausing, and stopping. To shift students
into using their imaginations even more, I asked them to pick something animate
or inanimate from their sit spot and to tell a story from that perspective.
Lots of energy erupted in the classroom for that activity.
In the second workshop, I built on the skills of
expanding both verbal and physical range. After warming up with following and
leading activities in pairs and groups of 7, I led them in the InterPlay form
of the “big body” story, which has the storyteller move in ever increasing
“body bubbles.” The workshop culminated in students “becoming” an animal they were
curious about and had researched either folklore or scientific fact about. In
groups of three, students spoke as the animal demonstrating its behavior and
telling its story! I was so surprised when I said, “Begin!” and all of the
storytelling students dropped to the floor on their hands and knees and crawled
to their listeners. Wow! They were engaged, and so were their listeners.
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| BECOME THE ANIMAL. After investigating an animal they were curious about for homework, students were asked to be prepared to speak from that animal's perspective. (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
Tony and I left the classroom with one student
participant who was dressed in a suit. He had informed me before the workshop
started that he was giving a presentation in another class later in the
afternoon. I asked him if he felt more prepared to present after my InterPlay
workshops. He laughed and responded, “I’m ready for anything now.” Hurray for
the empowering system of InterPlay!
Here’s some direct feedback from Tony about the
effects of InterPlay on teaching storytelling skills to his students:
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| 2016 Spring Semester Class, "How to Interpret Behavior You Did Not See." Professor Tony Martin leads the way for expressiveness as he stretches out in front of his first year Emory students enrolled in his animal tracking class. Some of the students grasp their observation journals in their hands. (photo by Ruth Schowalter) |
Most traditional education systems involve reading, sitting, listening to a lecture, and reciting back facts, with students and instructors alike staying mostly in their heads. InterPlay's activities emphasize using the "whole" person--body, mind, and emotions, engaging the students’ kinesthetic imaginations. I saw my students transformed by this full-body approach to learning.
As they shared their records of tracks and sign
and created "animal stories," their shyness evaporated and they
became involved in communicating their nature observations meaningfully. The
dynamic InterPlay storytelling exercises enlivened the students as they
worked with one another in pairs, small groups, and the entire class.
Based on what I observed, the combination of
student-generated content and interactive InterPlay exercises in these
workshops will be memorable to my students. What a wonderful opportunity to
enjoy making meaning out of scientific fact, and crafting that content in a way
to engage listeners!”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: First
many thanks to Phil Porter and Cynthia Winton-Henry, to co-founders of
InterPlay. Special thanks to Phil who mentored me during my InterPlay
leadership training and made suggestions I implemented the first time I facilitated
InterPlay in Tony’s freshman seminar (read about that workshop HERE).
I’m appreciative to Tony and his interest in encouraging his students to have
fun learning and gain presentation skills at the same time. I am grateful to
those freshman who were courageous in moving outside their comfort zones to
embody their stories. And, as Tony always does, I want to thank the tracemakers
who inhabit the Earth and make our world a fuller richer place.
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Integrating InterPlay with Science Communication. Thank you to my husband Tony Martin (his photo of me), who continues to enlarge my life-experiences through travel, geology, paleontology, modern and ancient ichnology. It is such a joy collaborating with you. Here are links to two other blog posts about our collaborations of merging InterPlay with science communication:
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Nice story and fantastic work!
ReplyDeleteMelissa, I respect you so much as a colleague and the work you do. Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a supportive comment.
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