{"id":78443,"date":"2019-12-19T05:57:06","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T10:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=78443"},"modified":"2019-12-19T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:01:59","slug":"bringing-generations-together-through-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/bringing-generations-together-through-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing generations together through storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At a time when teenagers are more present online than in person, one English teacher is actively working to engage students in face-to-face communication.<\/p>\n

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Part of the English curriculum requires students to spend a quarter of the time giving oral presentations, which are typically done through in-class presentations. However, Jennifer Rosewarne found a way to encourage students to have meaningful conversations with strangers and turn it into a project.<\/p>\n

Students in the grade 11 college-level English class are partnered with someone from the community and meet with them three times, over the course of a few weeks, at the Canada Summit Centre. The students then create a memoir about the community member (storyteller), based on conversations they\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n

“I think there\u2019s a need to make it as authentic as possible,” said Rosewarne, an English teacher at Huntsville High School. “I also think everybody in society today has less interaction with people from other generations. We\u2019re less likely to go to church, to community dances and we tend to stick with our peers. The memoir project is in answer to that. It\u2019s face-to-face communication, which teens aren\u2019t doing as much as some other people. Face-to-face interactions are authentic, there\u2019s a real audience and it\u2019s a great way to get to know people in our community that aren\u2019t at the same age as we are.”<\/p>\n

Rosewarne received some money from a grant to be able to rent space at the Canada Summit Centre and bring in food catered by Seven Main Cafe.<\/p>\n

“Those components are pretty important\u2014that we\u2019re not at the school; it feels different. The breaking of bread is also important when you\u2019re having a community event,” said Rosewarne, who is thankful for the generosity of Seven Main Cafe.<\/p>\n

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Student Leah Welsh (left) and community member Marcy Hill had an engaging conversation (Jennifer Rosewarne)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The students spent a couple of weeks studying memoirs and learning about what makes a good conversation prior to meeting with the storyteller.<\/p>\n

“The idea is to get to know someone and find a story,” said Rosewarne. “It\u2019s not an autobiography. I love the stories they find, they\u2019re all so different and the students take creative freedom with it too.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t