VIDEO: Bill Harley says good storytellers can be good writers

Warren elementary school is working with acclaimed singer and storyteller to develop writing skills

Posted 10/10/17

The brightly colored cafeteria at Hugh Cole School was crowded with children’s squeals of laughter on Oct. 2, when Grammy award-winning artist, author and storyteller Bill Harley had his first of …

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VIDEO: Bill Harley says good storytellers can be good writers

Warren elementary school is working with acclaimed singer and storyteller to develop writing skills

Posted

The brightly colored cafeteria at Hugh Cole School was crowded with children’s squeals of laughter on Oct. 2, when Grammy award-winning artist, author and storyteller Bill Harley had his first of seven sessions with the student body to further enhance their creative writing skills.

 

After working in schools for about 35 years, the majority of time performing in assemblies, Mr. Harley focuses on relaying the message of orality versus literacy to the students. “The written word is really our second language,” he said. “Our first language is the orality. If kids can develop a facility with speaking and telling a story, over and over, the writing becomes a more natural step.”

Mr. Harley further explained that we don’t always recognize that our mind works in speaking format. Therefore, you must give students a chance to experiment with that, to speak their stories out loud and get them onto paper.

“My language, my job, is to be more descriptive, to affirm some of the things children are going through, rather than tell them who they should be, acknowledging who they are and who they can become,” Mr. Harley said. “It’s more of a suggestion than an argument.”

Susan Wiegand, a second-grade classroom teacher, collaborated with the Bristol Warren Education Foundation on a grant that allowed Mr. Harley to join the students and staff. This grant will support six more visits from Mr. Harley this year — two visits each in November, January and March, to work in the classrooms and develop students’ writing and storytelling skills. Rather than giving students an excuse to get out of their grind, Mr. Harley will be taking them through the process of how to create their best work.

“When you have a master storyteller that is coming in and working in the classrooms, he can see what the children are working on and give them tips on how to express themselves and really get out what they are trying to say,” Ms. Weigand said. “We’re hoping that hearing it in a different voice will form a different perspective.”

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.