New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Oral Storytelling Assembly

Back to Quarterly Educational Activities

Level: All School – Rally Level – Fun, Energetic, Celebratory
Grades: K-12
School Quarter: 2

Related Grade Level Activities:

Activity: Oral Storytelling Assembly

  • Trained storytellers from multiple NM cultures to tell a story from their culture.
  • Explaining the role of oral storytelling in communities vs written.
  • By grade/classroom
    • Teachers sign up for dedicated time with storyteller to engage with students directly

Theme Alignment: New Mexico’s Contribution
Highlighting the role of everyday New Mexicans in working toward a better nation; how Native and Puebloan, Spanish and Mexican roots add to and extend United States history and culture; and the sacrifices of New Mexicans through military service.

Toolkit Overview (In this toolkit):

  • Background
  • How to implement this activity
  • Resources

Background:

Mainstream ideas of history often only include written documents explaining the past. However, New Mexico’s cultures have diverse ways of remembering the past, particularly oral cultural traditions. These are valid ways of learning about and understanding New Mexico’s roots in Native, Puebloan, Spanish, and Mexican cultures and their contribution to United States history and culture.  The experience of a recognized storyteller sharing a story can have a profound impact on students’ sense of the validity of different cultural perspectives. This activity will complement students’ classroom projects in gathering local oral histories prior to the school storytelling assembly. These oral histories on the recent past will highlight the role of everyday New Mexicans in working toward a better nation. The oral history classroom activities also give students practice in listening to oral stories and should amplify their appreciation for listening to different perspectives.

How To: 

  • Classroom teachers talk with students about respectful audience behavior before the event
    • General rules: listening, not talking. Applause at the end if culturally appropriate. 
    • If you have to leave your seat, do so quietly
    • Discuss how different cultures have different ideas of what is respectful
    • Audience Etiquette by PBS 
  • Provide students with questions to think about after the story
  • The Assembly
    • Explain cultural significance of storytelling in NM
    • Introduce Storyteller
    • Ask Storytellers to start with their audience rules
    • Short Q&A if okay with Storyteller
    • End Assembly
  • Thank you to storytellers
    • Each class create thank you notes to the story tellers
      • Collectively or individually for elementary school grades
      • Individually for middle and high school
    • Explain that thank yous are an important part of etiquette, especially if someone has volunteered, costing their time and resources
  • Partnering with local media
    • Radio / Print: local media partnership i.e. KOB
    • Social: Tell your story w/ hashtag

Resources: