Storytellers in the Mountains of North Carolina

Students will study five famous North Carolina storytellers: Jackie Torrence, Ray Hicks, Donald Davis, David Holt, and Sheila Kay Adams. They will research how their stories were collected and how they developed their storytelling styles that distinguish them from other tellers.

A lesson plan for grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Martha Hayes

Learn more

• Mountain talk Excerpt from the documentary Mountain Talk, a portrait of the language and life of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, produced by Neal Hutcheson and the North Carolina Language and Life Project. This video is one in a series that also includes:
  • African American English
  • The Cherokee Language
  • Dialect in Southern cities
  • Lumbee English 1
  • Lumbee English 2
  • Outer Banks English
  • Spanish and English in the American South

Related pages

• Connecting folktales and culture in North Carolina and beyond: Students will explore connections to North Carolina culture as they engage in reading and analyzing three folktales of North Carolina Literary Festival author, William Hooks. After comparing these stories to other versions of the traditional tales, students will become authors and storytellers themselves as they rewrite a tale from a new cultural point of view. Opportunities are also included to extend this study to world cultures and folktales.
• Quilts: This lesson plan in designed to be one part of a fourth grade social studies unit on the Appalachian Mountains. It is based on the mountain custom of quilt making. This plan uses the book The Quiltmakers Gift by Jeff Brumbeau. It also uses the book internet site and other related sites. Enrichments of this lesson would be to display quilts, have a real quilt maker visit, have the class create their own paper quilt, etc.
• North Carolina American Indian stories: In this lesson students will select and read stories from some of the North Carolina American Indian tribes. They will compare and contrast two stories of their choice and complete a Venn diagram. Students will use the information on the Venn diagram to write three paragraphs. After reading several American Indian tales or legends, students will then create their own legend using the narrative writing process.

Related topics

• Learn more about North Carolina, culture, folk arts, language arts, mountains, social studies, and storytelling.

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Learning outcomes

• Students will use research skills to write a brief biography of one storyteller.
• Students will learn about the importance of oral tradition in Appalachia.
• Students will compare the culture and ethnic background of the tellers.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

8 days

Materials/resources

• Computers with internet access and word-processing software — one per group of students
• Audio or video recordings of the following storytellers (Suggested recordings are listed under each storyteller. You don’t need to use these recordings, but try to have one recording for each teller.):
  • Jackie Torrence
    • Jackie Torrence Shares Stories from her Family Album. VHS 60 minute video. 1997. Upper elementary, middle school, high school.
    • Jackie Torrence: Classic Childrens Tales, Rounder Select, 1989. Audio CD
  • Donald Davis
    • A Room Of My Own (one CD for all ages).
    • That’s What Mamas Do (one audio cassette for all ages).
  • Sheila Kay Adams
    • Sheila Kay Adams Live in Concert!! CD with original stories and songs.
  • Ray Hicks
    • The Jack Tales. New York: Calloway, 2000. Picture book (see below) is sold with CD of Hicks telling “Jack and the North-West Wind,” “Jack and the Bean Tree,” and “Jack and the Robbers.” Book includes glossary of mountain terms and background on Ray Hicks as North Carolina storyteller, a master of the native oral tradition. Hicks’ oral tellings are not identical to the written text in every detail, inviting interesting comparison of oral and written versions of the same tale.
  • David Holt
    • The Hogaphone & Other Stories, video, 30 minutes, High Windy Video.
    • Hairy Man, audio cassette, 44 minutes, by High Windy Audio.
• Equipment to play recordings for class (VCR, CD player, DVD player, etc.)

Pre-activities

• Identify some additional Appalachian folktales for students to read. You may find some suggestions on the “Appalachian Folktales in Children’s Literature and Collections for All Ages” website from Ferrum College in Virginia.
• Review the elements of folklore and the importance of oral tradition in passing on traditions and stories in families.
• Discuss the region of North Carolina, ethnic background, and historical period of each teller and how those factors might influence the stories they tell.
• Review web-searching and note-taking skills.

Activities

1. Divide students into groups, and have each group use the internet to find biographical information about a storyteller from North Carolina. (See “Websites” below for suggested sites.
2. Have each group work to create a paper, poster, or oral presentation about the storyteller, answering the following questions:
   • What is the storyteller’s home town and current residence? (Show them on a map.)
   • What is the storyteller’s ethnic heritage?
   • How might the storyteller’s ethnic heritage have an influence on the kinds of stories he or she chose to tell?
   • What other basic facts can you find about the storyteller?
3. Play an audio or video recording of at least one story told by each North Carolina storyteller selected.
4. As a class, compare the dialect and language used by the tellers. This can be done by discussion or a Venn diagram.
5. Have the students discuss information they gathered from their research that explains how the tellers developed their style.
6. Have the students read other tales from the Appalachian region of North Carolina. Suggestions can be found on the “Appalachian Folktales in Children’s Literature and Collections for All Ages” website from Ferrum College in Virginia.
7. Have each student tell one of the tales they have read, OR write a story of their own using the elements of folklore, storytelling, and oral tradition. You may choose to have the students tell their tales to a larger audience than your class.

Assessment

1. English Language Arts. Create a rubric that includes:
   • research skills needed to gain information from a variety of formats.
   • criteria for learning or writing an Appalachian tale.
   • criteria for sharing that with a small group.
2. Social Studies. Grade the written reports/posters and/or oral presentations focusing on how the students included information about the tellers background and how it influenced their tales.

Websites

• “Folklore in Literature”: General background about folklore in literature from the Library of Southern Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• “Appalachian Folktales in Children’s Literature and Collections for All Ages” website from Ferrum College in Virginia.

Jackie Torrence

• An obituary from World Music Central tells the beginning of Jackie’s storytelling career.
• An interview with Jackie Torrence done by the Bookhive at the Charlotte Mecklenberg Library system. Includes audio of the interview. Requires RealPlayer.

Donald Davis

Visit his official website to find biographical information and a bibliography of his work.

Sheila Kay Adams

Biographical information.

Ray Hicks

Biographical information, memories, and images can be found at the RayHicks.com website.

David Holt

Visit David Holt’s website for biographical information.

Comments

I have attended The National Storytelling Festival which is held in Jonesboro, TN each year in October. In the last few years, NC has lost 2 important storytellers (Jackie Torrence and Ray Hicks). Collecting stories from my family and experiences in life are an important part of being proud of my heritage. Learning about how to be a storyteller, by studying some of the best in the region, can further that process.