Improving literacy is in the bag

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The idea behind Storysacks is quite simple-take a children's book and put it in a big cloth sack. Then fill the bag with masks or finger puppets or stuffed animals that look like the characters in the story. Add some props, maybe a tape recording of someone reading the book, or maybe even a made-up game based on the story, then, when you're done all of that, take everything back out of the sack, and use it to tell the story.

A simple idea, and one that has proven to be very effective.

Storysacks is the brainchild of Neil Griffiths, a schoolteacher and principal in England. Since Griffiths put together the first Storysack, the idea has grown and spread with Storysacks projects now operating in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The Storysacks project first arrived on our shores in May 1999 when Jan Greer, executive director of the New Brunswick Coalition on Literacy, brought Griffiths over to do a series of Storysacks workshops across the province.

The project got going on a national basis shortly after, thanks to funding from the Millennium Bureau.

Joan McKeigan is national co-ordinator for the Canadian Storysacks Project. She spoke enthusiastically about the many opportunities Storysacks offers in improving literacy, especially within Aboriginal communities.

"This is such an exciting project. They're using it in so many different organizations," McKeigan said. "They're using it in the Northwest Territories, and they're using it in northern Quebec, and all of the James Bay Inuit groups and Cree groups. They're using it to teach Inuktitut, and to teach Cree as well.

"To tell you the truth, this is not a new concept. I mean, I've been teaching since the early '70s and we've always been using this kind of concept. It's just that is something that's been packaged in England and brought over. And then what we've been doing is adapting it. And in fact some of the stuff that First Nations are doing is making it even more exciting, because they've been adapting it in really, really wonderful and more readily applicable ways. So that's the beauty of this thing," McKeigan said.

To further accommodate use of Storysacks within Aboriginal communities, organizers have put together resources aimed at the specific requirements of those communities.

"We even have a specific northern book list as well, that's more appropriate. So it's not just blonde, blue-eyed kids going to the Toronto Zoo. There's a lot of literature for suburban life that just doesn't suit First Nations in any way at all, particularly up north."

One of the places where the Storysacks project is meeting with success is in Kangirsuk in Northern Quebec.

"What they have been doing, they have gotten English books, and they've got committees that are covering the English over in Inuktitut, and I think they're even using Elders to come in and work on it," McKeigan said.

McKeigan sees Storysacks as a project that could be very useful in helping Aboriginal people preserve their languages by teaching traditional languages to their children.

"This kind of gives the Elders a tool that they can sit down with their kids and read in the Native language. There are puppets and there are games, and there's all sorts of fun ways of bringing in a book so that you can get the whole family sitting down and playing these games, and it helps literacy up and down the line. And it's a good way to teach a Native language without the child realizing that he's sitting there, learning a Native language. He's learning about a little bunny that goes across the forest. It's a back door approach, and it's very, very effective.

"There's no real set way of using it," McKeigan said. "It can be used in any language, in any culture, in any age group, in any social group. There's something for everybody in there."

Those positive views of the Storysacks project were echoed by Jan Greer.

"Storysacks can be transferred to any language or any culture," Greer said. And although the basic ngredient in any Storysack is a storybook, the project can be flexible in that area to accommodate traditions of oral storytelling.

"To be called a Storysack, they say, 'well, you have to have a storybook in the sack.' And Native communities that I've worked with in the past, sometimes it sort of goes against their beliefs to write a story down, for instance, or to put a story on tape."

In those cases, Greer said, a Storysack can still be made to help in the telling, rather than the reading, of the story.

"What I like about the Storysack is the visual aspect of it. Whether the story comes from a published storybook, or whether it's a story that's purely from the oral tradition, the visual aspect of it helps the listener, and the person watching the story unfold, understand what's going on, even if they don't understand the language. They can still grasp what the story's about, because it's dramatized in front of them," Greer said.

"The other good thing about it is that if the community gives permission for the story to be written, then they're producing a library of Native stories that are written, that are oral and that are presented in a visual format as well. So in a way, in times like this when many languages are disappearing, even the English language is losing words, it's a way to sort of keep that language and that culture alive," Greer said.

"The nice thing, too, is that these are not intended to be expensive to make. Their intent is that the people that are working on them within a community sew and draw and color and paste, and that you find stuffed toys for your characters, maybe in a toy box, that aren't being used anymore. And your material to make your bag could be from a donation, or it could be someone who has extra material, old curtains or something that they're not using anymore. And you basically use materials that are available and very inexpensive. So it shouldn't cost more than $20 or $30 to actually make a Storysack, and that's buying he book and buying some little tidbits that need to go into them."

The future of Storysacks in Canada is currently up in the air. Funding for the Canadian Storysacks Project ran out last fall, and no word has been received from the National Literacy Secretariat as to whether new funding will be forthcoming. Whether funding is received or not, information about creating and using Storysacks will continue to be available on both the national Storysacks Web site (www.storysacks.nald.ca), and on the Web site for the New Brunswick Coalition for Literacy (http://www.nald.ca/nbclhom.htm).