Telling Our Stories:Promoting Student Identity and Academic Achievement presentation by Dr. Kristin Grayson (Intercultural Development Research Association, IDRA EAC-South) and Mr. Jacob Tsotigh (South Central Comprehensive Center OU) at the National Indian Education Association conference October 2016.

1. Telling Our Stories:
Promoting Student Identity and
Academic Achievement
Mr. Jacob Tsotigh
South Central Comprehensive Center OU
jtsotigh@ou.edu
Dr. Kristin Grayson
Intercultural Development Research Association, IDRA EAC-South
kristin.grayson@idra.org www.idra.org
October 2016

2. Objectives
1. Experience Native storytelling as a cultural
component of oral tradition through the
voice of the Kiowa people, authentic
literature and participant stories
2. Understand culturally responsive pedagogy
and techniques
3. Link Native stories to Common Core
standards

4. The Power of Storytelling
• We are all storytellers, especially teachers
• At the heart of human experience
• Our brains are wired for stories
• Most powerful tool in teacher’s toolbox
• Encourages students to join in repetitive
phrases or refrains
• Encourages students to create mental
pictures

5. Storytelling
• Native storytelling, is an oral tradition which
passes on the collective history and culture
of a group of people, cultural values and
mores
• Storytelling is a shared social experience
which provokes a response of laughter,
sadness, empathy, excitement and
anticipation that encourages social and
emotional development.

6. Tribal
Nations
Peoples
Culture
Governance
Land
Culture: traditions, new and old, sustain societies,
language, families, art and lifeways (NCAI)

7. Culture

8. Some, depending on their cultural perspective, might see this as a man with a gun,
or a woman listening in to a group of men having a conversation for men, or perhaps
it is a group gathered for a funeral with the remains of the deceased in the box.
Depending upon our cultural perspective, we may think and behave differently or
interpret the behavior and thoughts of other through the lens of our own culture.
Geert Hofstede has identified five dimensions of national cultures. See if you can
identify them through the representations that follow. The colors represent the
varying lenses through which culture changes our perceptions.

12. 5 Dimensions
of Culture

14. Traditional gender roles where men are to be tough and assertive
and not emotional vs. a culture where gender roles overlap and
both men and women are concerned for relationships, caring, and
quality of life.

15. South Central Collaborative
for Equity

16. In individualistic cultures people tend to look after just themselves
and/or immediate families vs. societies where people are in strong
cohesive groups with life-long loyalties.
Individualistic - Collectivistic

17. 5 Dimensions of Culture
Individualistic - Collectivistic

18. Power Distance

19. How much people accept inequality in the distribution of power.
Power Distance

20. 5 Dimensions of Culture
Individualistic - Collectivistic
Power Distance

21. Time Orientation

22. Time Orientation
Short term: tradition, saving face, past and
present vs. future and perseverance, thrift

23. 5 Dimensions of Culture
Individualistic - Collectivistic
Power Distance
Time Orientation

24. Uncertainty Avoidance

25. The degree to which ambiguity is tolerated as opposed
to rigid set of rules and procedures
Uncertainty Avoidance

26. 5 Dimensions of Culture
Individualistic - Collectivistic
Power Distance
Time Orientation
Uncertainty Avoidance

27. Indulgence vs. Restraint #6
Indulgence stands for a society that allows
relatively free gratification of basic and natural
human drives related to enjoying life and
having fun.
Restraint stands for a society that suppresses
gratification of needs and regulates it by
means of strict social norms.

28. Professor Geert Hofstede https://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html

29. With storytelling, teachers can…
Engage students
Emotions that evoke culture
Associations with student-group identity
Reasoning
Critical thinking

30. Culturally Responsive Teaching
1. Positive perspectives on parents and families
2. Communication of high expectations
3. Learning within the context of culture
4. Student-centered instruction
5. Culturally-mediated instruction
6. Reshaping the curriculum
7. Teacher as a facilitator
Include students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning.
(Ladson & Billings, 1994)

31. How to: Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Get to know students and families (notes and name
cards)
• Understand parents’ hopes and concerns (through
individual and group drawings)
• Set high expectations by respect and value, clear
objectives and lesson engagement
• Within cultural context - by adapting learning styles
in the classrooms that aligned with students’ culture
(group vs. individual work)

32. Other
• Student ancestry
• Connect tribes with geography and history
• Movement
• Language
• Student names and cultural meanings
• Promote and inspire a positive self-image
through focus on culture

33. The Heart of Common Core
“At the core of culturally-responsive pedagogy is the idea that
education must account for the lived experiences and cultural
reference points of students. Culturally-responsive teachers craft
the education their particular students deserve – one that
acknowledges their voice, validates their concerns and connects
to their experiences. In the literacy context, this can mean giving
students things to read that are by or about people with whom
they can relate and allowing students to write on topics they care
about. No text is neutral. There is always voice. When planning
literacy instruction, we place our students into a dialogue with the
authors and texts we assign. The more text-to-self and text-to-
world connections a student can make, the more equitable and
powerful the dialogue will be.”
– Emily Chiariello, Teaching Tolerance

34. Storytelling and Common Core:
Reading Standards Literature K-5
3 4 5
Recount stories,
including fables,
folktales, and myths
from diverse cultures;
determine the central
message, lesson, or
moral and explain how
it is conveyed through
key details in the text.
Determine a theme of
a story, drama, or
poem from details in
the text; summarize
the text.
Determine a theme of
a story, drama, or
poem from details in
the text, including how
characters in a story or
drama respond to
challenges or how the
speaker in a poem
reflects upon a topic;
summarize the text

35. College and Career Readiness:
Writing
Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique,
well-chosen details, and well-structured event
sequences.

37. Literacy in Social Studies
6-8 9-10 11-12
Integrate visual
information (e.g., in
charts, graphs,
photographs, videos,
or maps) with other
information in print
and digital texts.
Integrate quantitative
or technical analysis
(e.g., charts, research
data) with qualitative
analysis in print or
digital text.
Integrate and evaluate
multiple sources of
information presented
in diverse formats and
media (e.g., visually,
quantitatively, as well
as in words) in order
to address a question
or solve a problem.

38. OralTradition of Storytellingis Cultural
• To relate history
• To teach lessons of values and mores
• Can vary by the narrator, the setting, and the
audience for which it was told, uses repetition -
loses something when written
• Themes also emerge among different tribal
groups and their stories
• What about yours? Such as tricksters, earth,
• Can be similar stories for the same theme-
such as creation stories

39. Share your stories

40. Intercultural Development Research Association
Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, President & CEO
5815 Callaghan Road, Suite 101
San Antonio, Texas 78228
210-444-1710 • contact@idra.org
www.idra.org
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