Workshops/Residencies for Children
Regina has created numerous workshops and residencies for public and private schools in NYC and elsewhere under the auspices of Arts Horizons, Young Audiences NY, and independently. These workshops, based on story/storytelling, can also include visual art, music and writing. They can focus on storytelling itself, or use the storytelling to explore a subject/content, theme, or social issues.. Workshops and Residencies have included focus on Egyptian Mythology, Rain Forest Stories, Multicultural Stories and The Holocaust.
You created an environment in which children were able to speak and listen to each other. |
Storytelling with English Language Learners
Based in the oral tradition, storytelling is uniquely suited for the language classroom. Language acquisition begins with listening and speaking. Story, too, begins orally/aurally. Traditional storytelling often has repetition and rhythm, along with audience participation such as “call and response” and predictions. Storytelling enhances the practice of the “four skills,” teaches vocabulary, functions and grammar while encouraging cross cultural awareness and personal expression. Reading and writing, brought in as extensions, can then lead back to more storytelling.
Regina holds a certificate in TESOL from the New School University and taught English at Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation for 10 years and summer intensives for foreign students at Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She has presented workshops for the Literacy Assistance Center of NY and for the US State Department's International Visitor Program for English teachers from abroad. She teaches a workshop on storytelling in the language classroom for the Multilingual-Multicultural Program at New York University.
Regina holds a certificate in TESOL from the New School University and taught English at Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation for 10 years and summer intensives for foreign students at Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She has presented workshops for the Literacy Assistance Center of NY and for the US State Department's International Visitor Program for English teachers from abroad. She teaches a workshop on storytelling in the language classroom for the Multilingual-Multicultural Program at New York University.
You bring an energy and freshness to the classroom that is grounding and inspiring at the same time.
~ Beth Kotch, 4th grade teacher, PS 3, NYC
With your artful narration the stories were understood by our linguistically diverse audience.
-Dr. Eleanor Q. Tignor, Chair of the Task Force on Pluralism at LaGuardia Community College, NYC
For the Earth and All Our Relations: A Council of All Beings
A residency program for grades 4-12 (minimum 5/maximum 12 sessions)
Using a combination of stories, songs, movement, writing, visual art and council process, we explore our relationship to planet Earth and all “beings” upon it. For the purposes of this Council, the word “being” means not just human, but animal, plant, even the rocks and waters of the Earth itself.
Depending upon the extent of research undertaken by the students and how much the subject is integrated into the curriculum, the residency can include biology, geography, reading, writing, etc. As it involves frequent practice in “council process” work, both speaking and active listening skills are honed. The culmination is the formal Council of All Beings, in which each student gives voice to the “being” he/she represents.
This process is based on the ecological approach to living on Earth as expressed in the work of Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess and others, and described in the book Thinking Like a Mountain.Regina first experienced the Council of All Beings in the 1980s when she participated in Councils led by one of the creators of the process, Joanna Macy.
Using a combination of stories, songs, movement, writing, visual art and council process, we explore our relationship to planet Earth and all “beings” upon it. For the purposes of this Council, the word “being” means not just human, but animal, plant, even the rocks and waters of the Earth itself.
Depending upon the extent of research undertaken by the students and how much the subject is integrated into the curriculum, the residency can include biology, geography, reading, writing, etc. As it involves frequent practice in “council process” work, both speaking and active listening skills are honed. The culmination is the formal Council of All Beings, in which each student gives voice to the “being” he/she represents.
This process is based on the ecological approach to living on Earth as expressed in the work of Aldo Leopold, Arne Naess and others, and described in the book Thinking Like a Mountain.Regina first experienced the Council of All Beings in the 1980s when she participated in Councils led by one of the creators of the process, Joanna Macy.
Regina has a rare range of emotions and a cache of the stories she’s collected from all over the world. With classic precision, she both teaches and delights.
-J. C Keet, PhD., State of Hawaii, Dept. of Education