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Volume 43, No. 3, Spring 2007 Feature – Storytelling The following story is accompanied by a mini-lesson for use in the reading classroom. The Experience, Reflect, and Apply model maximizes learning in this fun and productive lesson.
I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me
If I Were You When I lived in North Dakota I learned the cowboy way. My
neighbor Bert Johnson had a 100 acre ranch with 23 horses. Bert wasn't
a spring chicken so he'd ask me to lend a hand with
chores. When his "ailments"
would flare up I'd help with mending fences, baling
hay, breaking wild broncos, and even birthing foals. In exchange for all this he'd
let me ride any of his 23 pride and joys. Now this sounds great, but there
was one drawback. I know you won't
believe this. Bert was a jinx, something bad always
happened when I was around him. CRASH! I just spilled my coffee and broke my cup just thinking about the old timer. Don't worry I'll clean up this mess in a minute. I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. One time after a big rainstorm I went over to Bert's to check on him. He said, “Rain really cooled things off. Why don't you give Miss Caddy some exercise.” "Awful muddy isn't it?" I said. I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. Hesitant, down the muddy road I went. Caddy was frightened by the squishy mud under her feet and broke into a fast gallop. Caught off guard by the sudden up and down motion of me bouncing like a super ball on her back, my feet came out of the stirrups and over Caddy's shoulder I pitched into the mud. She ran off in giddy terror. "Where'd Miss Caddy go? What have you been doing, mud wrestling?" "She ran off, spooked by the mud." I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. Another time, Bert asked me to help him put a halter on Miss Lazy Jane. She was running crazy in the yard in a real frothy frenzy. We cornered her against the electric fence. SNAP! she bolted into the air with a jolt, knocking me to the ground. "Shouldn't we turn off the electric?" I asked. I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. Another time, Bert was trying to get old Puddy Puss onto a horse trailer. She was real stubborn. Bribing her with sweet feed and carrots would not coax her in. Bert took out a whip. I said, "I don't think that's a good idea." I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. As he snapped her butt with the whip, old Puddy Puss jumped high in the air, crashing down, bending over the chain link fence like tinfoil. Finally, one day it was hot, very hot, in fact 102 degrees. Bert called and said he needed help unloading a truck of alfalfa. "I'm real busy at work today, besides what are you crazy? It's 102 out there. Let's wait till it cools off." I Wouldn't Let It Concern Me If I Were You. The next morning Bert's wife called and said, "It's over, he's been called home to the great pasture in the sky." "What's that?" "Dead I said, of a heart attack!" She groaned. "If only I helped him with that hay." I Wouldn't Let it Concern Me If I Were You. She hung up. That night I had trouble sleeping, thinking how Bert's sudden death was my fault. If I hadn't been so selfish. Then again, he was an awful jinx. Very late, I thought I heard a knock at the door. Who could it be at this hour? I groggily got out of bed and opened the door. To my horror it was him, Bert Johnson. He was all dirty, skin and bones. In fact his skin was hanging off his bones. One eye was drooping out of the socket. "For God's sake Bert you can't go walking around like that. You're a walking skeleton!" I WOULDN'T LET IT CONCERN ME IF I WERE YOU! Mini Lesson Focus: Telling and writing the “repeating line” story. Grades: 4-12 Great memorable stories often have repeating lines:
Experience: (Read and Retell)
Reflect: (Discuss)
Apply (Tell and Write)
Nile Stanley teaches performance literacy and is currently the Chair of the Department of Childhood Education at the University of North Florida. He may be reached at nstanley@unf.edu. |
