The Orff Echo Editorial Board is soliciting articles for the Summer 2021 issue. The featured topic is “Storytelling.” The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2020. In this issue, we seek to explore how storytelling helps capture the human imagination and how stories are used to aid our teaching.

We invite various types of submissions, such as: (1) philosophical and theoretical work reflecting the application of the Schulwerk; (2) interpretation and adaptation of Orff pedagogical techniques for music and other teachings; (3) empirical and/or historical research related to the Schulwerk; and (4) articles that support AOSA’s diversity statement.

We encourage writers to consider the following questions:

  1. How do you use storytelling in your classroom? As a lens to another’s experience? As a window to your soul?
  2. How can storytelling promote social justice or explore diversity in the classroom?
  3. How do stories encourage student engagement?
  4. Think about the many genres of stories and where they are found: nursery rhymes, poems, myths, fables, fiction, non-fiction and biography, history, tall tales, ballads, and children’s trade books. Do they require different techniques for development?
  5. As you think about the roles of storytellers in different cultures, how do they preserve and pass on cultural history?
  6. How does the selection of material for storytelling affect the positive transmission of values, history, and culture?
  7. What are some helpful guidelines for choosing stories wisely and for choosing them with attention to honor the people who first told them?
  8. How do you use stories in performance?
  9. Have you ever encouraged and used student-written stories?
  10. How do you use stories from your own life in the classroom?
  11. What is your experience with how stories are told? What are the effects of a read-aloud or a memorized presentation? How about stories told by a guest from the community, a culture bearer, or by a professional artist in residence?
  12. In what ways do you reinforce language arts outcomes in your use of storytelling in the music classroom?

The Orff Echo Editorial Board is always interested in original research and informative articles covering all aspects of Orff Schulwerk and music education, such as movement, play, singing, assessment, and curricular planning. Our format allows for submissions dedicated to your area of interest in addition to our featured topic.

Please contact Sandy Adorno (sadorno@fiu.edu), Martha O’Hehir (martha.aosa.echo@gmail.com), or Martina Vasil (martina.vasil@uky.edu) with submissions or questions regarding the Summer 2021 issue, “Storytelling.” For general questions about The Orff Echo, send inquiries to Linda Hines (echoeditor@aosa.org). Articles can be submitted through The Orff Echo portal at: bit.ly/echosubmission