Teaching along the Storyline

Sisters School District teachers are the students this summer in a continuing education curriculum workshop.

The Storyline workshop hosted by the Studio to School program through Sisters Folk Festival worked with several teachers from Sisters Elementary School and Sisters Middle School to train them on the unique Storyline integrated curriculum.

Storyline began in Scotland in the 1960s. According to Storyline.org, "Storyline is a structured approach to learning and teaching that builds on the principle that learning, to be meaningful has to be memorable, and that by using learner's enthusiasm for story-making, the classroom, the teacher's role and learning can be transformed."

Instructors Helen Crandell, a veteran teacher and native Oregonian, and Eileen Vopelak, also a retired teacher and administrator who has international teaching experience, taught the class last week. Both retired teachers have over 20+ years of teaching the Storyline program to students in kindergarten through high school.

The Sisters workshop was funded in part by Sisters Folk Festival Studio to School grant and in part by the Sisters School District. Teachers who attended also had an opportunity to pay a small fee and receive graduate-level credit for the course.

"The Storyline curricula was the most powerful way of working with students when I taught," said Crandell.

Students learn a variety of curriculum through the telling and development of a story. The example used for the teachers' five-day workshop was to create a farmer's market. Using real-life examples, problems are posed and there is a natural need to research.

"This five-day workshop is designed to mirror a classroom setting," said Vopelak. "In the Storyline program lessons are taught by starting with an activity, then reflecting followed by teaching the theory; versus beginning with the theory followed by an activity."

Using the farmer's market example, students needed to identify what the market looked like, create a setting and the elements of the setting. They needed to create vendors - develop characters and stories for each of those people. They researched products sold at farmer's markets and developed brochures and flyers to showcase their product.

Students are learning social studies, history, science, technology; as well as math and language concepts through real-life examples.

"As in real-life, problems are posed, and there is a natural need to research their solution," said Volepak. "This program creates the need to know how to do something, which is powerful."

"Students may need to produce advertising elements," added Crandell. "The storyline program allows for natural progression. The teacher can discuss elements of advertising including descriptive writing, persuasive writing, etc., so it makes sense within the context of the lesson."

Principal Becky Stoughton has taken Storyline workshops in the past.

"I love this concept because the students take over their learning," she said. "Teachers set the stage but the kids get so excited they run with it - true learning."

"I am excited to leave the workshop with a complete Storyline to implement early this fall with my kindergartners," said teacher Mylee Card. "It has been a fun week of seeing how invested students become when taught through this method."