Story Workshop FAQ

Notes from the Facebook Group Kindergarten Connections 2018

Watch first: Video of Story Workshop at MJ Shannon in Surrey, BC, Canada.

https://vimeo.com/258218210

Intro:

Story Workshop is a classroom structure initially developed at Opal School to support language and
literacy. Evolving over time, teachers are finding that the use of rich materials such as clay, paint, props,
or blocks can play an integral role in language development, and strongly support children to see
themselves as storytellers and authors. This happens, for example, when a child is playing at the water
table and imagines or remembers a story. As the child continues to play and explore his story, he may
consider more details, the sequence may become stronger, and the language the child uses to tell the
story becomes more clear and powerful. The stories come alive! Story Workshop is a powerful example
of Universal Design principles at work and therefore strongly supports the needs and rights of
all children to learn. We are finding that Story Workshop is resulting in strong literacy skills, strong
relationships, and the ownership and personalization of learning. (Adapted from Opal School)

Helpful Posts from Keri Hutchinson (in the video, Facebook Kerr Torrance) and Barbara Marek Matson
(does story workshop regularly)

* Are there any resources that you recommend to get started?

Kerr Torrance: Of course, all the Opal videos (you can find them on YouTube) and the
excellent Story workshop article from Opal and wonderful for inspiration. Personally, we
found ‘What’s next for this beginning writer’ really helpful as a continuum for ‘next step’
writing. This helped shape our ‘writing’ mini lesson half way through story workshop.
(Drawing a detailed picture, adding a beginning sound, labelling by adding beginning
and ending sounds, adding as many sounds as you can, then beginning to sound out a
sentence, etc). I also have a list of ‘story workshop focus lesson’ ideas for the first mini
lesson (such as ways of starting a story, problems/solutions, etc)

*Wondering if it's worth taking the Opal Story workshop course?

Kerr Torrance You definitely don’t have to, although I hear it’s really amazing in
grounding you in a strong pedagogy of rich arts based literacy. They are certainly rich
in theory, pedagogy, and strong child honouring beliefs. Reading Opal’s story workshop
article (If you haven’t yet!) gives you further insight. Highly recommended :)
A lot of people want to know the best way to start! Usually the biggest hurdle I hear is
collecting materials. Before I grew my story workshop collection I pretty much only used
natural materials (leafs, sticks, cedar branches, drift wood, rocks, acorns, pine cones)
mixed with a few quality classroom materials (such as the wooden stackable rainbows,
tree top blocks, wooden ‘waves’ - all available through natural pod) and then some
other loose parts I had around (jewels, gems, etc). If you are interested in lifelike animals
TOOBS are a beautiful, high quality brand of animals and characters. Investing in a few
of those is a great idea (such as the local animals, ocean animals). When setting up the
tables the afternoon before I would be sure to put down a ‘mat’ at each spot at the
table (this helps with classroom management and defines a space for some children
who need it). sometimes the ‘mat’ would be in the form of a wooden box filled with
sand or dirt, a clear tray with some water or orbies, grass mats, etc. On each ‘mat’ the
children would get a few materials and then the middle of the table would have more
collaborative materials for sharing. That way, when children sat down there were pieces
for them already but plenty more for in the middle. This also lead to the tables being an
‘invitation’ to tell a story. Lastly, Opal focuses largely on loose parts and art materials -
we almost always have an ‘art’ invitation in the form of clay or sharpies and water
colour. Raid your schools art room - beautiful, unique paper, cellophane, tissue paper,
can all be repurposed to make great mats and story workshop materials. Usually the
materials are an overwhelming part in getting started but if you start small, use what
you have, share with colleagues, and collect over time your story workshop will evolve
quite quickly! I’m excited to hear you want to jump right in!! Kids (and adults!) are
natural story tellers. Both of you will be brilliant!

Do you do this every day? What do you do if children don't finish

their story on a given day? I don't have the space to leave the mats
out.

Barbara Marek Matson I do Storyworkshop once a week. And writers workshop one to 2
times a week. Part of SW is the clean up. Mine finish their stories during our quiet time
which is reading or writing time.

Kerr Torrance Nope, only once a week for Story workshop (although the kids often pull
out the materials during exploration and play times too). I store them on a ‘story
workshop’ shelf in my classroom. However, like barb mentioned, modelling ‘next
step writing’ happens almost everyday and further reinforced during story workshop. I
find in Kindergarten the kids usually do finish in the given time. However, when I taught
grade 1/2 I created a story workshop folder for them. (Large piece of construction
paper folded like a folder). On one side, the children put their finished stories and on
the other side they put the ones they were still working on. They would often revisit them
to read or write during reading workshop (literacy centers). They loved taking home
that folder at the end of the year!

What kind of materials do you use?

Barbara Marek Matson All my photos are on my laptop but this is on my iPad. I painted
wooden knobs to be toadstools and spray painted rocks. Then I have Mardi Gras beads
cut up, $ store gems and $ store coins. The students use SW materials during free
exploration time. Barbara Marek Matson The frogs are sleeping. Just $ store frogs, mirrors
from Ikea, fake flowers from thrift store.

Do you use loose parts in your room? If so, just start with that. But you can collect seashells, pine cones,
sticks, rocks, nuts and bolts, fake flowers, etc. I found mini dinosaurs, frogs, jungle animals, farm animals
at Dollarama. I bought wooden peg dolls from Walmart. Michaels has tubes of fairies, etc that you can
get at 50% off. But I made my own fairies. I have a Pinterest board called Storyworkshop with ideas.
Search Barbara Matson. I also use story stones, playdough with loose parts etc. You don’t need much to
start. Collect over time. See what interests your class.
What is the routine and what about storage?

Kerr Torrance The materials (for the most part) are in my classroom all the time (we
often use them for other areas too such as numeracy) through out the day. The children
also have access to them at playtime but what they do with them then, is all their
ideas! I set up the tables the night before, children come in in the morning and sit in a
big circle on the carpet. I model telling my own story and ‘talk aloud’ how the materials
are inspiring my story today. We then all get up and walk around together to see the
different story invitations set up. After we have seen the story invitations I then ask “who
was inspired by the ____ (ie - ocean, forest, fairy) table Today? And I pick enough kids to
fill that table and continue on. Once SW becomes routine in your classroom the
children understand the materials put out many more times and they will all have time
on another day to share them. Then they start to play, play, play and tell their stories
while we go around and listen/nudge them gently. Then when We feel we are ready to
move on we gather again, model drawing or labeling or writing out their story and they
go back to write (in grade 1 and up this becomes a seamless transition if the kids are
confident writers as Kim mentioned in the video above). My morning story workshop
time is something like this: 8:30 welcome students to the carpet and model a story 8:45
walk around story invitations. 8:50-9:20 playing, story creating, telling. 9:20-9:30ish
modelling drawing/writing, 9:30-10:00ish kids are drawing/writing. 10-10:15 clean up.

Barbara Marek Matson my routine is modelled after Kerr Torrance, so it’s pretty much
like hers. I too have a shelf, someone gave me an Expedit shelf from Ikea that houses
my SW materials. Some are in baskets while others are in small clear bins from Dollarama
(they are mini, 3 in a pack) I can take a photo when I get back. Here is an old photo
from September
Barbara Marek Matson I would set up tables with mats, I even use construction paper.
Little animals from the $ store, rocks, shells etc. You would model how to use a story mat.
Talk about how you use your imagination but how stories live everywhere. We
brainstorm what a loose part might be. A cork can be a fairy, a mermaid. A rock can
be a rock, an egg, treasure. Etc. Act out a story. I model a story with no action and then
ask the students if they liked my story. They will say it’s short etc. Then ask for suggestions
to make it more interesting. Also decide what your expectations are. Mine are you
choose a story table and you stay there for the time. No switching. We don’t have killing
etc. Focus on just playing first. Then oral storytelling. Then add drawing. Then add
writing. I find it a powerful way to teach elements of a story too. There are amazing
books to read as well. The Pencil, One Day The End, The Squiggly Story, This is Sadie to
name a few.

Set up tables (provocations) and let them play. I find the best time is to set up first thing
before they come in. You may have to work on their stamina, start with just exploring
then increase time and expectations. You will learn what works and doesn’t work over
time. I have my class come in and find a book to read. Then we sit in a circle and
discuss story workshop. We talk about expectations for behaviour. We discuss the core
competencies (BC curriculum) we use. I model how to play with a story mat. At first you
let them play. I let them know that stories live everywhere, and I hope they will feel
inspired. Every time you have SW, you model. You will watch how they play and what
they need to focus on. It’s interesting to see how some have difficulty telling a story. Lots
of modelling , playing, etc. Read great books that model a good story. I also use Whats
Next for the Beginning Writer to help with the writing part. I find we use about 70-90
minutes. It’s powerful. It honours the child and what they know and can do. Last year I
taught at a school with refugees and even though they knew no English they could act
out a story! I had a boy with special abilities and he too along with his EA was able to
play. We were able to focus on vocabulary with him. It allows for all children to
participate. If it wasn’t spring break I could take photos of their stories from my class this
year. Search this group as early on the year (late August or Sept) I posted photos of my
story tables. Google Opal School. They have some videos about it.