Describes storytelling and imagemaking activities used in The Stories Project to provide a guide for teachers who wish to promote the development of oral and written language through storymaking--the process of making a story from a story. Finds that most students, regardless of ability, and given the right encouragement and support, discover they…

A program was designed, developed, and implemented to increase the participation of fourth-grade students in a district-wide storytelling festival in Florida. The target school was the only one in the area to send no students to the festival year after year. The program was planned to work with 10 students in a storytelling practicum with 3 goals,…

Describes using an open-ended personal-inquiry instructional model to teach fifth- and sixth-grade students how to author interactive multimedia stories using HyperCard. (SR)

Describes a storytelling project in the midst of a language arts unit on folk tales in a sixth-grade class, how the classroom teacher and the media specialist worked together, how the students' storytelling was assessed, and students' enthusiastic response. (SR)

Jill Paton Walsh's "The Green Book," the story of a group of humans and their life on a new planet, captures the imagination of learners and provides a compelling context for learning. Several groups of learners including fifth graders and adult teacher practitioners responded to the book in unique and interesting ways. As the setting,…

Historical accounts by fourth graders at the beginning stage of learning history show that these young students lack an experience-based framework for grounding and connecting historical teaching. Implications for teaching history to elementary school students and aspects of children's reliance on imagination in constructing historical narratives…

One public library's storytelling program for fourth through eighth graders and their grandparents has preserved grandparents' stories and fostered family communication. Storytelling was done one-on-one, with each child then writing and illustrating the story. Benefits included preservation of oral history and encouragement of storytelling,…

Discusses storytelling as a medium for learning about identity and communication. Presents an approach to interactive storytelling called SAGE (Storytelling Agent Generation Environment), an authoring environment for children to create their own storytellers to interact with. Results from empirical studies with fourth and fifth graders are…

Describes a 4-day outdoor summer workshop for 9 Native Canadians, ages 10 to 17, which focused on traditional Native storytelling. Notes that the students learned to use computer-based multimedia and published interactive multimedia versions of their Native stories. (SR)

Little research exists that examines how children experience listening to stories, and few studies have been done that ask students to discuss their own experience with storytelling. A qualitative grounded study designed to focus upon children's responses and experiences to storytelling in the classroom was conducted in a public middle school in a…

Explains the goals and assumptions of the Political Education Project of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Gives an example of the stories developed by the project teams as a means by which students are introduced to political realities in interesting ways. Reports two studies supporting the approach. (KO)

Spiders and insects are studied in both Navajo Studies and science classes at a middle school in New Mexico. In Navajo Studies, students learn the names of ground-dwelling insects and the connection between those names and traditional Navajo stories. In science class, students study arthropods to illustrate taxonomy of life, trophic and biological…

This paper describes the use of folktales in the classroom, noting the instructional benefits, challenges and potential problems, and techniques for presenting and expanding on the stories. Of nine folktales told during the school year, five are told in English and four in Spanish, and most are closely tied to the social studies curriculum. Four…

Describes an integrated curriculum approach to world history/language arts that employs student filmmaking as its primary instructional approach. Discusses how the production process allows teachers to assess students' content knowledge, writing skills, and research skills. Includes a list of "helpful hints," a model content outline, and…