Denmark

A short history of Storyline in Denmark

One of the earliest contacts in Denmark was Troels Johansen of Herning Seminarium through a Jordanhill conference in the late 70s. Because of that connection a number of visits and exchanges followed involving students, teachers and politicians. At this time Storyline was not a particular focus of study but rather a general pedagogical interest in the differing school systems. In 1983 when the LEGO company in Billund set up its new Educational Products Department (now called LEGO Dacta) I was invited to act as a consultant to help design the proposed new topic sets for schools. LEGO was well known for its retail construction sets, each with a set of bricks that could build a required model. Now it was proposing to provide topic sets to help children in schools build a variety of environments to be used for educational purposes. The first set, aimed at 5 to 7 year olds, contained teaching material mainly written by me based on Storyline experience. This collaboration continued for some years and in 1986 LEGO made a prize-winning video of a Storyline Topic in action in Gordon Primary School featuring Barbara Frame, the headteacher. Gordon is a small village near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Storyline tutors are still regularly using the video, called Space Abduction, so many years later. Also in 1983 I made a presentation at the 8th International Conference of the Association for teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) held in Aalborg Seminarium. The paper, jointly written with Fred Rendell was entitled "The importance of Methodology in relation to Inservice Education") In 1987, Kirsten Meldgaard, an Assistant Director of Education in Farum, Copenhagen, attended one of the Storyline workshops being given in Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein. Her experience as a participant on this course encouraged her to introduce it to Denmark. So, the first Storyline course in Denmark was run in Mogenstrup Kro, Naestved, in 1988 and had Skole Start as a focus. An outcome from this was the publication in 1990 of the Felix series of books. The second course in Ry Hotel had Finn Mosegaard of Skive Amtscentret as a participant and he quickly became very involved in adapting the approach to suit the needs of the teachers with whom he was working. Over the years he has designed and published many Danish topics. More recently he has become the international webmaster for the site of the European association for Educational Design, www.acskive.dk/storyline. The first Danish publication describing the Storyline approach was produced in 1994. Entitled Storyline Metoden-Den Scotske Metode it was written by Cecilie Falkenberg, Eric Hålkonson, Nils Jaegerum, Sigrid Madsbjerg and Finn Mosegaard. Ingelise Jørgensen and Anelise B Rasmussen, as advisers in Gladsaxe and friends of Kirsten quickly became involved in working with Storyline or Den Skotske Metode as it was called at that time. In 1995 they were instrumental in the production of a Storyline book entitled Storyline Pædagogikken. They have also more recently visited the American Storyline summer institutes held in Oregon and California. Many foreign language teachers in Denmark began to see the possibilities of using an approach that creates a context and an audience and gives purpose to second language development. Jette Kock of Haderslev is one example and she and three colleagues have also been actively engaged in spreading the ideas of Storyline through their newsletter 'Den Røde Tråd'. Anne-Marie Schæffer is another second language teacher who has worked hard to spread interest in the use of Storyline. It would be difficult to list all the many educators who were instrumental in affecting the development of Storyline in Denmark but I should mention the importance of colleagues in the Danmarks Lærerhøjskole like Cecilie Falkenberg and Erik Håkonsson who have used their research skills to analyse critically the process involved in adapting and implementing Storyline for use in the Folkeskole. Together with colleagues they were responsible for publishing the first Danish book on the approach, Storyline Metoden. Then in the Spring of 2000 Cecilie and Erik edited and produced a beautiful publication called Storylinebogen, published by Kroghs Forlag and with 15 authors. Each chapter is written with a purpose: for example to describe a typical Storyline in a classroom or to link Storyline with educational theories or to describe the use of Storyline with Maths etc. Cecilie and Sigrid Madsberg, an adviser in Bornholm, have also made two educational videos with teachers' books - "Man Ska' Ku' Laese" and "Med Venlig Hilsen 3.@." Other professors like Vagn Oluf Nielsen, Søren Breiting and Jens Jacobsen have been enthusiastic in their involvement as they bring their own critical awareness to explore this strategy. Without doubt the biggest change in Denmark came with the introduction of the School Law in 1991 which laid down the main principles which should be followed by teachers in the Folkeskole. These include an emphasis on holistic teaching, co-operative learning, learner centredness, problem tackling, active learning and differentiation. All of these strategies are exemplified within the Storyline approach. In 1998 Danmarks Laererhøjskole published a review of Storyline in the form of interviews with three teachers - Sven Lundberg, Jette Kock and Karen Aagaard Rüberg entitled Hvad Gør Vi Med Storyline-Metoden. International conferences like 'Catch the Future' organised by Laila Vang Andersen and her colleagues for Hirtshals Kommune with 750 delegates from 19 countries have had quite an influence. Many, many study tours, organised annually by colleagues like Finn Mosegaard, Karen Margrethe Sørensen and Laila Vang Andersen have been made to Scotland. Denmark is now, arguably, the 'Storyline Centre' of Europe if we think of the numbers of teachers and tutors who are actively engaged in developing their own adaptations of Storyline. So it was an obvious venue for the First International Storyline Conference held there from 6th to 8th November 2000. This event attracted over 300 participants from 22 countries and proved to be a wonderful celebration of this philosophy. A 'Silver Circle' group of Danish Storyline enthusiasts has been formed, meets annually and has recently been visited by a similar organisation from Schleswig-Holstein. A typical focus for such a conference was on how to develop a book-based Storyline which would enable students and teachers to undertake an in-depth study of a piece of literature with Sallie Harkness as the guest speaker. Other courses on book-based Storylines have followed. "The Red Thread" Newsletter (in Danish) ISSN: 1399-0977

NEWS Articles - latest at the top

Elsinore Conference Report - website address
Many people have requested access to the conference report of the last International Storyline Conference 2 held in Elsinore in Denmark last November. For this reason Cecilie Falkenberg has organised that it can be reached with the new address

Freja and Eskil - New Danish Reading System
Once again Jørgen Frost introduces a new reading system for the introductory period of school. Taking his starting point in Nils Hartmanns novel about two children from the Danish Middle Ages, and in the principles of Comprehensive reading, he offers a refreshingly new approach for tomorrow’s balanced teaching in reading. A beautiful book for reading aloud and many small easy readers are among the important elements. In Freja and Eskil, the children get the opportunity to let their imagination and creative urges run riot and in this way influence the teaching. That is why the system amongst other things consists of several exciting storylines prepared by Steve Bell.

Successful Conference in Elsinore 3rd to 5th November 2003
The International Storyline Conference 2 held recently in the Comwell Borupgaard Hotel attracted almost 300 delegates from 19 countries. Once again the participants responded with enthusiasm and the evaluations recorded a high degree of satisfaction of the complex programme it offered. We are greatly indebted to Cecilie Falkenberg and Henrik Stein, from the University College of Copenhagen and North Zealand, for organising the event so efficiently.

Class 8.c working on The International Storyline Conference 2 in Elsinore
Class 8.c working on The International Storyline Conference 2 in Elsinore.
During The 2nd International Storyline Conference in Elsinore the students of Class 8.c (14-15 years old) from Rosenlundskolen, Denmark, were working at the conference with their Storyline "The Negotiation Policy in occupied Denmark during the 2nd World War", written by their teacher Simon Fougt. The pupils' characters are met with the historical German demands to the Danish government and are to analyse them and decide what to do. The objective of the Storyline is to give the pupils a deeper understanding of the situation - being occupied with a limited freedom - NOT to teach them the content - what the Danish government actually did.
Simon Fougt is working with the Storyline approach with older pupils, especially in history - and society, teaching in the public school in Denmark.

"Activate the Attic"
This is a series of materials designed for the functional teaching of mathematics through the solving of open-ended problems based in architecture and design. Assessment is naturally and functionally integrated in the methodology. The material encompasses elements from the storyline method and also incorporates the concepts of aesthetic learning processes and democratic values. It is, moreover, inspired by Howard Gardner's theories about the powerful ways into education offered through such areas as narrative, mathematical/logical processes, hands-on methodology, aesthetics, existentialism and interpersonal relationships.
Authors are Lisser Rye Ejersbo and Jette Kantsø.
Publisher: www.forlagmallingbeck.dk Copenhagen 2002.

The Child & Family Centre, Hirtshals, Denmark
Storyline and Special Needs
The Child and Family Centre is designed to cater for the special needs of selected pupils and to give support to their parents. In this small school in Hirtshals the staff have recently been using a Desert Island storyline very successfuly to motivate language work from their 8 pupils. The teachers have experienced a rich and rewarding reaction to the linked activities targeted mainly at language development and self awareness. The topics also provide for sharing and cooperative learning. Parents visit regularly and are always included in the culminating event.Two Storylines are used each year and previous designs have included the Circus and Witches.

Storyline to train Nurses in Denmark
In January an article about the use of the storyline method was published in the Danish nurse magazine “Sygeplejersken”. The article is written by Eva Hoffmann who is a nursing teacher on “Den sønderjyske sygeplejeskole” in Sønderborg. Eva Hoffmann tells in the article about her experiences with using the storyline method in the education of a group of 30 new nurse students.The article includes facts about the method and it also gives a lot of concrete directions on how the method was specifically used as an educational tool. The students invented a fictitious person called “Sofie Clausen”. In that way they created their own patient who became a very lively focus for the theoretical part of their education.

The article, in Danish, was published in “Sygeplejersken January. 31. 2003 nr.5” www.sygeplejersken.dk

Learning Support using Storyline in Denmark
Finn Mosegaard has been appointed as an educational consultant to a group of teachers who are being specially trained in Learning Support. Finn has been working in this area for many years and has developed a very interesting way of combining the use of Storyline and ICT to help pupils who have problems with reading and writing. Now, he has been invited, together with colleagues, to form a support team to train teachers who are working in seven schools in Spøttrup Community. One of his first courses was held in September '02 in Lem School. The Development Project is due to run until the end of December 2003. It is hoped that the experience gained will then be used to expand the service to other classes in the area and to create a network to communicate information and ideas using e-mail and the internet. During this process Finn with be employed half time by Spøttrup Community and the other half as a consultant based at the Teachers' Centre in Skive.

New Storyline Publications in Denmark
Following the success of the 'Storylinebogen' published in 2000, a new series of five booklets has just been produced by Kroghs Forlag. Each booklet describes one Storyline topic in depth - Trucks, The Pet Shop, Tracks through Australia, A Bridge to Trading and The Trolls of the Forest of Seven. Cecilie Falkenberg is the general editor. Detailed information about the books and authors can be found by clicking th following:

Staff Development Course, Svinkløv Badehotel
Recently, a staff development course was given for all the staff of the Amtscentret in Skive (Skive Teachers' Centre). Thirty members of staff - secretaries, directors, drivers, cleaners, IT consultants, and educational consultants for primary, secondary and adult education - attended this two day Storyline workshop in the beautiful beachside hotel in Svinkløv. This course is an annual opportunity for a busy and hardworking staff to meet each other socially and this year's event was really appreciated by the participants.

Book for the Early Stages
This Danish book is written by a member of the Golden Circle, Hanne Jacobsen, a teacher and Lego consultant based in Vejle. I discovered recently that it had not been recorded on the website and want to rectify this now.