Sweden

A short history of Storyline in Sweden

In the early 1990s a Joint Research Project, funded by the British Council, supported co-operation between the author and Britta Carlsson, a biologist working in the Faculty of Education at the University of Luleå. Three Storyline topics were designed on environmental issues and tested by Swedish teachers in local schools. In 1996 the author was invited to speak at a large conference in Stockholm aimed at children in need of learning support. This was organised by Mia Garphult and her colleagues of Framnäs Skola och Terapi Center. The above visit to Stockholm also gave an opportunity of meeting with the staff at WWF Sweden offices in Ulriksdals Slott and a tour of the Eco-Centre conducted by Gunilla Elsässer, an education officer. Workshop courses have also been presented over recent years in Skarpnäcksskolan, Stockholm, at the invitation of Mait Adegård, vice principal of the school. As well as providing consultancy for the staff at the school, other courses are organised for teachers in neighbouring schools. Skarpnäcksskolan has become a Storyline Centre in the Stockholm area and has also sent series of teachers on short study visits to Scotland and to other Storyline schools in Sweden and Finland. In May 2001 Mait and Ylva Lundin, a colleague from Gothenburg, organised the first weekend Training of the Trainers Course for Storyline Tutors. Several schools in Alingsås, near Gothenburg, have been involved in study tours to Scotland and these visits were followed by an invitation to the author from an IT project based in Østlyckeskolan, Ängaboskolan and Äfzeliiskolan to speak at a very unusual Storyline conference. The audience of 350 listened to a lecture for 45 minutes and then visited an exhibition of classwork presented by five different groups from the schools. The evening, chaired by Ylva Lundin, was completed with another 30-minute lecture. A two-day workshop course followed this and was well attended by interested teachers. Erik Lindberg, a teacher in Østlyckeskolan has written a book of his experiences in using Storyline with 13 to 16 year old students. It is called Den Röda Tråden Storyline. Ágneta Kristensson, at that time the headteacher of Äfzeliiskolan in Alingsås, visited Jordanhill Campus in 1995 having heard of Storyline on visits to Denmark. At that time also she made contact with Val Carson, headteacher at Echline School near Edinburgh and Barbara Frame, a lecturer in Moray House College of Education. The schools became linked in a European project which led to several exchange visits. On each of these there were opportunities for sharing more and more information about Storyline and Ian Barr and I were involved in making presentations to the Swedish visitors in Edinburgh. Ian was invited to speak at a conference in Alingsås in 1996 and Barbara and Val presented courses there in 1998. There has also been a rewarding Storyline exchange with the staff of the school visiting teachers in Skive, Denmark. Ágneta is now the Director of Education at the National Agency for Education in Gothenburg.

NEWS Articles - latest at the top

Follow-up to Course in Mötesplats Carlssons Skola
Helena Sandell teaches English and Swedish in Grade 8 at Fredrikshovs slott skola in Stockholm. She enjoyed the course at Carlssons skola and decided to put the Storyline topic she experienced there into practice immediately. As can be seen from the model made by her grade 8 students they are now in the middle of the topic. She reports that the students have been very positive,creative and hard working. We wish Helena and her class all the very best in this exploration of Storyline.

Three Storylines for Road Safety
Gothenburg Road Traffic Department
Some time ago on this newspage it was mentioned that Camilla Henriksson of Gothenburg Road Safety Department had commissioned Ylva Lundin to design three Storyline Topics for use with children of different age groups on themes linked to road safety. Just recently these topic outlines have been translated into English – click on the covers to go to each book.

Mötesplats Carlssons Skola
Over 240 teachers attended a one-day Storyline workshop organised in Stockholm, Sweden, by Mötesplats Carlssons Skola. Following an invitation from Henrietta Göbel, Steve Bell, accompanied by a colleague Linda Brownlow, presented a workshop which was based on the Open Market Topic. After a short powerpoint presentation the 24 groups worked enthusiastically to produce the most beautiful visuals of the market stalls, stall holders and customers. This made a very colourful display which was used to illustrate the sequential process of Storyline work in the classroom. It also provided the focus for identifying the theories linked to this methodology.The school was responsible for organising the day and it did so in a most efficient and effective manner. Many thanks are due to Henrietta and her colleagues, Susanne Ridner and Magnus Ohlsson.

Storyline and Sami (Lapp) History
Norrbottens Museum (Norrbotten is a region in the north of Sweden) working together with Sanna Ranweg, a Storyline teacher, have developed a Storyline on Sami History. Since 2004 schools in Norrbotten have been using Storyline with good results. Teachers in Överkalix, Luleå and Vittangi have worked with Storyline in their classes. If you understand Swedish you can read more about the project and view the storyline plan and materails in the Museum's website below.

Storyline Presentation - Lärarhögskolan, Stockholm
At the invitation of Dr Jesus Piqeras, Steve Bell gave a two hour presentation to an audience of staff and students on Monday 31st October at the College of Education in Stockholm. Hansi Elsbacher, a journalist, took many photographs and has written an account of this event. His report has been posted on the internal home page of Stockholm Education Administration.

Project Management using Storyline
The three PhD student/lecturers pictured from the left, Markus Hällgren, Niklas Wahlström and Andreas Nilsson work in Umeå School of Business, Umeå University and are responsible for the designing of a new 20-week distance learning course on Project Management together with Tomas Blomquist, Ph.D who is missing from the picture. Some years ago Markus attended a Storyline Course for teachers in Stockholm and with this experience he and his colleagues have introduced aspects of the Storyline approach over the last four years. They have been delighted with the results, since, in the third year, the first distance learning course they developed became the most popular course at the university with 435 applications. Recently they met with Steve Bell in Stockholm to discuss new design ideas for the sequel of the popular Project Management course.

A new Storyline Postgraduate Course
The course has been developed and coordinated by Erik Lindberg at the University College of Boras, (UCB) Sweden. The main objective is that the participants, in peer groups, will design a Storyline adapted to the Swedish curriculum and syllabuses. They will also carry out their Storyline together with their own pupils during the run of the course, i.e. a blend of practical and theoretical work.

Scottish Study Tour
For the last three years six Swedish educators from schools in the area between Gothenburg and Malmo have been studying together as part of a Government-sponsored management course for principals. Although the official course finished last year they have continued to work together whenever possible and recently they found funding for a short trip to Scotland to study Storyline. Their programme included a visit to Glendale Primary School in Glasgow where they enjoyed the opportunity to interview Jean Campbell, the Head Teacher. They also met with Steve Bell for an extended, informal seminar on Storyline.

Swedish study visit to Storyline Scotland
In November Eva Marsh and Ylva Lundin visited Scotland to learn more about Storyline. Eva works for The Swedish National Agency for School Improvement and Ylva is a Storyline tutor and designer commissioned by Gothenburg Road Traffic Department and the Municipal Consumer Guidance Office in Gothenburg to design topics for road safety and about energy and environmental issues. Both have a wide experience in organising inservice courses on Storyline.

Teacher education and learning outside the classroom
Jesús Piqueras
For the last two years I have been working with storyline as a teacher trainer at the Stockholm Institute of Education. We want to develop a deeper cooperation between our teacher education programs and institutions like science centers, museums, botanic gardens or aquariums (i.e. institutions where learning occurs outside the classroom). I will be grateful for any information about experiences in this area from other universities and countries.
I look forward to hearing from interested teacher trainers.

Jesús Piqueras jesus.piqueras@lhs.se
Lärarhögskolan i Stockholm
UKL, Box 34103
100 26 Stockholm
Sweden

Swedish Visit
Sanna Ranweg is a freelance Storyline Tutor working in the area around her home town of Lulea in the north of Sweden. She is engaged by the University to give courses for students and is also kept busy with courses for teachers in her region. Her opinion is that Storyline is being adopted more and more in Swedish schools, especially at the early stages and in secondary school. Her work in the university has been greatly supported by the publication of the recent Storyline handbook in Swedish. As part of her own personal development she spent several days in early September 2004 visiting schools in Scotland observing classwork and interviewing teachers and headteachers.

Storylineboken - a new Storyline book in Swedish
Cecilie Falkenberg and Erik Haakonsson have selected and up-dated contributions by several authors from the Danish Storylinebogen first published in 2000 by Kroghs Forlag. This new attractive Swedish publication not only describes the philosophy behind the Storyline approach but is also informative about how to design and plan topics and gives very practical ideas for classroom activities. For more information from the Swedish publishers Runa Foerlag click here.

Literature-based Storyline Courses in Stockholm
In early June, Sallie Harkness ran two one-day courses in Skarpnacks skola in Stockholm, Sweden. This was at the invitation of Mait Adegard the Vice Principal of the school who has organised many similar events over the last eight years. The first course was open to teachers from the area and the second was designed for members of staff at the school. The books to be used were specially selected and you can read in more depth about Sallie's experiences by clicking below.

New Storyline Circus Film (in Swedish)
The film Circus follows the work of Class 3 at Skarpnäcks school in Stockholm when they are working with a Storyline on the theme of Circus. It follows the stage by stage work in the classroom until the highlight of the Circus Performance at the end of the project. Although the film is in Swedish, Steve Bell presents,in English, the principles being followed at each stage of the work. The story follows a teaching plan from beginning to end. The video costs 300 Swedish kroner and can be bought from Skarpnäcks school by phoning + 46 (0)8- 50815600 or by e-mail to maria.lonnelid@skarpnack.stockholm.se

International Visit to Kärrdalsskolan
Message from Ylva Lundin, Storyline Consultant www.storyline.se
Last week I had a wonderful experience. There was an international conferense called "Learning to change our world" on the initiative of our Prime minister Göran Persson. The delegates should visit schools that work with sustainable development and Kärrdalsskolan was choosen for one group. They have used the storyline "Commuter Karl" for grade 3 to 5. Seven delegates from Brazil, India, Zambia, Sweden and Macedonia came to the school. Gunilla Fransson from the Traffic and PublicTransport Authorities started with a short presentation of their work. Then I told them about what Storyline is and a little about what they where going to see. Thereafter the children took over and guided the delegates in English and Portuguese. The delegates were told what they have been working with and were shown the work including videofilms and radio programmes made by the children. All films and programmes where translated into English by the children so that the delegates would understand. The children were very serious and they did a fantastic job especially if you consider that they only have studied English for two years. Thereafter the delegates where taken for a walk in the surroundings by the teachers so they could discuss the work with them. One good thing is that "Commuter-Karl" is already translated into English so that the delegates could get a copy ofthe topic outline in their hands.

Foreign visitors in Aberfoyle Primary School
Steve Wretman and Helena Moreau, editors from the Skolbarn (Schoolchildren) teachers' magazine published in Sweden enjoyed a morning visit to Aberfoyle Primary School last week, Tuesday 2nd March. They were especially interested to see the Rain Forest storyline which filled the Primary 1/2 classroom. After chatting to the children they spent some time interviewing the teacher Linda Bancroft. Over the last year the school has become the focus for several foreign visitors and Carol Omand, the headteacher, has recently had an article published in the TES Scotland describing her experiences.

Storyline Material for WWF Sweden
Agneta Kristensson, a Director of Education, working as an inspector of schools in the western part of Sweden for The National Agency of Education, has written a description of how she thinks Storyline can be used to study concepts like 'sustainable development'. This was done at the invitation of WWF Sweden. She first became interested in Storyline on visits to Edinburgh as the head of a school in Alingsås in the mid-90s. Since then her career has taken her in other directions but she has still found time to produce this valuable support for teachers interested in environmental issues.

Article in Stockholm Teachers' Magazine
This article covers the major principles in Storyline teaching as it describes the reaction of the children to their topic, taught by Mie Petterssons and her colleague Susanne Laudon in Södermalmsskolan. The excitement, fun and motivation lead to memorable learning situations

Education for Road Traffic Safety in Sweden
Camilla Henriksson of the Traffic & Public Transport Authority in Gothenburg, Sweden, has become very interested in how Storyline can be used to affect children's attitudes to road safety. Working together with Ylva Lundin, a Storyline tutor, they have been experimenting with topics, which could help teachers to focus on traffic issues in schools. As a result, Ylva has designed three topic outlines for different age groups. The one for the younger children is about a school neighbourhood; the one for the middle group is about traffic pollution where the children will try to change the behaviour of Karl who uses his car every day to get to work and finally, the Storyline for 13 to 15 year olds is about Johan and Lisa who have been involved in a moped accident. The students' work in this topic is to try to see how some accidents like this one can be avoided.

These topics have now been published on www.trafikforlivet.nu under the link 'material'. Each of these contains the topic outline, instructions, copy-material and even sound files where the children can hear Karl speaking.

Three Presentations in Luleå
Sanna Ranweg was responsible for organising two Storyline courses and one lecture during week 8 in her home town of Luleå in the north of Sweden. Thirty-two participants attended the Storyline 1 course held at the university and twenty-five came on the Storyline 2 course on the designing of topics. The interest for this approach was also reflected by a large evening attendance for a lecture presentation by Steve Bell. Sanna's plans are also designed to support the modular course offered by the University in Luleå and described in a previous news item below. Click on Sanna to see gallery of photographs.

University Course on Storyline in Sweden
In a new and interesting development Luleå University, in the north of Sweden, is offering an award bearing course on Storyline. The Course will take the form of workshops, seminars, preparatory reading and discussion. It carries an award of 10 credits. The course is taught by Grethel Guthlein, the course leader/examiner, and Sanna Ranweg. For more information please visit the following link

Courses in Stockholm & Gothenburg
Very successful Storyline courses have recently been run in Sweden. Mait Adegård, vice principal in Skarpnäcks skolan, organises several courses annually, and her school has become the Storyline centre in Stockholm. Skarpnäcks has a website which shows a selection of photographs from these courses over the past few years. Eva Marsh and Ylva Lundin are the organisers of the courses in Gothenburg and their website is also illustrated with many examples of work by participants. Click images for more information and website links.

New Swedish Brochure for Parents
Tidningen Skolbarn, the educational publisher, has produced an informative brochure to up-date parents about school developments in Sweden. The articles describe the latest advice on curriculum development, on the use of Portfolio for assessment purposes and on the Storyline approach to integrated learning. The authors, Helena Moreau and Steve Wretman, are deeply involved in offering courses on these areas of educational interest and regularly organise inservice courses and conferences for teachers who wish to know more about these topics.
ISBN: 91 7091 162 2 Art nr:6133

Interesting Video
On a recent visit to Sweden I was shown this video made by Sveriges Utbildningsradio, Swedish Educational Radio. It shows a cleverly animated visual representation of children's work illustrating five distinct periods in the history of Stockholm. Eva Anderberg and Elisabeth Åkerman, two teachers from Södermalmsskolan in Stockholm who were attending the Storyline course, were involved in its production. Although not strictly a Storyline film it is full of ideas that could be used in a historical topic.

A New Storyline Journal
Helena Moreau and Steve Wretman, editors of the Skolbarn journal have produced a new Storyline resource in Swedish. It is called Storyline, Känslor,respekt,struktur, is published by Fortbildnings Förlaget 2001
ISBN: 91-7091-133-9

Distance Learning using Storyline
As an up-date to the previous news item Gunnar Jonsson of Luleå University reports some success in his experimenting with Storyline for educating student teachers at a distance by video-linking. His view is that he is gradually finding better ways to stimulate interest and communication among the learning groups.

Didaktikbiennalen
Educational Conference in Gothenburg
The theme for this important educational conference, held in the Swedish Conference Centre in Gothenburg on 30 and 31 October, was "Hur gör man?" or "How can we do it?" It was jointly organised by Gothenburg University and the educational publishers and course organisers, Tidningen Skolbarn / Förskoletidningen / Fortbildning AB. The original intention was to bring together important Swedish educators, Storyline and the exciting international work of the Harvard-based Project Zero from America. Unfortunately, flight insurance difficulties prevented the American presenters from travelling. In the circumstances the organisers did a very effective re-designing of the programme which certainly seemed to attract the interest of the 800 delegates.

Storyline had two slots, presented by Steve Bell, on the second day of the programme, the first dealing with Storyline Practice and the second on Storyline, Feelings and Respect.

The presentations were supported by a colourful exhibition of Storyline work by pupils of Skarpnäcks skolan, Stockholm, presented by Mait Adegård and Anita Olsson.

Knut Aage Teigen of Ringstabekk skolen in Oslo, Norway, made a PowerPoint presentation of Storyline work undertaken by his students. Knut also made a formal presentation about the work being done in this interesting school as part of the re-designed programme.

ITiS in Sweden
ITiS (Information Technology in Schools) is the largest and most comprehensive national investment programme ever to be made in the school in Sweden. ITiS is just as much of an investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as in the development of the school. Over a four-year period 70,000 teachers working in teams will be offered the opportunity to raise their competence in using ICT as a tool to support pupils' learning.

ITiS and Storyline
The following Storyline sites are evidence of the links that have developed between this movement and the use of Storyline in Swedish schools.
www.utb.boras.se/kd_td/ek/Bjorken/bjitisrapp.htm
www.skola.kristinehamn.se/hackleh/gula/itis/d.htm

Earlier Swedish Influence
School exchange links with Scotland led to an early contact with Storyline in the Alingsås school area. Two important videos were produced which helped to stimulate interest in the approach. The first was on Storyline which has examples from both Östlyckeskolan , grades 8-9 and Afzeliiskolan , primary pupils. The two examples from Östlyckeskolan include one where the students form a government in a fictitious African country and the other is about living together. The topic from Afzeliiskolan is of early man. The other film is about Portfolio assessment which links well to the Storyline classroom. Both were produced by the Multimediabyrån Skolverket.

 

Skarpnäcks skola features in Storyline article
Helena Moreau, writing in the Teachers' Magazine, Skolbarn, presents a delightful description of Storyline work being done at Skarpnäcks skolan in Johanneshov, Stockholm. Over eleven pages she documents the very attractive integrated work being developed by several creative teachers, one of whom Nina Andersson is very experienced and has studied Storyline in Scotland.Some of the others involved have only recently been introduced to this way of working and they tell of their excitement at putting these new ideas into practice.

Östersund and the Great Lake Monster
Östersund stands on the banks of the Storsjoen (or The Great Lake) of Jaemtland in Sweden. This large lake is famous as is Loch Ness in Scotland for a Monster which has regularly been seen by reliable witnesses. The inhabitants of Östersund have many stories to tell. So, it is probably not surprising that the town has become a centre of interest for those enthusiastic teachers who crowd into the many Storyline courses organised there by Iris Strömberg of ITIS and Helena Fredriksson of AV-media. On a recent visit I was greatly impressed by what I heard of the Storyline work which was being done in schools in the area. For more information - in Swedish - click on the picture.
'Structure' Video by av-media

Storyline Studies in Scotland November 2001
Maria Davidsson and Kajsa Classon are two teachers from Örebro in Sweden, who teach children 6 -12 years old, at Almbro skola www2.Örebro.se/skolor/almbro

We got interested in Storyline when we heard a lecture about it in spring 2001. After that we searched for schools that worked with the method. We phoned Skolverket and asked them, and they suggested that we should to call the British Embassy. Then we faxed a paper explaining what we were interested in. They didn't answer us for such a long time that we thought they had forgotten all about it.

One day Maria got a phone call from a lady at the British Embassy. She said that Steve Bell wanted to meet us in person!!! According to her the meeting would take place in London. We checked the homepage of Storyline and found that we were scheduled to meet Steve in Glasgow. How exciting, none of us has had been to Scotland before! Now a hectic period of emailing started. Steve was a really fun and fast pen pal!

How to travel and stay was a little complicated to organize. After trying Internet and a travel agency, we finally found out that all our research was in vain, because our school took care of all the arrangements.