- Steve Bell welcomed the delegates and spoke of each persons involvement with Storyline. Steve brought welcome to everyone from Sallie Harkness who was unable to attend.
- Ylva and Eva presented the history of their Storyline work in Sweden. Storyline was the most popular in the country up to 2008. Then school reform came with individual plans for students and testing. The PISA tests were showing that Sweden as a country had low scores in all three areas. The content tests have made it difficult for Storyline. The list of good education that has come out recently describes many characteristics which are a part of Storyline. There is hope that Storyline will turn the corner and there will be a growing interest in Storyline. Ylva has published a new book on using Storyline to teach science and technology. They continue to publish a newsletter and to offer courses, but the number of teachers attending has been less than in the earlier days. There are now positive signs that Storyline may be making a comeback.
- Hanneke and Ellen shared their Storyline work in the Netherlands. They are having the same problems with testing in the Netherlands but they shared good stories of successful Storylines. The first Storyline which was shared by Hanneke was “The Children’s Hospital” which is about the human body. She then shared many different school wide themes such as technology, communication, and the human body that were taught in different Storylines at each grade level in the school. The students in the class were very diverse including many students with special needs. Ellen shared about the Schools for Sustainability project which is a national project at the secondary level. This program links schools with real organizations in the community to real problems to be solved. They hold large conferences for the students to share their ideas. The program started in the north of the Netherlands and it is now all over the country in many, many schools. There has been some positive research showing that the program is very effective. The second Storyline Ellen shared was Fair Business Campus where the students in a school develop their own sustainable businesses and share them with real businesses in their community.
- Peter is a lecturer at a teacher training college, Stenden University. It is a school with five locations in the Netherlands and several campuses in other countries. Storyline is a part of the curriculum in every year of the teacher training program. In year three of the program they do a Storyline called “The School of the Future.” In year four the students have to work on a Storyline about students developing their inquiry skills. The goals of their Storyline curriculum: 1-2 To learn and to discuss, 3 To experience, 4 To research and to test.
- Marie Jeanne and Ruth presented a video showing the new building at the University of Strathclyde where the next International Storyline Conference will be held in March of 2015. The University of Strathclyde is hosting the conference. Marie Jeanne’s husband, Martin, designed the website. Marie Jeanne showed the conference website and people gave feedback. Ruth talked about the pre-conference workshops and asked people to suggest pre-conference workshops as well as school visits.
- Niels Peter and Edith shared about the creation of Storyline Denmark. The Association was created because many of the experienced Storyline teachers are retiring and so there is not so much Storyline going on. They wanted to have a conference but they were not able to get enough people to make the conference happen. So they decided to postpone the conference until October of this year. Steve and Cecelie have been invited to present at the conference. Niels Peter has made a website for Storyline Denmark that is advertising the conference and providing information on Storyline. “The Family” is a Storyline that Edith and Niels Peter wrote for confirmation classes in the church. It is built around the four life situations of baptism, confirmation, weddings, and funerals. They shared photos of the Storyline and talked us through the episodes of the Storyline which revolves around an older couple, Otto and Karen, and their children and grandchildren.
- Caitlin and Colleen Vallerga presented about Storyline at the American International School in Rome. Caitlin talked about her Storylines on the desert, and Ancient Egypt. Then she shared some of the Storylines that she did when she was teaching English as a Second Language in the states. One of the Storylines was about Chinatown and then she shared three book based Storylines.
- Serkan and Sule shared about research on the Storyline method in Turkey. From 2003 to 2014 there have been ten research studies done on Storyline in Turkey. It is challenging to use Storyline in the Turkish system because of the difficult exams that the students must take. Serkan’s research showed that the Storyline method was motivating for the students. Sule did a study with a control group and there was a big difference in the two groups. Gokhan’s study was done in two classrooms that had 48 students in each class. Storyline had a positive effect. They also shared the research of several other teachers working in different parts of Turkey and the Storyline method had positive results.
- We had a discussion about issues and ideas. The two items that we began discussing were: 1) the need for a list serve or private Facebook group where we can network with each other between seminars, 2) the desire to raise the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence as a model for values based, child centered learning for life.
- Wendy presented the new Storyline research page. She showed the different links for each country and shared the research and practice pages. There is a need for proof readers to check the pages for accuracy. People could check their own country’s pages for accuracy and let Wendy know if there are corrections that need to be made. People were invited to translate key articles or to ask for help in translating.
- Doris shared her work with using Storyline with handicapped learners. Inclusion and differentiation are big issues in Germany at the moment. Doris was asked to present at a conference for teachers, social workers, etc. who work with handicapped learners. She used “The New Neighbours” Storyline for the practical work in the workshop. The participants made houses and the people who live in them. Doris put up her empty house while the characters were being made. The question was asked, “ How could the story go on?” Then there was feedback so that people could share how they might be able to use Storyline with their students or in their particular area of work. The participants naturally made connections between the characters. The feedback on the workshop was very positive and people saw lots of potential for using Storyline with handicapped learners.
- Mary shared the all school Storyline that they did at the Hathaway Brown School. They did a book study of Crow Boy to help the school build a positive community. She took us through the Storyline with pictures and shared how the Storyline developed as a whole school topic.
- Mateja and Lea shared their work in Slovenia. Lea has the challenge of living in Sweden and yet working to develop Storyline in Slovenia. It has been slow to develop Storyline in Slovenia but it has been very well received. They have done two conferences for Storyline and now they are encouraging teachers to try Storyline. Mateja talked about her Storyline project in her region of Slovenia. The project involved 1300 students and 140 schools. The goal of the project was to encourage the students to appreciate the beauty and nature of the area. They called it “In the Forest It Is Never Boring.” In Mateja’s part of the project she did the Storyline with several students in different schools. Their culminating event was a performance before the mayor and local dignitaries in an audience of 1500 people. The students were able to do a lot of practical work out in the forest. The students were motivated and they loved doing a Storyline. Now Mateja is able to share her work with other teachers and faculty members at the university.
- Jeff shared an update of the development of Storyline in the US which is celebrating 25 years in our country. Storyline seems to be enjoying a new interest with teachers and Storyline Design is offering ten courses over the next four months in three different states.
- Bjorg and Gudmundur shared about an all school Storyline that Bjorg did at Karsnesskoli School where they have been doing Storyline for twenty years. They based the Storyline on a very popular children’s book that is only in Icelandic, but the English name is The Animals in Hakkebakkeskogen Forest. They put much of the display in the hallways of the school. One of the challenges was to make the Storyline work for students from ages 6-16. They made animal characters and talked about the personalities of the animals. The town in the forest was looked at as a community. Many ethical questions were discussed using the animals the students had created. The educational subject that they have to teach in schools in Europe: literacy, sustainability, health and welfare, democracy, human rights, and creativity. Gudmundur shared about the skills, knowledge, and competence that the children experienced in the Storyline. He is working to develop the curriculum for 28 countries in Europe. The children have a lot to teach us, even at the political level.
- The teachers from Stockholm shared about a project they did with Storyline- a link between Reality and Mathematics. Karin, Margarethe, and Matilda got a grant to do a study to see if they could do a Storyline that was mostly about mathematics. The Storyline began with an invitation from a professor of mathematics to build a shopping center. The professor gave them a plan for the shopping center. The children had to learn lots of mathematics in order to design and build the shopping center. They drew plans and then created characters. The students felt they had a real need for mathematics because they needed things for their own shops. After the creation of the shops and the running of the shopping center Professor Mathematicus came to the celebration. The parents were so happy that the children’s enthusiasm for mathematics really improved. The children felt that they were creating something that could really happen. They said this was just like reality.
- Anders shared about his work in the Swedish church as a priest. He works a lot with confirmation classes with students who are 15 to 17. His wife is a teacher and she told him about Storyline and he contacted Mait. He worked on a Storyline about riots that happened in Stockholm. The riots took place in neighbourhoods where there were a lot of immigrants and poor people.The riots were in May and they started the Storyline in June. The children were to make families who lived in one of the neighourhoods where the riots happened. Then they read the news about the riots and what happened and the children had to talk about how they felt about the riots in their neighbourhood. There was an incident where an older son of one of the families was arrested for throwing stones. Then the family was visited by the priest of the neighbourhood. He shared a biblical story about Jesus and they learned how he reacted. Then the families were invited to look at the riots and decide what Jesus would do in the riots. The families were invited to come up with a solution to the riot situation. Anders believes that confirmation is about experience much more than about knowledge.
- Mait and Karin shared about their work with Storyline in Siem Riep, Cambodia. They went with the group Teachers Across Borders. Cambodia has a very young population because of the Kymer Rouge which killed so many of the people. The teachers are well educated in a two year program in the university. Karin and Mait did a Storyline course for teachers about the village. They wanted to know how Storyline might work in the large classes in Cambodia. But the teachers said that they could use parts of the Storyline. So even if they couldn’t do a whole Storyline they could use ideas and aspects of Storyline.
- Carol shared with us about her 38 year journey with Storyline and the development of her book on Storyline, Storyline-creative learning across the curriculum. Carol shared the different aspects of Storyline that she talks about in the book: choice of topic, episodes, key questions activities, assessment, celebration, and reflection. There are four sample Storylines in the book. It is a very practical clear presentation of Storyline.
- Sharon shared the process of developing her doctoral thesis which turned into her book: Storyline: Developing Communicative Competence in English. The Storyline she did had a sustainability theme and was based on the Storyline “Our Street.” Her research questions were about the impact of Storyline on language development and on attitudes about Storyline. The Storyline had a family, the Grimshaws, move into the neighbourhood who were not the best neighbours. Working with the Storyline helped to take away the anxiety about learning English. Storyline built a positive learning community which fostered improved attitudes and language learning. The book is available on Amazon and A Libris.
- Agneta shared reflections on her work with Storyline. She has been a teacher, a tutor at the university, and a school inspector who worked for the department of education, and now she works for a private educational organization as a quality inspector. Now she works for The Riverside Company, which is a global private equity form that is international. The Swedish company that she works for, a subsidiary, is PPS AB. She works in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo. Agneta learned about Storyline from the book by Analise Rasmussen and Ingelise Jorgensen from Denmark. She made several visits to Scotland to learn about Storyline and tried to implement it as a staff developer and a head teacher. “Theorize the practice and practice the theory.”
- We had a discussion about different issues that were raised at the conference following the last presentation. We decided that we would create a Facebook group so that we would have an easy way to communicate with one another between conferences. We also talked about having a Storyline Dropbox folder so that people could share photos, articles, videos, and other resources. It would be important for people to make sure that they had permission to share the photos of children if that was part of the resource they were sharing. We also talked about the importance of sending Wendy information for her website which is a resource for research and practice.
- The seminar concluded with remarks from Gudmundur thanking the conference organizers, telling some funny jokes, and commenting on the highlights of our time together!
Mait Adegard, Jeff Creswell and Lea Nakrst