If the walls of our school could speak, what would they say?
The first day of school, new friends, a favorite class, forgotten homework, a funny joke--activity abounds within the walls of this school building every day. Since walls cannot speak, a school-wide storytelling initiative will encourage students, teachers, and staff to share their personal stories about LEEP Elementary. The "If the walls could talk" project will collect print and audio and/or digital copies of the stories so that all ages may enjoy them. We hope that students, their families, teachers, staff, and alumni of LEEP Elementary will enjoy the opportunity to read and listen to stories about the school.
This interdisciplinary project will strengthen students' literacy and communication skills, including written, listening, and oral language skills. In addition, it will help students form bonds across all grades, and provide a mentoring opportunity for 5th and 6th grade students working with kindergarten and first grade classes. Since students will be telling and listening to personal stories - stories about their own experiences at LEEP Elementary - this will be an engaging project for all involved. Students will want to hear what events, activities, and other stories their classmates share, comparing their own experiences with the experiences of those around them. At the end of the school year, students will plan and participate in a storytelling festival.
This project will also give students the opportunity to work with technology when recording their classmates telling their stories and when designing a layout for the printed version of their stories. They will enhance that printed version with drawings, paintings, photographs, and more from their art classes. Each grade will have its own story compilation complete with artwork and a student-designed cover.
The school library will serve as the central repository for the printed version of the stories as well as audio and/or video copies of the students telling their stories aloud. We agree with Kendall Haven and MaryGay Ducey's assertion in Crash Course in Storytellingthat "the library is a place in conversation with the culture at large" (1). As such, it forms the heart of the school where students come to learn about themselves, their school, and the world around them. Through this project, the school library media specialist will have the opportunity to interact with students and show them many of the things the library has to offer, both to help with school projects and just for fun. It will encourage more students to see the library as a place for conversation as well as a place in conversation.
By supporting and coordinating this project, the school library media specialist will improve librarian-student, librarian-teacher, teacher-student, and student-student relationships. As students work with the librarian and their teachers on this project, they will have the opportunity to get to know them, particularly through the telling of stories. In addition, as teachers learn more about what the school library media specialist has to offer them, they will be more likely to continue utilizing the library and the librarian's skills on a regular basis. Studies conducted by Keith Curry Lance, director of the Library Research Service, demonstrate that librarian-teacher collaboration increases students' test skills. This storytelling project will be the first step in strengthening librarian-teacher collaboration at LEEP Elementary.
References:
Buzzeo, Toni. Collaborating to Meet Standards: Teacher/Librarian Partnerships for K-6. Worthington, OH: Linworth Publishing Inc, 2002. (Includes information about Lance's Library Research Service studies.)
Haven, Kendall and MaryGay Ducey. Crash Course in Storytelling. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.
Neha Dhruv
Megan Ower
Katie Rios
Janet Vogel (webmaster)
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
LIS 409 Storytelling
May 2008