Implementation of ‘Stories on the move – mobile and outdoor storytelling’ (SoI-HR-489)

Abstract

I work in a school in the wider city center with lower secondary students. In our school, we regularly commemorate certain anniversaries. One of them is Book Night (Noć knjige), which we celebrate in the afternoon hours, when there are no classes, with workshops attended by interested students, their parents/guardians, and members of the local community. Book Night is an event initiated in 2012 to promote the culture of reading and appreciation of books. The occasion for this event is provided by World Book and Copyright Day (April 23) and Croatian Book Day (April 22). My love for reading and books is immense. That’s why I always participate in the celebration of Book Night at school as the leader of one of the workshops that focus on works, their creators, and readers.

The theme of Book Night 2024 was “When the prism is cataclysm: books for challenging times.” Through this theme, among other things, we wanted to explore how we as readers cope with challenging times, in what literature we find comfort and motivation for change, what answers literature and science offer us to contemporary threats, how we can, thanks to what we read in books, change ourselves, and then the outcomes ahead of us.

Planning the scenario of the workshop, I found the desired path in the learning scenario Stories on the move – mobile and outdoor storytelling by Daniela Skokovic. I adapted the implementation of the learning scenario to the age range of the students I worked with preparing the workshop, the theme of this year’s Book Night, and the planned goal – seeking answers to the questions in focus.

I conducted the implementation, during 4 school hours (3 school hours for preparing workshops with students and one school hour designated for celebrating Book Night for all interested participants).

In the implementation, interested students from the fifth to the eighth grade (11-14 yo) participated in preparing a workshop (there were 8 of them).

Introduction

We decide

I began the introductory part by presenting a quote from The Lord of the Rings on the smartboard: “It is up to us to decide what to do with the time that is given to us.” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring).

I read the quote to the students and asked them what they thought the quote meant. After a brief brainstorming session, we concluded together that the only thing we truly decide is what we do with the time we have available. To prompt reflection on this conclusion, I asked the students: what do you want to achieve in your life / what do you think is the meaning of your life?

Most of the students had watched or read The Lord of the Rings, and I assumed they would recognize the quote. I checked if they recognized it and how many of them had read the book/books or watched the movie, and then invited the students to think and share why they liked or disliked that story. I asked the students to reflect and share their opinions on whether this story provides examples of the challenges we face in the contemporary world and whether it offers answers and solutions to these challenges.

Books Connect Us

I conducted this activity at the very beginning to create cohesion within a group composed of students from different grades and ages, including both regular students and students from a special needs class.

I asked the students to think about the books they had read and to write down the titles and authors that had impressed them on sticky notes. Each student was given a different color of paper.

We briefly analyzed everything the students wrote on the sticky notes, looking for connections and grouping them in various ways: same titles, same genres, same authors, same themes. With each grouping, I encouraged the students who wrote the grouped sticky notes to discuss among themselves why they chose that title/genre/author/theme. The aim of this activity was for them to notice what connects them despite the differences that characterize them.

Then I introduced the topic we would be working on: Stories that inspire us for change.

Main part

In the first part of the original scenario, the author suggests exploring the history of storytelling and the development of oral narration, familiarizing oneself with various storytelling techniques with an emphasis on Kamishibai through photographs, discussing the human need for storytelling and stories in correlation with the availability of libraries, and finally, creating a mind map about the possibilities of mobile and outdoor libraries.

Three Questions About Stories

Aligned with our own needs, in this implementation, I focused more on stories itself. 

I asked the students the following questions:

1. Why does the author create a story?

2. What is the role of a story?

3. What do I gain from the story?

I divided the students into three groups and encouraged them to discuss and find answers to these questions. Afterwards, I asked the students to gather and invited them to collectively create a so-called “Problem Tree.” I prepared large sheets of paper and writing utensils in various colors and asked them to draw a tree where the roots would contain answers to the first question, the trunk answers to the second question, and the branches answers to the third question.

In Books Lies the Answer

Then I read the story “Mr. Peabody’s Apples” written by Madonna to the students. I chose this story because most of the students hadn’t heard it before, it isn’t too long, and it had a striking content that allowed for effective reflection on the theme of this year’s Book Night.

Afterwards, I checked if everyone understood the story and invited the students to reflect and leave their comments via Google Forms. I chose the specific digital tool to allow the students to remain anonymous and offer their own comments not influenced by others.

The questionnaire included these questions:

1. Why do you think the author wrote this story? (open-ended question)

2. Impulsiveness like Tommy’s is common today, rumors spread quickly, it’s easy to hurt someone without thinking (multiple choice grid: yes, no, I am not sure)

3. The teacher reacted well by showing Tommy what he had done, the teacher shouldn’t have reacted at all, the teacher should have told the parents how they would react (multiple choice)

4. What is the role of this story? (open-ended question).

Responses show that students have thought carefully about this specific story, as well as the role of stories in general. Some of the responses to the first question, “Why do you think the author wrote this story?” include: because she wanted to show people the consequences through the story, because she wants to teach people, to demonstrate how one can hurt someone needlessly by not verifying what we have seen or heard, because she believes it’s important for everyone to hear, and other responses. For the second and third questions, all students answered similarly: thoughtlessness is common today, rumors spread quickly, it’s easy to hurt someone without thinking, and the teacher acted well by showing Tommy what he had done. On the fourth question, “What is the role of this story?” students responded: to teach us and understand what is good and what is not, to teach us to think, to teach us that nothing is as it seems, and similar answers.

When the students finished filling out the questionnaire, I presented the answers on the smartboard, we reviewed what they had written, and concluded that everyone experiences the story in their own way, draws from it what they need, and how we all change as we read.

What is storytelling?

I introduced the students to the concept of storytelling through a short video that I prepared using materials from the Europeana platform.

I announced that for the purpose of marking the Book Night workshop, we will create a story path for participants, offering excerpts of stories or complete stories in line with the challenges of the times we live in.

Book Night’s Story path

I directed the students on how we would create a story path in the city park next to our school. We envisioned the story path in a way that each student would choose an excerpt from a book that means something to them. I emphasized that they should pay attention to the meaning of the story – that it has a beginning and an end of the plot, that it should be applicable in the modern world, and encourage change.

For this purpose, I created a template in the digital tool Genial.ly. The students recorded the excerpt into the template and recorded themselves reading it. This way, we enabled the participants of Book Night to read and/or listen. Along with the text and audio recording, we inserted a link to a Padlet. We invited participants to create their own interpretation of the story using the AI function “I can’t draw” in Padlet through the link. We combined everything with a QR code that we printed on stickers and placed in the park.

We chose Padlet because it is easy to use, it doesn’t require signing in and allows for setting desired fields. Additionally, it supports the Croatian language to some extent which was needed for interaction with participants.

Example of content hidden behind a QR code:

The aim of this activity was to demonstrate and raise awareness of how a story affects everyone differently and how we create interpretations and possibilities that we will take from the story.

In the original scenario, the author connects oral storytelling face to face with drawings, while in my implementation, I focused on creating a digital story path in the park to celebrate the Book Night.

Finally, I asked the students to create a promotional poster together for the Books Night workshop, which we will print and display in the school lobby. The celebration of the Night of Books in our school involves interested teachers and staff members designing workshops, and participants choose which workshops to attend. For this purpose, we needed a poster.

Final Part

Evaluation

In the original scenario, the author anticipates connecting all participants via video conference and a Kahoot quiz.

I opted for an assessment scale for students who participated in creating the workshop. The assessment scale can be a very useful tool for objectively evaluating students. With this implementation, I wanted to raise awareness of stories as a response to the challenges of the time we live in and as stimuli for change within us and around us. That’s why I created a success scale with the goals of assessing the following elements:

• the adequacy of selected stories and their presentation in a digital tool,
• the skill of selecting a story encompassed criteria such as the coherence of the story (the story has a beginning and an end) and the relevance of the story (the story can be related to the challenges of the contemporary world),
• the presentation in a digital tool related to the skill of writing and reading.

The goal of the evaluation is to assess their work, thereby encouraging them to achieve the outcomes of the interdisciplinary themes Learning to Learn and Personal and Social Development.

An assessment scale:

The presentation accompanying the implementation can be found here: https://sway.cloud.microsoft/NdO9p7A1VjwmAcDk?ref=Link

Outcomes

Outcomes for students

By implementing the scenario, students:

• become aware of storytelling as an art and a way to enrich our lives
• recognize storytelling as inspiration for change
• recognize storytelling as a response to the times we live in
• learn storytelling techniques and the advantages of digital storytelling
• enrich vocabulary and practice reading
• develop digital literacy
• participate in creating events at the school and local level
• reflect on stories that connect us and the sense of unity we create through stories
• reflect on different perceptions arising from the same stories

Usefulness of Europeana platform for educators

For me as a teacher, the Europeana platform is an inexhaustible source of (photo, audio, video, and textual) materials, as well as learning scenarios, which I can use in my work with students. I am a great enthusiast of both material and immaterial heritage, and the Europeana platform goes hand in hand with my classroom work.

During the first two (out of four) years of teaching geography (fifth and sixth grade), I guide students through Europeana’s content and prepare them for independent use in higher grades. I often use sources from Europeana in individual activities but also in the development of entire teaching scenarios. Alongside the Europeana platform, various activities organized by Europeana serve as a significant source of ideas for me – each one usually contains at least one potential idea that I can incorporate into my work.

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is my favorite method of work, and I frequently implement it because I believe that continuously developing a particular topic and taking an interdisciplinary approach to it best cultivates the skills necessary for the successful future of our children and students.

Link to the learning scenario implemented: Stories on the move – mobile and outdoor storytelling (LS-ME-735) – Teaching With Europeana (eun.org)

Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.

CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Finnish Heritage Agency.