Sherry Norfolk —Staff Development

Recent research has provided startling and encouraging new insights into how to develop proficient readers. In this workshop, we'll explore the research findings and how they can be applied in the home, at school and in the library, then create practical strategies for fostering a love of reading and helping kids develop the skills they need. This workshop is NOT about teaching kids to read. It IS about bringing kids and books together in meaningful ways. Be ready to think outside the box -- we all may need to accept some new roles and acquire some new skills in pursuit of that goal! ( 6 hours )

An introduction to storytelling and its interdisciplinary, cross-curricular applications. Through demonstrations, hands-on, highly interactive activities, and lively discussion, teachers will learn Why storytelling is important in the classroom ; How to choose or develop appropriate stories ; How to tell a story effectively ; How to use storytelling as a cross-curricular, interdisciplinary approach to learning. As a result of the class, students will be engaged in meaningful, low-stress, instruction which integrates the curriculum while enhancing language skills and critical thinking skills. Participants will each select a story and prepare and present a cross-curricular plan using that story.  ( 10 contact hours )

*Please note: a 16-hour class which integrates the two workshops listed above is also available.

Course Description:

Storytelling is an effective way to help children transition from oral/kinesthetic to written language. In this workshop, teachers will be introduced to the use of time-tested folktale frameworks that get kids writing fluently, applying higher-order thinking skill to create and develop their stories. Participants will also be introduced to kinesthetic and oral activities that help children translate their ideas into clear narratives, and to begin to understand the relationship between the written and spoken word. Student-centered instruction: These techniques provide multiple modalities to enable children to move naturally from oral/kinesthetic to written language, and have fun as they succeed in the process!

Course Objectives/Strategies:

Through demonstrations, interactive instructional models and lively discussion, this workshop will provide an introduction to the principles of oral/kinesthetic translation plus an in-depth exploration of applications at specific grade levels.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Participants will select and implement a grade-appropriate lesson plan and use a provided rubric to assess results. (6 contact hours)

Course Description:

Teachers will learn how the precepts of brain-based educational research can be applied easily and effectively through storytelling, thereby positively affecting test scores and competencies.

Student-centered instruction:

As a result of the class, students will be engaged in instruction that creates and extends meaningful locale systems which provide a matrix for learning and retaining information in all curriculum areas, and which is accessible to all learning styles and applicable to multiple intelligences.

Course Objectives/Strategies:

Through demonstrations, interactive instructional models and lively discussion, this training seminar will explore the ways in which storytelling and folktales can provide a meaningful matrix for learning which positively affects test scores and competencies. Participants learn: basic precepts of brain-based research; techniques for applying these precepts through storytelling; ways in which storytelling can help children achieve their learning objectives; ways to use storytelling as an assessment tool for critical thinking skills.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Participants will each select a story and prepare and present a lesson plan using that story, together with a rubric or other assessment tool. Instructor and peer feedback. (10 contact hours)

Course Description:

Led by the co-author of The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum (Libraries Unlimited 2006), this workshops provides a hands-on introduction to the art and its magical ability to engage students in learning. By its nature, storytelling is experiential, engaging, and involving. More classroom teachers are discovering what storytellers have always known: that storytelling can be the springboard for curriculum integration because one need not be limited to the confines of the language arts. Activities from storytelling can span and thereby aid in integrating the entire curriculum. Storytelling nurtures both the imaginative and analytical sides of a student’s brain. “The Storytelling Classroom” is an introduction to this artform and its interdisciplinary, crosscurricular applications.

Student-centered instruction:

As a result of the class, students will be engaged in meaningful, low-stress, instruction which integrates the curriculum while enhancing language skills and critical thinking skills.

Course Objectives/Strategies:

Through demonstrations, hands-on, highly interactive activities, and lively discussion, teachers will learn the Why storytelling is important in the classroom; How to choose or develop appropriate stories; How to tell a story effectively; How to use storytelling as a cross-curricular, interdisciplinary approach to learning.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Participants will each select a story and prepare and present a cross-curricular plan using that story. Instructor and peer feedback. (10 contact hours)

Please note: a 16-hour class which integrates the two workshops listed above is also available.

Course description:

Teachers will learn how meaningful, experiential character lessons can be taught effectively and non-didactically through storytelling; and, how to use storytelling to infuse character education throughout the curriculum.

Student-centered instruction:

As a result of the class, students will be engaged in character education instruction that is meaningful and non-confrontational, and which is accessible to all learning styles and applicable to multiple intelligences.

Course Objectives/Strategies:

Through demonstrations, interactive instructional models and lively discussion, this training seminar will explore the ways in which storytelling and folktales can enliven and inform the character education classroom, thus awakening the “moral imagination.”

Participants learn:

• What Character Education is and how storytelling relates to it;
• How to choose and prepare folktales to help kids develop character traits such as caring, teamwork, respect, honesty and sharing;
• Sources of stories for character education;
• Quick-and-easy ways to learn a story to tell,
• How to use an instructional model which teaches these traits.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Participants will each select a story and prepare and present a character lesson plan using that story. Instructor and peer feedback. (10 contact hours)

Storytelling offers many ways for an English language student to improve speaking and listening skills. When students listen to stories, they become more proficient in understanding the spoken words, improving vocabulary and fluency. When students tell stories, they can achieve a significant measure of self-confidence and comfort expressing themselves in English. Participants will learn some stories that work successfully for this venture, discuss techniques to encourage students to participate and succeed, and explore extension activities that deepen meaning and help assess understanding. (2 – 4 contact hours)

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the cornerstones of literacy, and all four of these elements can be addressed through storytelling! Participants will explore activities that allow children to hear stories being told and to re-tell these stories in large groups, small groups and individually; then, we’ll discover ways to engage early learners in making meaning, understanding story structure, sequencing, understanding cause-and-effect, and developing active vocabulary. (2-6 contact hours)

Visual literacy (loosely defined as the ability to find meaning in imagery ranging from simple identification to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric and philosophical levels) and visual literacy skills (looking, seeing, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing) are necessary for reading.

Reading is pleasurable because of the images that roll through your head as you interact with the text. Your mind enlivened, you visualize, you infer, and you synthesize new information from the printed word. In teaching reading, we must aim to develop not only decoding skills, but more significantly mental pictures that encourage visualization, inference and synthesis; it is in the pictures you create in your mind that comprehension resides.

In this highly interactive workshop, we explore ways teachers can help students develop visual literacy skills and apply them through storytelling and story creation. Participate in lesson demonstrations for primary, elementary and middle school students that deepen understanding in both core curriculum and fine arts standards! (2-4 contact hours)

Storytelling belongs in an on-going and fundamental way in education. It allows teachers to teach Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science standards in holistic and meaningful ways. Storytelling teachers change the way teachers manage children and the way everyone speaks to each other; it's democratic; it's fun; it's whole; and it's very, very humane. In this fast-paced, hands-on workshop, we will explore how to put storytelling to work in your classroom to teach the standards, engage the students, and empower learning! (2-6 contact hours)

Teaching is more than covering content, learning is more than merely taking in, and assessment is more than accurate recall. Meaning must be made, and understanding must be earned. Students are more likely to make meaning and gain understanding when they link new information to prior knowledge, relate facts to “big ideas,” explore essential questions, and apply their learning in new contexts.

Where does arts integration fit in this process? By bringing the best practices of artists into the classroom as learning tools, students and teachers identify what quality work is and how to produce it in each subject area. Working together to craft meaning, teachers, artists and students become powerful partners in search of understanding. This workshop will provide strategies that empower teachers and artists to collaboratively design meaningful learning experiences for all students. Teachers will explore how integrating arts into education can help students:

• cultivate life-long habits of mind.
• foster deep and personal understandings of standards-based math, science, social studies, language arts and fine arts.
• develop powerfully articulate voices for expression.

(2-6 contact hours)

Course Description:

Teachers will learn effective methods for teaching students of all ages how to learn-and-re-tell or create-and-tell stories, thus improving both written and oral communication skills as well as impacting critical thinking skills, increasing poise and enhancing self-esteem, and learning to accept and appreciate the creative efforts of others.

Student-centered instruction:

As a result of the class, students will be successfully engaged in an artform which provides a meaningful context in which to expand their written and oral communication skills, improve their self esteem, and practice positive peer interaction.

Course Objectives and Strategies:

Demonstration, lecture and hands-on experiential exercises will be employed. Participants will learn Why to teach students to tell stories, How to employ a variety of tested methods to teach students how to create, learn and tell stories; How to coach student tellers; Sources for instructional support; and, How to integrate student storytelling into the curriculum; How to develop student telling as an extra-curricular activity.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Each participant will develop and partially demonstrate a 5-hour (one-week) lesson plan for teaching storytelling at their grade-level. (10 contact hours)

Course Description:

Recent research provides new insights and perspectives on the ways storytelling helps lay the best possible foundation for learning in the early childhood classroom. Participants will explore relevant research and its practical applications, engaging in demonstrations and discussions that put theory into practice. Participants will also learn how to tell stories with confidence and style! This fun-filled, fast-paced, hands-on workshop will bring out the natural storyteller in each person as they discover creative and effective ways to use voice, body language, gestures and facial expression to bring stories to life effectively for young listeners.

Student-centered instruction:

As a result of the class, children will be exposed to storysharing that is age-appropriate, engages all of the multiple intelligences, and builds language and comprehension skills while teaching them that books, reading and language are FUN!

Course Objectives and Strategies:

Demonstration, lecture and hands-on experiential exercises will be employed. Participants will learn why to tell stories, how to employ a variety of tested methods to tell effectively, sources for further information; and, where to find stories to tell.

Evaluation and Follow-up:

Each participant will develop and partially demonstrate a lesson plan using story in the curriculum. (6 contact hours)

You don’t see exactly what you need Sherry will be happy to work with you to develop a workshop that will meet your specific training needs.