Storytelling and Writing Connection
Imagine a roomful of students listening with rapt attention to a story about their class studies. Imagine students using their knowledge to create their own original stories. Imagine students eager to write.
Joy Steiner has seen all of this first hand. She knows the power of storytelling to make writing easier and exciting.
Joy Steiner’s method of connecting storytelling and writing is part improvisation, part mind exercise. She uses the senses and memory to help students form vivid pictures of story settings and characters in their imaginations. Joy walks the talk. She creates an original story based on the class study topic. Joy’s tale becomes a role model for the task she asks of students.
The possibilities for integration are endless. Using this writing technique, Joy helps students devise stories on topics such as the life cycle of a plant or insect, the adventures of Lewis and Clark, life on the Oregon Trail, a journey inside the human body or inside a brown bear’s den. Students brainstorm the facts they know, and call upon their higher level thinking to create an informed, believable story.
Joy is an amazing listener still in touch with the child’s sense of wonder and inquiry. She has a gift for encouragement and a playful attitude.
“The children... really felt successful making their own story because she had a way of making all the ideas so right!” - Amy Cizmich, teacher and librarian
- Problem and solution in every story
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