Kindergarten Story Plays and the Power of Partnering

QUESTION AND LEARNING GOAL

Children are natural storytellers, but most 5 year olds have very limited skills in writing mechanics. I created Story Play Time because I wanted my students to see themselves as authors, with rich and complex stories worth hearing and reading.

How could planning, drawing and acting out Story Plays with a partner support my students’ oral language and story writing skills?

My goal was for them to develop stronger narratives and to work collaboratively in strategic partnerships to strengthen their oral language and storytelling skills.

My focal students were a paired, hoping their strengths would complement each other’s challenge areas:

·         Azucena, high literacy skills but often stuck for ideas, repeated rainbows, sunshine

·         Destiny, ELL with elaborate ideas, but little structure and often confusing stories 

DATA AND INDICATORS OF SUCCESS

While Azucena and Destiny have been creating crocodiles, castles and magic wands--experimenting with what makes a good story--I have been collecting data:

·         Product: story play drawings and dictation

·         Process: video recordings and transcripts of their collaboration 

·         Meta-cognitive: video-taped class discussions: “Where do your stories come from?” and "What makes a good story?" (how they think about what they do)

I wanted to see a move from rainbows and strings of ideas to:

·         structured narratives with beginning, middle, and end, char, setting, problem, solution (product indicator)

·         engage in a collaborative process in which they share ideas, take turns, build off each other’s ideas to create a stronger story (process indicator)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DATA 

In early October:

·         product/content: story plan is a list of things to put in the picture: sharks, princess, water ; dictation is confusing, disjointed story,

·         process: Destiny dominates, not sharing or listening to her partner, Azucena reluctant, draws but talks little; both revert back to rainstorms and rainbows when they run into conflict or run out of ideas

This is a little shark and this is a ocean and the princess is walking through the ocean and she says, “I don’t have no dad or mom,” and then the shark eats the princess and there’s a sun and there was a boat and they saved the princess. (D) This is some sun and some ocean and these are sharks and some rain pouring down and (A) two rainbows (D). The princess dies and after that she’s alive again because the shark spits her out (A).

By late November:

·         partnership is more collaborative with both listening to each other talk, watching each other draw, and building off of each other’s ideas

·         story content is stronger with clear beginning, middle, end and elements of character, setting, problem, solution (but still lack a depth of detail and storybook language)

	Azucena	Destiny	Notes
PLAN	There was a fire and this fairy appeared and washed it out.		Azucena began with a problem that got quickly solved
		There was a boy, and then the boy died of Kindergarten [?] and the name was Ravin and that was cool... and then they taked them to the police. I mean to the fire station. And there was a fairy inside and then sh-- and then they magic-ed him to do--back into a people, right?	Destiny built upon the fairy and fire elements of Azucena's plan and elaborated on the problem with a new character, Ravin
DRAW		There was a fire station and there was a boy and there was a police and the boy got lost. And then the fireman found the boy [?] (and this whole big--) and then the boy was alive.	Azucena drew the characters and setting Destiny had planned. Destiny watched Azucena drawing the fire station and a sun and began to tell the story, with the added detail of the boy getting lost. She continued narrating as Azucena drew the boy and the fireman.
DICTATE	This little boy goes in lava. There's a person named Ravin and there's these firemens and this little boy dies. But then this fairy comes and he makes the boy back into a person. That's all.		Azucena’s original plan was a fire washed out by a fairy, but her final dictation includes Destiny’s  ideas about character Ravin who dies in the fire and is brought back to life by the fairy.

FINAL THOUGHTS

When someone comes into a Kindergarten classroom and sees children “just drawing pictures” or “just talking and playing around,” this data shows that they are actually engaged in meaningful learning.

Through Story Plays--when they have opportunities to work with a partner, talk and draw together, then see their story play acted out--they are exploring and experimenting with what makes a good story and developing important oral language skills that are the foundation for reading and writing.