The Storyline begins with images of three World Cup soccer players appearing on the classroom frieze. In speech bubbles they invite students to learn about the World Cup, become soccer fans, and gather more young fans to support the teams.

“Young fans are needed!” Christian Pulisic

“Learn all about the World Cup!”  Alphonso Davies

“Spread the word!” Edson Alavarez

In the process of becoming fans, students learn about the athletes and the countries they represent. Students explore soccer books and videos. They create a soccer field setting on the frieze, fill it with soccer players, study soccer basics, and learn about The World Cup.

The teacher sets up soccer drills for students to perform as they enter or leave class each day.

Ready now to become fans, students create fan characters and place them on the frieze. The new soccer fans brainstorm how to be positive supporters of their teams and the opposing teams. They plan cheers, props, dances, etc. for game days.

The teacher, in character as a referee, explains her job to the fans. Teacher and student initiated incidents begin to occur on the soccer field. The referee introduces the incidents and the fans analyze the problems, share their opinions, and predict outcomes.

Soccer fans are invited to a Mini-World Cup Tournament to participate as a player and as a fan.

They discuss good sportsmanship and work to demonstrate it at the tournament.

Soccer fans consider the value and importance of fan support as they design a way to spread the word and encourage other young people to also become fans. They break into groups to share all they have learned about soccer and the World Cup. They share the excitement of soccer with their peers as they work to gather more young fans.

Students reflect on what they have learned and share what being a soccer fan and a soccer player has taught them. They acknowledge the value of sports fans and recognize the importance of sporting events that bring the world together, generating mutual respect and building friendships.

The ten ELP standards are woven into the Storyline and are featured in writing, speaking, process drama, research, vocabulary work, discussions, written claims, problem solving, predicting, etc.

*This Storyline was written by Colleen Vallerga.

The teacher opens the Storyline as she reads She Heard the Birds by Andrea D’Aquino. Students are introduced to the famous birdwatcher, Florence Merriam Bailey. They learn about Florence’s life, her love of birds and her activism.

Students are invited to become birdwatchers like Florence. They create birdwatcher characters and consider what it means to be a birdwatcher.

The new birdwatchers embark on an in-depth study of birds and begin to collect bird artifacts. 

Completed bird information is organized on the frieze. Artifacts collected, student writings, photographs, etc. are added as the Storyline progresses.

They imagine what a day would be like from the point of view of a bird through drama and writing. 

Birdwatchers practice watching local birds at home, at school, and in the community. 

Challenges that birds face (incidents) are introduced through bird stories. Students respond to the incidents through discussion, research, drama, and writing. Local bird rescue volunteers share their knowledge and services.

As the Storyline progresses, students become not only birdwatchers but bird experts and activists. They share their new knowledge, expanding and enriching the frieze to create a bird museum. Buddy classes and parents are invited to tour the museum.

We had a blast in ELD this winter with a new Storyline based on the book: The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination by Brad Montague. The students participated in the story first as figment characters and then shared their own stories/ideas/dreams at the end. It included paragraph writing, research, drama, art and FUN! I’m planning to officially write it into a Storyline over the summer. Stay tuned!

*This Storyline was integrated in with our ELD unit on Changemakers.

This Storyline was about immersive, cross-curricular learning. Students engaged deeply in the story through math (budgeting, fractions, measurement), literacy (writing advertisements, creating signs, researching) and social-emotional skills (teamwork, empathy, conflict resolution). By anchoring lessons in a meaningful, shared story, students stayed motivated and invested from start to finish. Oregon’s ELP standards were integrated into this Storyline.

We just finished a Storyline about Crater Lake. The students became junior rangers and learned all about our only national park in Oregon. Many incidents happened, including trash left in the park, an invasion of Mountain Pine Beetles and a small forest fire. The students responded in role as their ranger characters to research solutions. The highlight for the students at the end of the Storyline was to receive their very own junior ranger badges and a personal note from Ranger Kate (see pictures below)! All 10 ELP standards were integrated into this Storyline.

“Rewilding is a progressive approach to conservation. It’s about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repairing damaged ecosystems, and restoring degraded landscapes. Through rewilding, wildlife’s natural rhythms create wilder, more biodiverse habitats. Rewilding is about: nature’s own ways, bringing back wildlife, ensuring wellbeing, delivering for the future.” -Rewilding Europe

Here are some photos from our rewilding Storyline this spring. Students rewilded a fictitious city in the Storyline as gardener characters. As our culminating project, we rewilded part of our school campus by creating a native plant pollinator garden.

The International Storyline Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden this March was done in a hybrid format. Therefore, many of the recordings of the presentations are available online. This is a great opportunity for some Storyline professional development without having to travel! Here’s the link:

https://storyline.education/events/conference-in-gothenburg-1

As I’ve mentioned before, Storyline is a great fit for Oregon’s English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards. Below are examples of ELP standard 4: construct grade- appropriate oral and written claims and support them with reasoning and evidence. The students were helping the main character in the book, Wesley, to sell his sunscreen/mosquito repellent. For more information about this Storyline in general you can take a look at my original blog post about it.

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This Storyline is based on the book, Old Rock (is not boring) by Deb Pilutti. It’s about a rock named Old Rock and his adventures through time. The students created rock characters and experienced the same events as Old Rock: blasting out of a volcano, observing lumbering dinosaurs, being frozen in a glacier and getting sat on by a mastodon. We were able to incorporate a lot research, discussion, presenting and even drama activities into this Storyline. We were visited by a geologist to help us with our rock research. Additionally, we were able to explore the geology of Central Oregon through a series of virtual field trips. All 10 of Oregon’s ELP standards were incorporated into this Storyline. *This Storyline was written by Colleen Vallerga. I adapted it for ELD and virtual learning.