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Prescott Elementary School is a 100 percent free and reduced-lunch school, which means that 100 percent of our families experience poverty. Our preschool operates a needs-based enrollment system. The families, which have no other options for preschool, speak more than fourteen different languages.
I see story workshop as an equity piece and a culturally responsive practice—looking at it as support for our students who are super diverse, who speak zero English. They come in from all sorts of different cultures, and I see it as this opportunity to give them space to get the message, “Your ideas are important, your ideas matter, and you don’t have to read in English or write in English to be able to share them and for them to have value here.” Of course, all of the literacy learning is embedded into our big thinking, but I think it’s the social-emotional growth within each child, of recognizing “I have ideas, my friends have ideas, and sometimes my friends’ ideas inspire my ideas. What I have to say is important. And what my friends have to say is important” that is so valuable.
This year everything in our classroom that has a sensory component is high-interest for our group, possibly because a lot of them have experienced trauma. Having a sensory component lowers anxiety and helps them get grounded into the work. I’ve found I need to have a variety of spaces. I need to have spaces where one person can work alone if that’s what they’re feeling like they need. I also need a space where partners can go, or a space where there can be big, louder activities, like the big block area or the dramatic play space.
As a new group is figuring out how to manage their choices, and I’m observing them, I try to think of every action as giving us more information. So, if a child is dumping loose parts everywhere (and this has happened), I think they are probably craving more sensory opportunities in the room. That’s something I can do to support them; it’s a change I can make in the environment, instead of demanding the child to change.
I have to come back to the equity piece. I’ve noticed with anyone—it doesn’t matter if they’re older or younger, or an English speaker or a non-English speaker, or they are nonverbal and they have an ISSP, or experience disabilities of other kinds—story workshop offers a way that everyone can share their love of stories together. It builds a stronger community. It allows us to see that we all have agency—we all have ideas that matter, and we find out that sharing them is fun, exciting, and so important. These are experiences that everyone has a right to.
To learn more about Story Workshop visit Heinemann.com.
A teacher for 25 years, Susan Harris MacKay most recently served as Pedagogical Director at Opal School in Portland, Oregon, where the idea of story workshop began in her classroom. As a national speaker, she has inspired thousands of teachers to expand their use of play, the arts, and inquiry to support children’s rights to high quality educational environments upon which our democracy depends. Follow Susan on Twitter @sharrismackay.