The Story Quilt Project: A Classroom Curriculum

Reviewed By: Lacy Stahl (Bedell)

REVIEW

The Story Quilt Project: A Classroom Curriculum Review by Lacy Stahl (Bedell) http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~levans/FamilyRoom/StoryQuilt.htm The Story Quilt Project web site is a site designed to help teachers develop a curriculum for language arts using the processes of storytelling, writing, and quilting. This is a great site for novice teachers as well as teachers who are looking for new, fun ways to teach language arts. This web site will take teachers, students, and parents through the process of hearing a story, writing it, writing about it, and then telling it at a storytelling festival. Parents are involved because some of the stories may come from them. This builds family time and a sense of connection for those who participate. The Story Quilt Project site provides objectives, the process, and a week-by-week description of how the activity should take place. The site describes the process in detail. It also provides tips for parental involvement, from the beginning of the project to the end. The last part of the process is the schedules of activities, which are broken down by week. This site has an amazing amount of information and teachers will find that the activities will fit into any schedule. Linda Evans, who is with the English Department of Mesa Community College, put the Story Quilt Project web site together. The Maricopa County Community College District funds the site. Any comments or questions may be sent to Linda Evans care of Mesa Community College, whose address is listed. Although the site is without a “last updated” reference, all of its activities are centered on student learning with examples of how to connect to parents through this learning exercise. The site suggests that this unit could be cross-curricular or even expand into disciplines other than language arts. At the end of this site, there is a link for email to Linda Evans herself, who requests suggestions and ideas for the site! The Mesa Community College address is listed on the list for those who prefer snail mail. All suggested links are in the site. These links will take the viewer out of The Story Quilt site, but have links to go back. Any sites outside of The Story Quilt site have the creator’s name displayed. Careful credit is given within The Story Quilt site to those ideas that are not Ms. Evans’. The Story Quilt site is a great place for teachers and families to go to get good information on storytelling. Teachers will find great facts and interesting lesson plans that will not only teach about storytelling but also teach about how to BE a storyteller.