By Prisca Martens, Ph.D., Towson University
EXPLORE in Storying Studio is a time when children play with ideas and concepts by getting inside of those ideas. They experiment with making meaning as authors and/or artists do, using drawing or concepts discussed in minilessons.
Children explore ideas and concepts in sketch books or on separate pieces of paper. First grade teacher Jenna Loomis creates Storying Studio folders for her students, which have two sections. In the Note Pad section, children explore ideas they learned from authors and in the Sketch Pad section they play with concepts they learned from artists. In Figure 1, Ally tries to integrate contrast into her writing, based on how Kate Messner (2014) uses contrast in Over and Under the Snow. On the right side of Figure 1, she explores having characters express emotions based on some of Mo Willems books.
After reading Sebastian’s Roller Skates (de Deu Prats, 2005), Michelle Doyle invited her first graders to explore the contrast in their feelings before and after they learned something by using collage think bubbles as the artist Francesc Rovira does. In the book, Rovira represents Sebastian’s thoughts and feelings before he learns to roller skate with black and white newspaper to show his lack of confidence and sadness. After he learns, Rovira represents Sebastian’s thoughts with colored paper to show his joy and self-assuredness.
While he explores, Ryan contrasts his thoughts and feelings with learning to ride a bike (see Figure 2). To represent how he felt “then” before he could ride, Ryan uses newspaper, and for “now” when he learns, he uses colored paper. Then Ryan wrote a story that reads, “One day I got a new bike. I tried to ride it. I fell off. Mom taught me how to ride my bike. It took a long long time! In a couple weeks I learned how to ride my bike! I was so happy! The End.”
During EXPLORE in Storying Studio, children freely try out ideas to develop a sense of the possibilities they hold for their own stories. They then integrate them as they STORY.
References
de Deu Prats, J. (2005). Sebastian’s roller skates. (Illus. F. Rovira). La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Messner, K. (2014). Over and under the snow. (Illus C.S. Neal). San Francisco, CA.
Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Check out our two online journals, WOW Review and WOW Stories, and keep up with WOW’s news and events.
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