Building Bridges Through Storytelling: What Are Your Students' Stories?

Laura Grisso is currently serving as the Executive Director of Language and Cultural Services for Tulsa Public Schools.  In her current position, she works with the local schools and customs leaders to support the growing population of English Learners, immigrant students, and bilingual students around the metropolis. In this essay written for Colorín Colorado, she shares ii experiences that she had dorsum-to-back that fabricated her reflect on the power of personal storytelling and her students' experiences in the midst of polarizing conversations about topics such every bit immigration.

As an educator serving English language learner and immigrant students in our electric current political environment, I frequently find myself in conversations with people who may or may not share viewpoints similar to mine. I know the wonderful assets that my students bring to the classroom. I know how their families contribute to our community. Just sometimes I detect myself at a loss when I'm in a conversation with someone who does non know the amazing gifts of my students and families or who holds a different political view on the value of my students and families.

Challenging conversations during challenging times

Recently, a friend at church asked me "so what's really up with this immigration situation? Is it really every bit bad as they say?" My husband and I facilitate a table group at church and this question was brought up past a friend as we cleaned the table upward after a written report session. The question defenseless me off guard. The friend knew that my husband and I work in education serving English learner and immigrant students and their families. Merely notwithstanding information technology surprised me that he would inquire.

I looked at our friend and I said "Information technology's scary." Before I knew it, I had begun telling stories of the students and the families that have come up here. I told him of students and the villages or rural areas from which they came. I told him about the limited resources, like make clean, running water and electricity. I recalled the experience with a student who had just seen a stapler for the kickoff time in his classroom here. I spoke of the stories that students and families had shared regarding the violence they were escaping and the fears they had for their children if they stayed. "Every bit a parent, I have no incertitude what I would do to protect my children," I said.

What truly seemed to surprise my friend was when I shared with him the fears that our students have when they come to school if their parents are picked up by Ice before they render home. I explained that local customs organizations were offer gratis power of attorney clinics and that families were actually having to make emergency plans which is a burden children shouldn't have to bear. He said, "But don't the children get to go to the holding facility to say goodbye?" I told him that wasn't an option or a possibility. In almost cases, if a parent was picked up they would be moved speedily towards displacement and even more so with recent federal guidance. It was at that indicate that I saw a distressing and bewildered realization in the eyes of my friend. He truly did not know of the reality in which so many students and families now find themselves.

The power of pupil'south stories

A calendar week later I was observing in the classroom of ane of our outset year English language development teachers at a junior loftier. The teacher was very concerned for his newcomer students and situations they might find themselves in over the upcoming interruption. He worked with his school administration team and local resource to craft an informational lesson for seventh form newcomer students on what it means to be an immigrant, what it means to be undocumented, and what their legal rights are if they found themselves in a situation with Ice exterior of school. The classroom was full of diverse students, speaking French, Hmong, and Spanish. The teacher started the lesson with a free write practise. Students were free to write in whatever language they chose only the class discussion was in English. As students began to share their responses, I found myself surprised at the number of seventh form newcomer students who thought that "immigrant" and "undocumented" meant the aforementioned thing.

Every bit the instructor proceeded through the lesson, you could see every educatee following him and engaging in this topic so electric current and relevant to their lives. Four students then stood upward to share their stories with their peers. Each ane told a personal story, sharing details of a sick female parent who needed to come up across to get necessary medical care; riding in freight train cars for days; walking in the dessert under the moon; and non seeing his mother for viii months since she had been picked up as they crossed. Information technology was incredible to see the respect, understanding, and maturity demonstrated by the 23 seventh graders as they listened and shared. 7th graders aren't always known for their maturity and respect only these students shared a powerful knowing and understanding of their lives and their stories.

In reflecting on both of these situations, the one in which my friend at church building asked me about the reality of the immigration situation and the i in which these newcomer students and so freely and safely shared with and listened to their peers, I recognized the power of storytelling. These weren't fictional stories. These were existent-life stories. These stories weren't told to contend "for or against." These were just existent stories. These were lived experiences. These stories put a face and a reality on the immigration situation and conversations happening across classrooms, churches, offices, and the grocery store on a daily basis. Storytelling can be a powerful tool to engage in conversations with others who may not share your view indicate on hard issues.  Although I entered the chat with my friend with some trepidation as to how information technology might take been received, my stories wouldn't accept had that impact if I hadn't told them.

As educators we know our students and nosotros know their stories. It tin can be challenging and uncomfortable to enter conversations with those whom we disagree.  Yet information technology is more important at present than ever that we listen to our students' stories and that nosotros empower them to tell their stories – and that we tell them on their behalf when we can. Storytelling provides a style into those hard conversations and an opportunity to remind us of the common basis that we do share. And, when we observe ourselves being asked near our students' reality, nosotros must be prepared to share their stories so that our greater community understands what a disquisitional reality this is for all of us together.

Tips for helping ELLs tell their stories

Consider using a variety of kinds of activities for student storytelling: drawing, verse, digital storytelling, student essays, or in-depth activities tied to a larger unit of measurement. Hither are some related resource and suggestions.

Recommended Resource

• English Language Learners and the Power of Personal Stories by Larry Ferlazzo (The New York Times)
• Empowering ELLs With Digital Stories by Rusul Alrubail (Instruction Tolerance)
• Exploring Young Immigrant Stories (Teaching Tolerance)
• 6 Storytelling Apps That Go English Language Learners Talking by Erin Wilkey Oh (KQED MindShift)
• The Inner World of the Immigrant Kid by Cristina Igoa

Tips for the Classroom

• Go on in mind that remembering or sharing personal stories may be a difficult experience for students who have lived through traumatic events. Information technology may besides not be advisable culturally for students to share those memories with their classmates.  When you prepare for a unit of measurement or activity on personal writing, take a shut look at topic ideas. Are the topics appropriate for your students?  Are there whatever ruby flags?  Even a topic that has been successful in the past may not piece of work with a new grouping of students – particularly if you lot are teaching a group that includes ELLs as well as native English speakers. (This is another reason that getting to know your students and their experiences throughout the twelvemonth tin can help you programme the most constructive lessons for your students and avert potential pitfalls.) Note: To learn more about the dangerous weather that children may experience on their journy from Latin America to the U.S., run across this report from Buzzfeed.
• Present a range of topics when asking students to exercise personal writing, including some topics related to their lives today. For example,
  • Option A: Who is someone that y'all admired when y'all were a small child?
  • Choice B: Who is someone you admire today?

(This is comparable to thinking about creative approaches to units on family unit trees; kids who are adopted or who live in diverse family unit structures may not be able to complete a family genealogy assignment.)

• Explicate that students do not have to share their stories with anyone in the class – including you – and that you will respect their privacy.  If this activity is part of a graded assignment, suggest a different topic for a student who wishes not to share the writing with you. Encourage students to write for themselves, however, and explain that writing near a difficult event tin sometimes help a person understand it improve over fourth dimension.
• On the other mitt, some students may be willing to share their experiences with you as role of a private presentation or with classmates in pocket-size, breezy settings similar a grade discussion or a history or electric current events class.  Some students may even be willing to present in even larger, more formal settings like school assemblies or public events.
• For students who are open to information technology, personal stories can besides exist published in school newspapers or self-published books. In the "Saving Stories" project beneath, bilingual books written by refugee families are added to local libraries. ELL veteran teacher Susan Lafond writes, "I would do a yearbook projection at the end of the school yr, which was a form of a personal essay. It was a mandatory assignment with specific prompts, and students were graded using a rubric. Nosotros published that with each person'southward photo as well as a group photo and an shorthand page. Kids really treasured these 'books' and plant them more relevant than the school yearbook."
• Engineering science can also be an exciting tool. Run across more tips in the digital storytelling manufactures above equally you think about means to produce, present, illustrate, record, or share a version of the story that can be shared with classmates and family members - Susan notes that this can be a great showcase upshot for the stop of the twelvemonth.
• Arroyo the topic of personal storytelling with creativity then equally not to article of clothing out the theme. Larry Ferlazzo details ideas of engaging students as civic participants by studying the history of different immigrant groups in the U.Southward. and then connecting them to their own stories.  Teacher Betsy Hansel suggests a variation on the theme with topics such every bit "something you played with when you were younger" or "the worst food you ever tasted" in this annotate on a blog post on Pedagogy Week about the possibility of overdoing the personal story idea.
• Personal narrative writing can be an accessible style to introduce students to writing while still aligning assignments to higher- and career-gear up standards. In fact, many of the topics of the Common Application college essay focus on personal experiences.
• Personal writing tin can also be taught through poetry or other formats; Susan writes, "I had a book with poems/short stories  written past ELLs from many dissimilar countries. I would try to pick ones that I thought my students could identify with and then they felt safe and not alone. Having them write their own personal stories every bit a poem of shorts (haiku, bare verse, etc.) allowed me to weave ELA content into the lesson. We published this collection besides and also did a cookbook, which was a great way to make classrooms more culturally responsive. The difficult function was translating words for ingredients that we don't use in the U.Southward.!"
• Getting to know your students and their families is an important step to helping to meet their needs – both academic as well as social/emotional. Learn more from these tips on getting to know ELLs from Colorín Colorado.
• Think big! Mandy Manning, the 2022 National Teacher of the Year, took the opportunity to share a stack of her immigrant/refugee students' stories with the White House when she received her award.

Student Stories: Examples and Projects to Share

• The Syrian boy who wrote his life story – with the help of his Canadian teacher (The Guardian)
• I Larn America (documentary)
• Immigration Crackdown Fears Fuel Dubiety for Undocumented Students (PBS NewsHour)
• "Wake Me Upwardly" Official Music Video by Aloe Blacc
• Syrian children in Turkey heal through storytelling (PBS NewsHour)
• Students Serve Up Stories Of Beloved Family Recipes In A Global Cookbook Project (KQED Mind Shift)
• 'Saving Stories' preserves tales from refugees in Baldwin, Whitehall (Tribune-Review, PA)
• Students at Northwest D.C. Loftier School Gain Confidence Through Sharing Life Stories (WJLA)
• Students create story books for traumatized refugee children in Lebanon (Adventist Academy)
• Coming to America: Empowering ELLs to Write, Publish and Own Their Stories (Educational activity Channel)

Booklists

Laura Grisso is currently serving every bit the Director of English language Language Development for Tulsa Public Schools.  In her current position, she works with the local schools and community leaders to back up the growing population of English Learners, immigrant students, and bilingual students effectually the city. In Tulsa Public Schools, Grisso led the implementation of the first 1-way dual language classes in the state of Oklahoma. In November 2013, Grisso was inducted into the Oklahoma Bilingual Education Hall of Fame.  Grisso has also served as the National Liaison and Vice-President of the Oklahoma Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages association.  She earned a bachelor'southward caste in Elementary Instruction from Northeastern State University, a principal'southward caste in Educational activity English language as a Second Language from Oklahoma State University, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Educational Leadership through Liberty University.

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Source: https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/building-bridges-through-storytelling-what-are-your-students-stories

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