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New Storypaths
Kindergarten
Solving Problems in the
Park: Developing Yourg Citizens
A
Nation Divided (Civil War)
Coming Fall 2012...
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What
Is Storypath?
Storypath
offers both a structure for organizing the social studies
curriculum and an instructional strategy for teaching.
The structure is a familiar one: the story. The strategy
is grounded in a belief that children learn best when
they are active participants in their own learning,
and places students’ own efforts to understand
at the center of the educational enterprise. Together,
the structure and the teaching strategy ensure that
students feel strongly motivated and have meaningful
and memorable learning experiences.
Originally
developed in Scotland during the 1960s, Storypath draws
support from decades of experience with teachers and
students. The approach has its roots in these beliefs
about children and learning:
- The
world is complex and presents many layers of information.
Children know a good deal about how the world works.
- Children
have a reservoir of knowledge that is often untapped
in classroom settings.
- When
children build on that knowledge through activities
such as questioning, investigating, and researching,
new understandings are acquired.
- Problem
solving is a natural and powerful human endeavor.
When children are engaged in problem-solving, they
take ownership for their learning.
- The
story form integrates
literacy skills
to help children apply their learning in a meaningful
context to gain a deeper, more complex understanding
of major concepts.
- When
children construct their own knowledge and understanding
of their world, their learning is more meaningful
and memorable.
The
Story Structure
For
thousands of years, narrative text has helped us create
order and make connections between events. Storypath’s
narrative structure helps students understand concepts
that they often find difficult to comprehend in the
traditional social studies curriculum.
Each
Storypath unit centers on a unique and engaging story
that provides a concrete context to understanding the
social science content. This story may be based on actual
historical events, as developed in the Struggle
for Independence unit. Or the story might instead
be based on typical community or business structures,
as developed in the Families in Their Neighborhoods
unit or in the unit called Understanding the Marketplace:
The Toy Company. From all of these structures,
students develop a meaningful context for developing
understanding of the topic and applying the literacy
skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.
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Margit
E. McGuire
is the author of Storypath. She has piloted many of
the units herself in highly diverse classrooms primarily
in Seattle area. Additionally, she has worked with
many teachers in the USA, Canada, and Australia to
pilot the curriculum, and she acknowledges and thanks
them for their insights, expertise and enthusiasm
for Storypath.
Margit
is the Director of Teacher Education in the Master
in Teaching program at Seattle University. A past
president of the National Council for the Social Studies,
Margit strongly adovocates for the critical role of
social studies education in a democratic society.
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