We Are a Story: Community Storytelling Amidst and Among Standards

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Social and Cultural Contexts in Education (Table 12)

Abstract

What does it mean to grow literacies through play? How might we frame writing and reading as essential forms of expression in the lives of young children? This narrative study examines these questions through the storying of one PreKindergarten classroom, and the longitudinal unfolding of stories in their school experiences. We examine an orientation toward and through the children from which reading and writing emerge. We frame children as authors, highlighting intersectional identities, igniting children’s need for academic skills, and building communities of story. In a time of increased pressure of skills and standards, this paper orients reading and writing through the vitality of children’s play, as essential tools through which they express individual and collective stories to the world

Authors

• Cristina Gillanders, University of Colorado - Denver

• Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham Browne and Nichols School