Taline Ketenjian, an English Language Arts Teacher at the Multicultural Learning Center in Canoga Park, California, used Story Xperiential as part of her Narrative Writing Unit for one of her eighth grade classes. Taline wanted to share her experience and process with other teachers who join Story Xperiential with their classes.
How did you utilize Story Xperiential in your classroom?
At the Multicultural Learning Center, my eighth grade students spent eight weeks crafting their own stories through the Story Xperiential program. As an ELA teacher, I used this program as part of my Narrative Writing Unit. Instead of crafting a 5-paragraph narrative, students wrote their own stories through Story Xperiential. We worked on one step of the program per week, and I broke down each part into daily tasks.
For example, the weekly schedule looked something like this:
Every Monday, each student will watch and post feedback to 3 other teams’ submissions.
Tuesdays-Thursdays were used to complete the steps online, watch the videos, sketch drawings, and write their story.
Every Friday, a deliverable/step is due.
My first step was to break students into teams of 3 to 4 students. Each student was responsible to contribute to EACH PART of the creation process, in addition to completing the tasks within their own roles:
Leader/Facilitator
Main Artist
Main Writer
Main Editor
Once students were split into groups and decided on their roles, students spent time brainstorming and outlining their story. They worked on crafting their protagonist, diving into character motivation and intention, and sketching the appearance of their character.
My artistic students absolutely loved this project – they loved that their story was their own, that their characters were their own, that the result was their own. For my non-artistic students, this program led to some challenges, but being in a small group with distinct roles helped.
For teachers running this program for the first time, especially in a middle school classroom, I highly recommend you break down each step and assign daily tasks. This will help them stay on task and use their time wisely. It may be helpful to make a calendar for them with due dates for each step! I also recommend that you give students freedom in choosing their groups – this might prevent tension between the students and allow for a more creative workflow!
Here’s an example of Taline's calendar:
Taline Ketenjian
English Language Arts Teacher
Multicultural Learning Center