Story walks are go, go ,go!

Next week is the launch of the Storywalks authored by Norton St Philips school between Bath and Frome. It has been an amazing collaboration with Claire Vowell who applied to the Shine Trust for the initial grant. The specific task was to see if geo-locating text would lift literacy and learning with their pupils. With only a single term to field test and gather the data the initial results have been very positive.

The project was primarily focused towards boys reading, by empowering them with the skills to geolocate their own words in locations outside the classroom. A term on and we reviewed this question again, asking in plain English has it helped the fidgety boys read and write more? The answer is simply yes.

On the first day just after the first storywalk.

But what about the girls, have they been left behind, has the gap closed between those of a similar age, or have they engaged in exactly the same way? Have they been swept along with the joy of reading and writing, hiding and seeking just like their male peers. Well again the answer is yes, they have all lifted their abilities and key literacy skills across the board.

Towards the end of last term Mrs Vowell said to me 'I've just had one boy ask if he can use the other side of the paper he was writing on!' Why of course, she replied, a little dumbstruck as normally a single sentence was all this pupil would deliver and now he wanted to write more, and this is just one example of many.

The Sun Dial, a point of reference in the Church yard at Norton St Philip.
Note - we walked passed it again and again, seeing, but not really seeing it,
then one of the pupils pointed it out and suggested this is where this chapter should be located. 

So what has given these pupils their reading wings, surely its not all down to geolocating words?

No I don't think the storywalks concept is the single magic bullet, its integration into current good teaching practice is essential and in the simplest terms perhaps all storywalks have done is assimilated a literacy activity into a more physical context. The same core literacy work is still being completed with a heap of other ones too, mapping, uploading images, taking photographs, filing, sequencing, etc. The skills required for the pupils to achieve this does take some time, but the strength of the system is simplicity, and if 6 year olds can master it then that's testament to its ease of use.

Inputting the story to the Storywalk engine

Having extra help in the classroom and balancing the teacher pupil ratio will undoubtedly help, but one key to this in my opinion is the physical, the raising of the heart beat and throwing off the twitches during learning. At one point we were revealing the pupils own stories on the Mead, (Norton St Philips village green and cricket square,) and I was delighted to see the pupils running with their tablets, eager to reveal their own stories and text.

To the next chapter!

Last term in my mind was just the beginning, I have learnt so much riding shot gun with Mrs Vowell and her team, but there is so much more that can be done. How do we improve what we have created, what worked, what faltered, what are the short cuts and where can we go from here. 

Holly the Hare, part of a storywalk written by the pupils.

Some of these you can plan, others need further flying time, for example on my last day we tested their 'epic trail' (their words) 'The Weaver of Norton'. Towards the end I witnessed pupils acting their story as it was read out loud, and we had been walking for a good hour and a half by this point so I expected the final chapters to be more of a dash to completion, but if anything they were getting more involved and taking longer.

Dragon Head Stone - the Dinosaur story, part of
The Weaver of Norton trail

In short I am incredibly proud of the achievements made by the pupils and staff at Norton St Philips school, next week on Tuesday 14th we will have 'The launch event', press at 11.00 and schools at 1.30. I've ironed the bunting and pressed my shirt, I've rehearsed a few words to say but stage two is now in our sight. We need other schools to see what we are doing and also want a piece of this, to bring me and Claire in to fire up literacy in their schools, to invest in tech which can reveal their pupils words. (Not just 3G iPad mini's, the Nexus 7 by google is brilliant at this too and half the price!)

I am sure phase two will set some new challenges, new locations and new opportunities, but in the mean time, see you on Tuesday.

Get in touch with me at http://storywalks.info

Norton St Philips and Storywalks

I have been working over the last month with Norton St Philips school near Bath, on a project to digitally install interactive trails around their village, as part of a project funded by The Shine Trust. This is designed to lift literacy, learning and attainment within their year groups 2, 3, and 4.  

So yesterday was my third day with the school, and it started with telling a story to get their creative juices flowing. We then moved on to creating simple story walks, mapping locations, writing chapters, and understanding where they are on the google map. Now who can put a finger on the school roof?

We always plan each session in advance, but with a pioneering project there are times when we need to respond on the fly by segmenting or tagging a task differently. I feel I have so much to learn from the professional educators at the school, how to effectively respond to the spectrum of learning styles and capabilities in the class and keep it all on an even keel, whilst still making overall progress is tricky. But I did feel chuffed yesterday, when the room was a hush with just pencils on paper, and everyone was immersed in their tale.

So we are creating the story trail together, of which the pupils are designing, writing and mapping, and in that process cover plenty learning goals. In fact Mrs Vowell said 'On day two we pretty much covered the whole of the ICT curriculum, not to mention the literacy and team leader skills as well. ' 

So what are the current successes?

Well, on the first day we went out onto the Mead, which is a beautiful cricket pitch and play park in simple and safe walking distance from the school. I had prepared a tale where story walkers had to choose a leaf for 'Winning the Forest King's Honour', but to do this they had to take their leaf to see the Forest Kings Judges.

These were digitally placed all around the Mead field and they then journeyed around these chapters visiting the characters. Spider liked soft curly leaves, whilst Moth liked ones which she could see through, each child took it in turn to read the story on the iPads as the tale triggered. One child who will not read in class, nor at home, and not even to the class room assistant, amazingly read out loud to the group from the iPad, brilliant.

On the second day, we had a full on day of literacy where the pupils created their own tales which we then tested in the afternoon. Putting their text into a dynamic environment, seems to sharpen their expectations, their words are instantly live which puts the pressure on. But I like to remind people it is still text, still written words just parcelled up differently and then hidden, and of course everyone loves a secret, so they have to hunt them out to reveal.

This mix of old style reading and writing, coupled with the the ability to geo locate, brings in so many more skills which the pupils seem to relish in it, forgetting that they are doing the tough stuff of everyday learning.

Yesterday we started building four full walks, authored by the pupils themselves, and building further on the Forest Tree King tale, and we got some stunning writing. Here is an example, imagine you are holding your smart phone (or 3G iPad) and you walk across the Mead to the Pavilion, at about twenty paces short, the text below reveals and you can read.

Congratulations, you have found Buzz the Bee. She is yellow and black and has a deadly sting. Buzz has had a hard time sleeping lately because of all the leaves rustling around. She has searched all over the mead for a leaf that has the most colours on. Now you have come along she has a better chance of finding the leaf that she wants. But Buzz is usually out with her friends so you must count to three and then all together say bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Then you will have summoned Buzz, lay your leaves on the path and whoevers leaf has the most colours on will not only win a point but will win her heart. 

Brilliant, and this is just one little nugget, over the next three sessions, we will take and add images, choose locations for their characters, walk, test, and test each others again. Each time we will be reading and writing, using creative thought processes, team building, navigating through maps and new software (storywalk engine), and having a lot of fun. Perhaps we have found a way to sugar the pill a little, it's too early to tell but we are tracking the students progress, and each day feels like a rosette of achievements. 

We are also mindful though of the staff heavy sessions, and the additional tech the grant has provided. Would the same staffing levels be able to make the same progress without the Story Walk Engine? I wonder. How much can we attribute to the project, is a mute point, but all I can say is, currently the project is feeling very strong, the last thing one boy said to me at the end of yesterday was. 

'Home time day already. Oh, I'd love to carry on.'

BASE jumping!

Some of you will already be aware that I was nominated for the 'Trailblazer' award for my Storywalks, from the British Award For Storytelling Excellence, known as BASE for short. Even more exciting though was the fact I had been shortlisted!

The other nominees in my category were 'The History Press' who specialise in regional folk stories, and  are unusual in that they actively search for regional storytellers who know the local tales and then put these into print. This is a logical solution as surely if you are to publish a book about local folk stories then you should go see the specialist, ie the Storyteller!

Also Katrice Horsley, the current UK story teller Laurette was in my category, so pretty stiff competition, but the vote was to be a public one via the Story Awards web site. Happy to be content with bronze (and realistically keeping my feet on the ground) I thought it would be silly not to ask family and friends to cast a vote for their favourite, and perhaps a few visitors to my Somerset Art Week venue which was on during the month of voting.

The award ceremony was last Saturday, and my wife and I travelled up to the midlands for the show, and even though voting had been closed and counted two weeks before, the winners would not be revealed until the night, Oscars style. So I was asked to write a speech no longer than 4 minutes, and initially thought that there was no real need, but then the part of me which yearned for it to come true said that I should, which was probably a darn good thing.

So my heart was on my sleeve when the Trailblazer nomination came around, and astoundingly when they said the words 'and the winner is - Christopher Jelley' my legs went totally wobbly and I was just dumbfounded.

The rest is a blur so to speak, but the photo's of the night look like I knew what I was saying, all I can say is amazing. The other nominees have outstanding work and I was thrilled to be shortlisted with them, but to actually receive the award is astonishing. 

So Saturday was an incredible day but Tuesday was way up there too as it was my first with Norton St Philips school near Frome, as teacher Claire Vowell won an award from the SHINE TRUST, (one of only eleven granted in the UK) to use GPS enabled Storywalks to help with her pupils literacy.

And even on the first day we made progress -  a child who would not read in class, nor to the classroom assistant, and certainly would not read at home, read my story walk aloud. Out in the field, away from the classroom, perhaps he was not feeling the same constraints as imposed indoors, amazing. Lets hope there are other successes over the days I am working with them, and we are able to lift their attainment levels.

As progress is made I shall post and let you know all about it. If you want me to bring interactive story walks into your school then please do get in touch. Together with Claire Vowell of Norton St Philips school, we are truly trailblazing, and hopefully doing something new with literacy. 

As we all know some kids can sit still to read and focus, whilst others find it a lot harder, they would rather be climbing a tree or running across a field, but if you could place the story up the tree, or across a meadow . . . . . ?