Stories and storytelling are hallmarks of Waldorf education, high on the list of activities, methods, or school environment that we would expect to find in schools working from our Core Principles. They form an important part of an oral tradition of Waldorf education, one that has been enriched and informed over recent years as we have examined the important question of whose stories we tell and why and have endeavored to ensure our stories are multicultural, diverse, and reflective of our communities.

Storytelling is a beloved activity found in all cultures. Through stories, we pass on knowledge, suggest reasons for why the world is the way it is, entertain, comfort and reassure one another, build community, and pass on cultural and family traditions. For the educator, story is a wonderful pedagogical tool, a means of delivering content, stimulating the imagination, and strengthening important skills including overall language development and vocabulary. Stories can be drawn from nature, from history, from people. They can include short vignettes, lengthy, complex tales, and biographies.

What is it about stories that makes them so powerful and universal? A well-told story draws and holds our attention from its opening words, perhaps heralded by Once Upon A Time/Erase Una Vez, to its conclusion. Stories address and answer our questions. They invite us to develop and exercise our imagination and our ability to inwardly picture. This ability in turn is a strong foundation for critical and independent thinking. Through stories, we can transmit all manner of content in a format that our students can readily absorb. Stories allow us to travel the world, to explore differences of all kinds, to experience a wide range of emotions, all without leaving the classroom. They enrich language and speech, allowing us to steadily expand vocabulary and word usage.

Yesterday’s solar eclipse is an immediate example of the role of story. An eclipse is a powerful, awesome event that moves and amazes us. For many people, it has spiritual significance. It was a perfect opportunity to give our students imaginative pictures, perhaps (and ideally) drawn from local Indigenous knowledge. Here, stories provide a wonderful supplement to scientific understanding for older students and vibrant, comprehensible explanations for younger students of this deeply memorable event, while building cultural and local knowledge. The day or days after the eclipse are not too late for this enrichment! Why did the sun get bitten by a bear? What sacred rites are practiced during an eclipse? Which mischievous creature is up to tricks? Importantly, Indigenous stories can help build our cultural responsiveness; as one example, many tribes do not look at this phenomenon, an important fact for a teacher to know.

In the Waldorf classroom, stories are traditionally told, not read. The reality is that we need both oral and read-aloud, but the teacher as a story-teller has a wonderful opportunity to be in direct contact with listening students. There is nothing between them; the teacher can read the room and adjust delivery, use voice, tone, gesture, eye contact, and can build relationships. Oral storytelling leaves each child free to form their own picture and interpretation. As one young child requested, “read me a story, not from a book but from your mouth”.

Oral storytelling is often unfamiliar to teachers at first and must be practiced like any other art form. There are different ways of building our storytelling muscle; one tried and true approach is to start small with little vignettes from our lives - pets, the garden, something we noticed that morning - and to build from there. We can steadily develop the ability to memorize increasingly long stories and to paint with words, giving our students living, detailed pictures that fuel their imagination.

We also need to find time and space for our students to tell their own stories. They will absorb and incorporate our storytelling, extending their ability to describe and explain. Storytelling, along with poems, verses, songs and plays, develops confidence and clarity, characteristics that will serve our students far beyond their school years.

There are a few points of caution in our work with stories. We need to know our students and to gauge their responses. Oral storytelling assumes a certain level of receptivity and language ability. The research tells us that there are very significant differences between higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds in vocabulary acquisition and language development. We need to factor in our students’ backgrounds and provide scaffolding through previews of content to explain unfamiliar materials and concepts or help with new language, and we may need to use pictures to help with comprehension. The old approach of hushed silence during storytelling and allowing context to provide everything that is needed will not work on its own in a lot of our school settings. We need to consider the needs of our English language learners, an important constituency in so many of our classrooms, and what they need in order to enter into a story. Plus our neuro-diverse students or those who are strong visual learners. Our goal is to share the richness of storytelling without leaving anyone out. We need to consider how to make this a gift, not a burden, for all.

I was granted my own gift last week, the chance to watch an extremely skilled, experienced kindergarten teacher at work. She presented a story that wove between storyline, verse, song, movement, and two languages, reflecting many of the young students in her classroom (and building capacities for their future education and beyond). I was in the presence of a maestra - heartfelt thanks to our kindergarten teachers who build a foundation of image and language every day!

The Alliance Summer PD registration

will go live on Friday, April 12th.

publicwaldorf.org

Professional Development and Teacher Preparation

A listing by the Alliance is for information only and does not imply recommendation or endorsement. We encourage school leaders and teachers to fully research offerings before enrollment to ensure they align with their goals and needs. We recommend that you research familiarity with the unique needs and demands of Public Waldorf education. This is particularly important if public funds are used for professional development or teacher preparation.

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

Center for Biography and Social Art

April 14, 2024, online- The Mercury years- ages 7-14. When you find beauty, you find inspiration

www.biographysocialart.org/public-online-workshops

Center for Anthroposophy: Waldorf Leadership Development: Cultivate Your Capacity to Serve in Leadership Positions

May 11, 2024 - April 2025, online & in-person residency (Keene, NH)

https://centerforanthroposophy.org/programs/waldorf-administration-and-leadership-development-program/

Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training: The Art of Speech Workshop with Christine Burke

June 22, 2024, San Rafael, CA

https://www.bacwtt.org/the-art-of-speech-workshop/

Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training: Waldorf Family Weekend

June 29-30, 2024, San Rafael, CA

https://www.bacwtt.org/waldorf-family-weekend/

Inner Work: Deepening and Evolving Waldorf Practice

August 8-13, 2024, Camellia Waldorf School, Sacramento, CA

https://docs.google.com/forms

Gradalis Understanding Waldorf Education (UWE) Program

September 2024-April 2025, Online

https://gradalis.edu/uwe-mentorship,/

Summer Professional Development and Teacher Education

Woodland Star Charter School: Summer Professional Development Series

June 10-14, 2024, Orton-Gillingham Training, Sonoma, CA
June 17-21,2024, The Art of Teaching, Grades 6-8 & Science, Sonoma, CA
June 24-28, 2024, The Art of Teaching, Grades 1-5, Sonoma, CA

https://woodlandstarschool.org/

The Sword, the Pen, and the Arrow - Adult Course - Preparing you to offer fencing, archery, and writing to youth in your school

June 29 - July 5, 2024 - Spacial Dynamics Institute - Mechanicville, NY

https://www.spacialdynamics.com/calendar/2024/level-ii-sword-pen-and-arrow

Gradalis Early Childhood Program Concentration

New Cohort begins June 20h through July 18th, 2024, Denver, Colorado

https://gradalis.edu/early-childhood-overview/

Sunbridge’s Summer Series

June and July 2024, online
June 23-28 Early Childhood, Chestnut Ridge, NY

https://www.sunbridge.edu/courses-workshops/summer-series/

Antioch University Waldorf Teacher Education

2024 Entering Cohort
June 24-28, Minimal Online Hours
July 13-28, Residency in Wilton

https://www.antioch.edu/academics/education/waldorf-education-med/

Center for Anthroposophy: Renewal Courses Summer 2024

June 30 - July 5, In-Person, Wilton, NH
July 8 - 12, Online

https://centerforanthroposophy.org/programs/renewal-courses/

Alliance Led 2024 Summer Professional Development

July 10-12, online Week # 1: Orientation and Introduction to The Essential Characteristics of Public Waldorf Education
July 15-19, online, Week # 2: Tracs for preparation for Early Childhood, Grades 1-8, and Leadership

https://www.publicwaldorf.org/ **Registration will go live on: 4/12/24

Gradalis Teaching as an Art Week: Grade Level Preparation for the working teacher