Annehurst Elementary School, on Thursday evening, April 4, hosted its first-ever fourth grade Storytelling Symposium. Recently, young historians there combined research and writing skills with social studies standards to promote the art and craft of storytelling, and to honor and celebrate the diversity and commonality of human experience. Working in small groups, students researched historically pivotal events that took place during the 1700’s and 1800’s. Using historical facts and stories from primary and secondary resources, they created fictional characters based on their research findings to help them retell these stories to those who visited.
The idea design was initially co-constructed this past summer, as part of the Otterbein University’s Out of the Gate grant, which connected classroom and student teachers with college and PBLWorks national faculty members. “It has been a remarkable experience, and we have been so thankful for the support of the other members of the fourth grade team, Mrs. Buty and Mr. Simmerman,” said Cooperating Teacher Kelley Moff, who collaborated with Otterbein student teacher Evan Hepp to bring this activity to fruition.