Story Bundles

As this is my last year (last semester in fact!) in education, I've realized that this is where I should be learning most. I've completed internship, so now I know what I still need to know better before I get out into the classrooms and teach!! This semester I find that all of my classes are connected. I keep hearing the same ideas of pedagogy, morals, stories, assessment, and much more! In many classes the profs talk about stories and how important they are. We learn more through each other and the stories we share through real life, current experiences, rather than reading a textbook from however many years ago from one person's account on an event.

Story bundles are what Cindy Swanson refers to in her thesis paper titled "An Autobiographical Narrative Inquiry into the lived tensions between Familial and School Curriculum-Making Worlds." (We read her thesis paper in ECE 425). She explains that a story bundle "represents the stories each person carries" (p. 26).

I think stories are a very important aspect to learning. In my classroom I will be sure to include stories as a way for my students to learn from one another and collaborate as a community. Stories are interactive and when telling to classmates, I find that I am very attentive and want to know more all the time! In our ECE 425 class, we tell lots of stories about past teaching experiences and the morals and experience I have gained from my classmates' stories is overwhelming!

I find that through telling stories it is also a way of venting or releasing tension from ourselves and our stories. If we had a negative experience and share with others, they offer advice and share their thoughts. I've realized that if I had a bad experience with something, some other people also had a bad experience with that as well!

What are you thoughts on "story bundles" or telling stories as a way of learning?