Classroom Map
A third option for developing insights about families is storytelling. Stories can serve as powerful tools for learning, both as modeling an important component of literacy, and a means to identify strengths and values within family groups (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006; Overton, 2005). Typically, the focus of family stories and legends varies by culture and reflects the family’s worldview.
In Western cultures influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition, stories often feature main characters that exemplify strength and a focus on individualism, qualities highly valued in the American mythology and folklore. In non-Western traditions, a collectivist orientation influences narrative themes that frequently revolve around family responsibilities and a group orientation (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2006). Asking families to share a favorite story about their child, history, or interesting characters can be done in numerous ways, including:
- Sending home a tape or digital audio recorder and asking a parent to read or tell the story for use in the classroom listening center.
- Transcribing the story during a face-to-face meeting or visit to the classroom or care setting.
- Giving each family a large index card to summarize a story and keeping the cards in a file box.
- Providing each family with a piece of “language experience paper” that has lines for writing on the bottom and space for an illustration at the top. Short narratives can then be assembled into a book for the classroom library or book center.
Family stories can reveal patterns of strengths not perhaps observable in other ways, such as perseverance, resourcefulness, spirit, humor, or diplomacy (Overton, 2005). When used in the classroom, they offer children a concrete connection to home and opportunities to learn about their friends.