Culturally-referenced stories as a bridge to early literacy development: Collaboratively designing and implementing an oral storytelling program for young Indigenous learners

Storytelling serves as a gateway to literacy and predicts later literacy competence for all children. As well, storytelling has been, and continues to be, a key component of Indigenous ways of knowing and teaching. In this presentation you will hear about an instruction program, Story Crafting, that was designed in collaboration with a First Nation community. The program successfully improved the complexity of young Indigenous learners’ stories (i.e., grades K, 1, and 2), as well as significantly increased references they made to their own culture. In this workshop, you will learn about the components of the program and how you can use some of the principles of teaching storytelling in your own practice.

Anne McKeough, Professor Emerita, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary Dr. McKeough has taught, researched, and published in the areas of developmental and educational psychology. Her work, which has been funded by provincial and federal granting agencies, has focused on documenting children’s and youth’s cognitive growth to inform the design and delivery of educational programming. This research program has contributed to an understanding of the role of storytelling in early literacy development, when factors such as learners’ processing capacity, multimodal conceptual bridging, and cultural forms of narrative thought are integrated within the teaching process.

Meadow Schroeder, Associate Professor, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.  Dr. Schroeder teaches, researches, and supervises in the area of school and applied child psychology, and works with children, youth, and adults in clinical practice. Her research interests include issues and challenges of learning disability identification and special education programming, as well as the transition to post-secondary for students with disabilities. She has supported student training her former roles as Director of Practicum, Academic Coordinator of MEd school psychology and counselling programs, and Academic Coordinator for a First Nations-only cohort of the MEd in School and Applied Child Psychology.