Bring Katie Green to Your School as an Artist in Residence

Katie Green creates innovative, effective school residency programs that promote the art of storytelling. She integrates her programs with state standards for language arts, reading, writing, social studies, history, and/or math and science.

   Residency Topics
      Student Storytellers
      Talking, Listening, Reading, Writing
      Orange Leaves: Creating Stories from Nature
      Tell Me a Story
      Around the World with Stories
      Storytelling and Creative Conflict Resolution
      Intergenerational Stories
      Emerging Literacy, Math, Science and Storytelling.

Student Storytellers
Communication skills emphasized in this residency will help students throughout their lives. Katie teaches storytelling structure and performance skills. Students will use gesture, voice, and expression to tell a folk tale to their class and to create "living" story characters. Student storytellers will speak from characters' points of view, and learn about the narrator's voice.

Students work in "coaching groups", and learn how to give each other positive feedback by using appreciations. Some schools enjoy holding their own storytelling concert or storytelling festival at the end of this 6 - 10 session residency. 3rd grade and up.

Young storytellers coached by Katie Green have performed at venues outside of their schools: Worcester First Night, Three Apples Storytelling Festival, Worcester's African/American Festival, Celebration of Middle School Students at Fitchburg State College, and Tellabration.

Talking, Listening, Reading, Writing
Speech and language pathologist Katie Green incorporates vocabulary for students to monitor their own oral communication and to appreciate effective use of language in others. Students work in pairs or small groups to develop and write a story.

Listening and speaking skills are stressed. Prior to writing exercises, students practice careful listening and recall. They learn talk about a given topic, without interruption, for an increasing amount of time. They give "appreciations" to their partners, clearly stating what they heard that helped them to create an image.

Students use sensory descriptions to enhance narrative experience. Stories are told and written down, read aloud and edited in the small group with teacher support as needed. The final product is enhanced oral language skills and a collection of several written narratives. 4 - 10 sessions per classroom. Grade 5 - 12.

Orange Leaves: Creating Original Stories from Nature
Writing Original Pourquoi Stories Katie tells several pourquoi stories (folk tales that explain the natural world) and students retell them. Students learn three basic folk tale story structures and write an original pourquoi story. Original stories are created in small groups and then individually. The final product is a well-crafted written and illustrated story. Some schools like to create a class book of these stories, while others create individual story books. 4 - 8 sessions per classroom. An extended residency includes students telling their original stories in concert. Grade 4 - 6.

Tell Me a Story
This residency is designed to enhance communication between schools and families. Each week, Katie visits classrooms and tells a story. The students retell the story to each other, and tell it to an adult outside of school. Katie Green believes that where ever stories are told, there will be more stories. Students receive story prompts to elicit and facilitate communication and storytelling between parent and child. 4 - 6 sessions per classroom. Grades 3-8.

Around the World with Stories
Katie visits each classroom and tells a story from a different country. Students locate the country on a world map. Geography and climate of each country are discussed. Each story is followed up with a language arts lesson created and designed by Katie Green. Upon request, stories are selected to include your community's ethnic make-up. 4-10 sessions per class room. Grade 2 - 4.

Creative Conflict Resolution
This residency teaches provides language and structure for solving conflicts in the classroom. Katie uses folktales and original stories to demonstrate various ways that people handle conflicts. Students learn to identify actions that escalate and de-escalate conflicts. Stories provide an emotionally "safe" territory for talking about problems. Listening to stories helps us to develop empathy and reminds us that we are not alone in our "human experience". Students may participate in role-plays and create original stories. 4 - 12 sessions per classroom. Grade 3 - 12.

Katie Green is a trained volunteer mediator and has mediated cases in the Gardner District Court. She has taught high school students peer mediation skills, and has presented workshops for Massachusetts Mediation Association Program and NIDR. At Fitchburg State College's Graduate and Continuing Education Department in Education, Katie taught Creative Conflict Resolution in the Classroom. Many teachers found this course profoundly valuable.

"This course not only changed the way I teach - it changed the way I live. Thank you."
Special Education teacher, Harvard MA.

"My students loved the stories and made up their own too. It was a great
way to talk about the conflicts in our classroom and think about conflicts in our lives."
4th grade teacher, Belmont Hill Community School, Worcester, MA

Intergenerational Stories
Students listen to stories from the Elders in their community. Katie meets with Elders, helping them to craft well told stories from their past. These stories are told to the students, who then write about the experience of hearing the story. Students learn to recognize and respect the wisdom of older people, and Elders realize that their stories are valued. 5 workshops: 3 sessions with Elders, 3 sessions with students (one session is paired).
Grade 5 - 8.

Emerging Literacy, Math, Science and Storytelling
Katie Green selects and tells stories that complement the curriculum for kindergarten and grade one. During each workshop, Katie tells a folktale and follows it with activities generated by the story's content. Her lesson plans emphasize language arts, math and/or science for the young child. 6 sessions per classroom.
Grades K - 1.