Tales that Teach

Regardless of where you are in the world, tolerance is an important concept to impart to our students—to help them learn to work with one another and to cultivate an understanding of cultural differences within a diverse community.

Teachers, librarians, or administrators who are searching for unique programs to teach character education may have found a new method of engaging students through an old method of instruction. Through the use of traditional storytelling for character education, as well as the use of folk tales to explore multiculturalism, and short stories that address bullying issues in school, Storyvalues offers users the ability to access all three of these instructional components from within one database.

There are currently three programs: Character Education Comprehensive, Foundations of Multiculturalism, and Common Ground Bullying Prevention. An example of how the program is set up and how to use the various components is available at: www.storyvalues.com/sample-step1.html.

Grade K-6

Cost Character Education includes both a one-year and two-year licensing fee. The one-year license includes 20 stories and is available for $425 per school, per year, while the two-year plan includes 40 stories and costs $650 per school, per year. Additional information on this program is available at: www.storyvalues.com/celicensing.html.

Foundations of Multiculturalism is available as a full-package (which includes three stories each from each of the five regions around the world, with a total of 15 stories). The cost for this package is approximately $325 per school, per year (or $575 per school for a two-year license). For additional information on this program, visit www.storyvalues.com/li-bg.html.

Common Ground costs approximately $90 per school, per year. For details, go to www.storyvalues.com/cglicensing.html.

The Big Picture Originally developed in Canada and currently used in 498 schools in the Toronto School District, Storyvalues uses traditional multicultural stories as a foundation for character education, positive social and emotional development, and literacy enhancement. The programs offer support for equity and diversity, bullying prevention, community building and ELL strategies. Each program consists of a library of multicultural folktales in both recorded and written form. The recordings feature culturally accurate original music and sound effects. Each story embodies a core theme or character attribute, presented in an imaginative context that students can readily identify with. And each story is accompanied by several pages of printable follow-up materials that build on the premise of each story through classroom discussion and activity suggestions.

Look and Feel Using multicultural literature as a platform, Storyvalues provides teachers and students with an online resource of traditional cultural tales that define character traits and values, while showcasing the oral tradition of storytelling. Users can access the online resource 24/7 to listen to the various folk stories or as a "Thought for the Day" to be shared with students through the school's PA system.

Each program is adapted for specific levels: grades K-1, 2–3, and 4–6. Audio stories can be accessed from the online program for immediate listening, or the story can be downloaded for later use for those schools with slower Internet connections. In addition, instructional content for each grade level extends the lesson, so teachers can have students critically evaluate the tale and provide feedback. Just like your favorite audiobook, each story features music that help set the mood.

Within the Character Education program, an Attribute page allows teachers to select specific character traits, including: courage, empathy, fairness, honesty, integrity, and optimism. Two stories from two different countries accompany each character trait, along with instructional curriculum specifically designed for that grade.

Within Foundations of Multiculturalism, teachers can choose a particular region of the world (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas) to present a particular concept, such as diversity. At least three stories are provided within each region and consist of grade-appropriate instructional content, as well as a PowerPoint presentation.

In the Common Ground Bullying Prevention program, teachers can select the specific type of bullying to be addressed (verbal, physical, or social abuse). Once a particular area is selected, users can listen to stories that illustrate the concepts as told through folktales. Again, each story includes grade-specific content to extend the lesson and allow students to critically evaluate the concepts learned.

Two additional programs, Elements of our Environment and Family Storyvalues, are in development and will be available for purchase through the Storyvalues Web site soon.

How it Works Districts or schools may purchase the Storyvalues online resource and add a particular content package to their program. Regardless of which licensing package is adopted, users can access all content through a single username and password (IP ranges are not available at this time to allow for on-site access without passwords).

Once users have full access to their particular instructional package, they can select the related content (folktale or multicultural story) and immediately access it or download the audio version of the story, as well as the related materials.

With over 60 multicultural tales available and accompanying resources and PowerPoint presentations for downloading, educators can easily utilize these specific resources as needed or integrate them into an existing Character Education program.

For Students and Teachers For schools or libraries embarking on a character education program or those looking to incorporate listening, critical thinking, and writing skills into the curriculum, Storyvalues offers an online resource of audio programs that address specific concepts through the use of multicultural literature and folktales. Language arts and reading teachers will appreciate the opportunity to extend these folktales into their lesson plans, while librarians can easily integrate these resources into information literacy instruction, as well as library lessons, such as how to locate specific folktales within the media center.

Because each package includes a bibliography of related print resources, teachers and librarians can share the list of titles with students in order to extend a particular concept by comparing similar tales or those within the same geographic region.

Elementary students will enjoy hearing short stories that illustrate a particular concept and can listen to them again if the teacher or librarian has chosen to download the story to a computer that can function as a "listening center" for students to access later.

Report Card Storyvalues offers a distinctive program that allows educators to integrate multicultural folktales into the curriculum through the use of storytelling. By providing a wide-range of folktales from around the world, students and teachers are able to explore various concepts through auditory experiences and then further exploration using the related instructional content. Because Storyvalues currently provides only 60 audio stories, the need for additional material will soon be felt by districts or classrooms that use these types of programs on a daily basis. In addition, for those schools or libraries that already have a large audio set of multicultural stories and folktales, Storyvalues does not necessarily provide a unique instructional component that would replace what might be currently provided through the use of existing audio materials coupled with print curriculum content addressing specific topics.

As additional story content is added to the program, instructional resources are aligned to national standards for use within the curriculum, and revisions are made to provide IP-authenticated access on-site without a password, Storyvalues may become a more valuable resource for many schools. But as a stand-alone product that offers online access to audio performances of multicultural tales with discussion guides and lessons, Storyvalues earns a B.