Duration: 4.5 hours (broken up over 2 days: 2.5 hrs and 2 hrs)
Participants: 20 students and 1 school teacher, 1 IDRC Facilitator, 1 student facilitator
Devices: School Chromebooks, a few iPads

Workshop structure and activities

Warm-up activity: Collaborative Surprise Drawing

Supplies: large flip chart sized paper or 11x17, pre-create one to show/model, to prompt storytelling

used to demonstrate collaboration and the creative ideas that can come from working together — something that one individual would not likely come up with on their own
based on the method of "exquisite corpse"

How it works:

Create groups of 5 or 6 participants. Student facilitator chose to give numbers to participants (1-4) to “break-up” existing social groups.
12 mins_(2 mins / person) to create a “creature”
paper is folded into an accordion and each student takes a turn drawing on one strip of the folded paper without looking at the previous drawings.
Each participant takes their drawing cue from lines intersecting the folds between two panels.
lines are carried over from one panel section to the next either by the participants or facilitators. While one member of the group is taking their turn adding to their part of the drawing, others can explore the storytelling tool together on one laptop.
10 mins_When finished each group unfolds the paper to reveal their creature. Together they name their creature and make up a short story (2-3 lines) about the creatures experience of (pick one)
- a field trip
- the first week of school
- taking a test
- giving a presentation
- learning something new
- something of your choice

Facilitated by a peer (12 year old youth with learning differences) and adult, supported by classroom teacher
Class was very receptive to peer facilitating (one grade above)
Facilitators modeled the activity with an example they had done together prior to the workshop

Activity seemed to be low risk for participants: fast and iterative, no time to question or edit out ideas. At times some youth wanted to direct what the next person should draw. For example, they would tell the person that they should draw the torso or the knees.
Youth ran around to each groups table to see the unveiling of each group's creatures with excitement

Stories about the creatures were full of lovely extremes and humour. One group wrote their story in first person. This was an opportunity to discuss the difference between a story told in the first person and a story told in the third person. Some comments:
- First person is more authentic. If someone is telling someone else's story it can lose some of the information.
- Assumptions can happen if someone tells someone else’s story
- Your voice is your voice
- There is more emotion in first person
- It’s hard to tell a story in first person
Other comments:
- When asked why someone drew two different arms on their panel they said “I don’t know, I just wanted to” which led to the conversation of the importance of not always having a reason for doing something when we are creating. That this open thinking can lead to unique and innovative ideas.
student facilitator required time to recharge after first activity. A quite comfortable chair allowed the student to remove themselves from sensory stimulation and stim (people with autism explain what stimming feels like), snacks and fluids.
- Learning: facilitators must be part of the workshop design and their needs should be built into the process. Co-facilitators can design their needs into the workshop by sharing their requirements with each other and finding ways to support each other before, during and after the event.

Telling our individual stories are important because they help us to learn about ourselves, others and the world around us.

[Connected to Social studies unit teacher was conducting with class: Communities, personal identities, included, not included]

Using your poster (from earlier class social studies project) create a story about all the words or some or just one!
You can create your story however you want
- write, draw, video, voice
Once you’ve decided on the pieces of your story you can start building it in the Storytelling tool

Introduced the storytelling tool
Played “little girl” story for the class. Participants were deeply engaged in listening
Youth questions:
- What is the difference from other social media platforms?
- How do you keep it youth-friendly (child safety)?
- How do you keep people from writing bad things?
- How do you know if something is not appropriate if it is in another language other than English?
- Have you ever had anyone write fiction?
One student suggested the tool could be good for global awareness of differences and social justice.
When it came time to start finding the story they wanted to tell, many found it difficult to tell a story about themselves. The teacher noted that most writing in school has been third person storytelling, creative writing.
We suggested they revisit posters they had created about themselves to help find a story they want to tell
Students wanted to know if they could start creating their story in the tool and then save for later
Teacher and facilitator shared a personal learning story as an example.
Facilitator uploaded their story on the storytelling website.