This is from Kathrin Shechtman in Germany:
This summer I went to the Agen conference where Ben Slavic and Tina Hargaden unveiled their new initiative with stories created from images that the students create – the Invisibles. Before that I had almost completely moved away from stories and just gone to PQA with the kids, because talking to them and about them was always more interesting to me than the forced stories which just collapsed.
With the Invisibles, this new year has been so much more interesting and fun to see the characters the kids come up with and how much they connect with them. Kids have brought in stuffed animals of the characters. They have drawn huge pictures depicting all the characters in the class. One even made a search picture out of the characters, which had a dead potato on it that never actually made it into a story but was obviously still very dear to at least one of the kids. They have written little books to add to the class library and they are invested in what they do and where they take the stories.
And all of it without force. Sure some kids still participate more than others, some days are still better than others, and some days I still get frustrated, but OMG has it taken the pressure off! The tone, how I feel in class, is so different now and I’m so happy to be a part of this and to spread the word. I hope Ben and Tina come to Germany next year, as they have suggested they might.