Theatre, Storytelling, and Creative Writing

Aligned with several state and national standards as well as SEL (Social Emotional Learning) skills, our residencies center story as a vehicle for questioning and transformation of ourselves and our communities.

The Nuts and Bolts

For this residency, a Speaking Out teaching artist is paired with a classroom. We work collaboratively with the classroom teacher.

Sessions can be anywhere from 60 - 120 minutes long.

Residencies can be a single session or up to 30 sessions.

The frequency of sessions is up to the classroom. Most classrooms opt for a weekly schedule.

Typical Session Format

A typical session includes the following components:

  • An interactive story (sometimes two) told by the Teaching Artist, followed by a discussion that questions the story

  • A creative writing game in which students play with elements from the story

  • Acting out the story, either in small groups or as a class

Critical literacy is at the heart of everything we do. Read more about critical literacy here

Some classrooms opt to work on creating, rehearsing, and performing their version of one of the stories they heard. This is typically happens at the end of the residency.

Available Story Options

Speaking Out Collective continues to build our anthology of stories to be responsive to the needs of our community. Each story and the discussion that follows helps to strengthen students’ critical literacy skills.

Residencies can focus on a single category or can be a sampling of several.

  • Our curriculum includes hundreds of possible tales from many cultures, including:

    • Fairy Tales

    • Fables

    • Myths

    • Legends

    • Trickster Tales

    • Pourquoi Tales

    • Tall Tales

  • Stories that help students understand why conflicts happen and imagine non-violent ways disputes can be resolved. Includes Fairy Tales and Folk Tales such as:

    • The Frog with Hair

    • Not Our Problem

    • Tinarina, the Runt Who Wouldn’t Grow

    • Missiles of Peace

    • The Giant and His Suit of Armor

  • Heavy topics are handled with warmth and humor in this collection of stories gathered from and written in collaboration with Somali Minnesotans. Topics include:

    • Experiences as newly arrived immigrants

    • Traveling to Somalia for the first time as a child born in the US

    • Episodes of encountering Islamophobia

    • The Somali Civil War

  • Please visit our page Dakota and Anishinaabe Narratives under the “Grades 2 - 12” heading

  • Please visit our page African American History in Minnesota under the “Grades 2 - 12” heading

  • Written shortly after the Minnesota Marriage Equality Act was written into law in 2013, three familiar Fairy Tales are re-imagined with LGBTQ+ protagonists written to spark discussion in classrooms. 

    • The Prince and the Glass Shoe

    • Rapunzel and the Three Princes

    • The Beanstalk

Interested in finding out more about scheduling an Theatre, Storytelling, and Creative Writing Residency at your school or organization? Please fill out our Contact Form, and we’ll be in touch shortly.

Let’s Talk!

Contact Us