High school students and adults 55+ engage in the intergenerational program, "Working Stories," offered at School One in Providence, RI. Credit: Diana Champa

Case Summary

Intergenerational programming is traditionally structured in a model that puts the older adult into a mentor role of the younger person. Often it is the younger person who creates the work inspired by the older adult’s storytelling or mentorship.

School One turned this model on its head and created new paths to learning for both the older adults and the younger students. Intentional planning and working closely with their teaching artists led School One to develop a storytelling and performance curriculum that honored the voices and contributions of both older and younger students. Together, people in all generations explored the art form, took risks, shared their stories, and performed as equal players for a public audience.

Challenge

School One wanted to make intergenerational programming a part of their school’s curriculum and to integrate and embed it into their culture and mission.

Their core values are focused on providing a robust arts program to high school students in a context that emphasizes self-expression, caring relationships, respect and support. They wanted to ensure that this program would align with those values, and that the learning, creativity and expression of the skills were experienced and reciprocal for both younger and older students.

School One believes that storytelling requires self-exposure, vulnerability and risk-taking. Their challenge was to create strong bonds among participants through deep engagement in a very personal and revelatory art form.

Solution

Working very closely with their teaching artists to create a curriculum which honored all the voices and contributions of the students, they created a program that prioritized process over product.

With a focus on the art forms of writing and storytelling, participants saw one another more fully as human beings through the sharing of their stories. The school balanced their desired outcomes of a final performance, with the ongoing encouragement of the participants to explore the art form in their own directions, with the invitation to enjoy themselves and the freedom to make mistakes.

School One’s teaching artists set time aside at the start of “Working Stories,” and throughout, for continued planning, assessment of goals and milestones so that they were responsive and in tune with the student’s process and input.

The teaching artists created a curriculum template that they used for each of the three cycles so that they could continue to refine each session. The template consisted of 4 phases:

1. Orientation: Introduce participants to one another and to the concept of storytelling in a fun, relaxed way. This phase of the program also served to establish trust and a safe, supportive environment, and a feeling of community.

2. Learning/Process: Use prompts and exercises in creative writing, performance, and storytelling to all our participants each week. The teaching artists guided exploration, taught skills for peer-to-peer critiquing and encouraged collaboration.

3. Rehearsal/Performance: Before each culminating event, their teaching artists led a “mock” performance with rehearsals. The culminating event was a final performance and celebration showcasing the stories written and created during the nine weeks of the program.

4. The Celebration: The week after the culminating performance, they brought the group together to share a meal and talk about what they learned, enjoyed or felt about their experiences.

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Case Study Details