TROY HIGH SCHOOL VISTA HALEY SPURLIN UTILIZES STORYBOARDING!

Guest Blogger: MTCC VISTA Haley Spurlin

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In the Fall, I had the opportunity to attend the 2018 GEAR UP West Conference in Portland, Oregon with the Troy Junior/Senior High School (THS) GEAR UP team. During the conference, I attended a session titled “Storyboards – Collaborative Plans Connecting Students, Schools, and Families” led by Washington State GEAR UP team members. This session focused on explaining the value of collaborative goal setting throughout students’ time in high school so that students would have a clearly defined post-secondary plans upon graduation. Since my VISTA project revolves around creating resources to assist students in their post-secondary planning process, this session was a perfect fit.

Essentially, the Washington State GEAR UP team created individualized posters for each grade level so that students could begin to write down their plans and aspirations for the future. At the end of each year, the posters are displayed in the hallways for a “Gallery Walk” which families are invited to attend to celebrate the students’ goals; then, the posters are mailed home for parents to keep.  By the end of their high school career, students are able to look back and see how their goals and interests have shifted and can then turn the goals into action plans.

Examples of what could be included on a Storyboard are: career aspirations, advice from teachers/family, team members (who is supporting you), top college choices, grades, GPA, test scores, potential college majors/programs, scholarships you are applying for, deadlines, etc. Think of the Storyboard as a checklist of sorts. What does a student need to do each year in order to be prepared for college? What do students need to be thinking about when they are making decisions for their future? This way, students and families are aware of needs to happen each year which can help ease the anxiety associated with transitioning to college.

We started our Storyboards with the 7^th and 8^th grade students as a part of their “Strut Your Stuff” projects (students create a tri-fold board with their Storyboard, examples of their best work from the year, results of a career interest survey, information about their learning style, and whatever else they want to include about themselves. These tri-fold boards are displayed during the JR High Awards Ceremony) and we were able to use class time to help them complete their posters.

Thus far, student response has been positive. Having creative and fun posters to talk about your goals definitely helped, and telling them that they would be displayed at the “Strut Your Stuff” Ceremony motivated students to take the project more seriously.

I have attached a photo of the 7^th and 8^th grade Storyboard I created using the amazing and FREE canva.com (100% recommend for all your graphic design needs!!). If you would like view Storyboards for each grade level, they are available on the THS GEAR UP blog (thsgearup.blogspot.com). If you have any questions or ideas to add to our Storyboards, please share! You can reach me via email at spurlin@mtcompact.org.