The Stories of Us Curriculum

The Stories of Us Curriculum is a free online resource for LINC teachers. The site contains a 6-part curriculum (complete with activity templates and facilitator tips) that guides LINC teachers through facilitating a scaffolded process of storywriting and storytelling with their students. Additionally, the site hosts a bank of supplementary PBLA activities that teachers can use to complement the tasks associated with each workshop. The curriculum was piloted in partnership with Mennonite New Life Centre in Toronto, Ontario with their LINC 3/4 and 5 /6 classes. LINC teachers Marie Roder and Teresa Wiens were instrumental to the implementation and success of this pilot, as well as the design of the supplementary PBLA activities.

What Teachers Are Saying About It

“The Stories of Us initiative is a wonderful resource for teachers to guide learners through reflecting on their life journeys to date and drawing on resiliency and hope for the future. The curriculum demonstrates a holistic understanding of learners and their needs.” - LINC Teacher

“You've done a really great job supporting teachers & students step by step through the story-writing process and aligning it with the PBLA approach. All the hard work, deep thought and love you've put into it shows!!” - LINC Teacher

How to Access It

To view the content on The Stories of Us Curriculum site, you can sign up for your free account here: https://dia.space/projects/the-stories-of-us/curriculum/

You should automatically be granted access to the site. If you have any trouble accessing the site, please get in touch at minister@dia.space

If you have feedback on the site itself, we welcome your thoughts, questions, and concerns via the Feedback submission tab on the site. If you would like to contribute PBLA activities to complement the curriculum, please get in touch via the Activity Submission tab on the site!

About Us

Department of Imaginary Affairs is a national nonprofit. We seek, collect, and share stories of new and developing Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Every story helps us learn more about the people who live in Canada. Through our projects, we share these stories in the hopes of creating a nation of empathetic citizens, public services, and policies.

The Stories of Us is a program within the Department of Imaginary Affairs. The Stories of Us is focused on building an ESL library of newcomer stories, online and offline, written by newcomers themselves. Our goal is to create ESL resources that are reflective of the diverse range of newcomer experiences across Canada. To this end, we work with newcomers through a series of scaffolded storytelling / storywriting workshops to unpack the stories that they feel compelled to share.

Acknowledgement of funding: The Stories of Us project is currently funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s Service Delivery Improvement Grant.

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