For years, teachers at The Community for Learning struggled with an overloaded curriculum, unsure of how to prioritize key learning outcomes. That changed when Carla Meyrink, the school’s co-founder, and Nicole Jorge, a language arts instructional coach, embraced Curriculum Storyboards as a way to streamline and engage students more effectively.
“We realized how overloaded everybody was,” said Meyrink. “Every time we turned around, there was more being put on teachers’ plates. Although we kept saying, ‘Take stuff off,’ it was difficult for them to do that.”
Determined to make a change, Meyrink sought solutions and came across the concept of storyboarding curriculum, which aligned perfectly with their goal of making learning more structured and meaningful.
“I gave Nicole the book on curriculum storyboarding and told her, ‘This sounds like you,’” said Meyrink. “She ran with it.”
Jorge, a former journalist and fiction writer, already had experience structuring her lessons like a story.
“I had one big concept and one big question, and everything students did revolved around that,” said Jorge. “By the end of the year, their job was to wrap it up — what had they learned?”
Jorge led the charge to implement Curriculum Storyboards from seventh through twelfth grade, helping teachers structure learning as a cohesive, narrative-driven experience.
“When we put it all together, we barely had to tweak it,” Jorge said. “One concept naturally opened the door for the next.”
The success of the storyboarding approach is now inspiring expansion into other subjects, including math.
“We are a little nervous about how it will grow,” said Meyrink. “But we know the storyboards make learning more relevant for students, and once teachers see that, they want it for their students too.”
For educators and administrators looking to modernize curriculum planning, The Community for Learning’s journey demonstrates how Curriculum Storyboards offer a transformative way to streamline lessons, deepen student engagement, and bring clarity to teaching.