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Hanging out in Hartford for Our First Ever 1 Day Onsite Curriculum Storyboard Institute

Allison Zmuda
  • 7 mins

Magic of Partnering Together

We were invited to host our first 1-day immersive Curriculum Storyboards Institute at a regional education service center in Connecticut to test out whether we could launch drafts of curriculum storyboards in 6 hours.

Will we be able to energize participants to dive in if we give them time to begin a design and see its impact on teaching and learning?

Working as a team was central to our ability to coach and personalize the experience. It is always such a treat for the two of us to be together in front of a live audience to explore how to promote thoughtful and deliberate choice-making when designing curriculum. An added bonus — doing so in Bena’s home state and Allison’s former one — where there were a few participants that we were already connected with.

Design of A One-Day Institute

A key ingredient was that people were alerted to the fact that this was going to be a work session and that they should come prepared with curricular questions or identified needs to reimagine what they already had as a design.

In every aspect of the Institute, we modeled the process that is explicitly developed in the book co-authored by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda, Streamlining the Curriculum: Using the storyboard approach to frame compelling learning journeys (ASCD, 2023).

We chunked the day into three parts:

  1. Making the case for curriculum storyboards — a fresh way to communicate directly with students and families about the learning narrative of their curriculum?
  2. Drafting a storyboard by introducing elements threaded with time to experiment with each element in a rough draft of thinking
  3. Celebrating and sharing what we accomplished and imagining next steps
The power of our design is that it is carefully structured to allow for maximum personalization and productivity on behalf of the learning. The observations at the end of the session were a clear indication that everyone considered this a unique PD — focused, creative, practical, productive.

It is always interesting to notice the flexibility and possibilities of storyboards based on specific goals of the participants. The work sessions provided enough time for us to pull together that group for a focused conversation. For example:
  • One group of special education teachers wanted to work together as a team to develop a storyboard for their PD with classroom teachers over the year.
  • Another wanted to create a storyboard addressing the new standards around play for early childhood classes.
  • There was a group who were sent there to start a storyboard design for fourth grade that addresses the learner portrait from their district.
And, as is usually the case, there were teachers who wanted to take their traditional curriculum and revise it into a more connected narrative that speaks directly to their students. We also had a roundtable with a few school leaders who really were eager to talk about how they would bring this idea back to their schools.

From The Learner View: Participants Sharing Their Thinking and Responses

Part of the institute design is to capture aspirations, wonderings, and actions from participants as the day unfolds. We have affectionately named this “The story so far…” Below are some moments captured from the participants’ community doc. We often use the see, think, wonder routine to have participants at the table connect with one another as they connect with one another to describe what the storyboard is. They rapidly picked up on key components and desired impact on communication.
  • “Appealing visuals and catchy titles.”
  • “Relevant to local context”
  • “Student-friendly language”
  • “Sequential. With timeframes”
  • “Easy to read.”
When clarifying the “why” for curriculum storyboards, we talked about typical problems in curriculum design and use as well as the need for a modern curriculum that is deliberately written for transparency, relevance, and deep thinking.

Participants shared their own motivations for drafting storyboards.

  • "Making a storyboard as a communication for students. My first attempt is written more for me. Thinking and communicating more visually.”
  • “I love that the storyboard serves as a streamlined way to communicate to various stakeholders (without all of the minutiae).”
  • “This is a helpful way to think around the work we are about to dive into for secondary math. I appreciate the visuals, the story-telling, and the connection to real world experiences. These are the things we want to bring to life, so the structure and format is really compelling and relevant.”
  • “Helping my school document our curriculum in a useful way that allows for some level of coordination and analysis but is user friendly, enjoyable and will have teacher buy-in.”
  • “Love the way this can help bridge what we do in our regional school with our sending districts and our sending families-demystifying what our district is teaching and how and what students are learning.”


As the institute came to a close, we invited them to share actions they were excited to take based on their time with curriculum storyboards.

  • “Share these ideas with our Assistant Superintendent and then share out with the rest of Grade 4. I think the students will be completely engaged!!”
  • “I am excited for how this links to the work we are doing and about to engage in. I can see how this process can and will aid teams for making informed decisions and also for conveying why we are learning topics in math.”
  • “Process more, create more drafts, and share with colleagues and members of the social studies department. In light of the new social studies standards, this will help create a nice framework for curriculum designed to be public-facing with the more granular curriculum planning to support teachers.”
  • “Share this with the rest of our team and give it to parents at Open House this week.”
  • “I’m looking forward to continuing to fine tune this draft. Maybe run it by some of my current students to get feedback. Then I would like to make one for the middle school students that I work with.”

Going Forward

We believe that starting with a 1-day launch of curriculum storyboards can create enthusiasm, action, and opportunity for a range of school participants. If you are interested in sponsoring one in your neck of the woods, please reach out.
Allison Zmuda

Allison Zmuda

Allison Zmuda is an international curriculum consultant with over two decades of experience helping schools design educational systems that are dynamic, engaging, and relevant.