Once the design work is done, the immediate question becomes: Now what?
The concept of Curriculum Storyboards is now three years old. It’s been incredibly exciting to see how educators around the world are using them to articulate curriculum narratives that are accessible, challenging, and meaningful for both staff and students.
But here’s the thing — once the design work is done, the immediate question becomes: Now what?
If we’re asking curriculum writers to invest their time, energy, and creativity in crafting these storyboards, they deserve to see the impact. The storyboard can’t just sit on a shared drive or get rolled out once at the start of the year. It needs to live and breathe in the classroom.
That’s why I worked with Kristina Fulton, Bena Kallick, and Heidi Hayes Jacobs to develop the Learning Compass — a guide for making storyboards actionable with students.
The Learning Compass is broken into three parts: Orientation, Navigation, and Celebration. Before diving into specific strategies, we start by clarifying the WHY — what’s the actual payoff of taking precious instructional minutes to do this work with students?
Orientation is about sparking curiosity and making connections right from the start. When students engage with the storyboard at the beginning of a unit, they’re not just receiving information — they’re predicting, imagining, and connecting what’s ahead to what they already know. The visual nature of storyboards captures attention immediately and invites students to wonder about the learning journey ahead.
Navigation is where students take the wheel. Once they’re oriented, they use the storyboard to make choices, discover connections to past learning, and develop new skills and knowledge. This phase empowers students to co-navigate their journey rather than passively follow along. They become architects of their own learning.
Celebration creates space to pause and reflect. As students navigate their chosen paths and build new understanding, celebration becomes the moment where they recognize the importance of their work and envision exciting next steps. It’s not just a pat on the back — it’s metacognition in action.
When we use storyboards intentionally with students through these three phases, something shifts. Our role as teachers evolves. We move from delivering instruction to facilitating reflection, fostering ownership, and co-constructing learning paths. We become observers and listeners, assessors and curators, facilitators of exploration rather than dispensers of content.
The Learning Compass includes specific strategies for each phase — protocols, prompts, digital tools, and reflection activities that bring storyboards to life in the classroom. But the heart of it is this: storyboards aren’t just planning tools for teachers. They’re learning tools for students.
Want to receive The Learning Compass Guide? Schedule a free 15 minute call with me.