—WHAT’S IN A STORY (WIS) is a Navajo-facilitated, language, historic identity, reading, exercise and movement arts program serving elementary school students, teachers, early childhood centers, educators, and libraries in New Mexico Navajo Nation.

—A trained Navajo TSP facilitator dressed in a colorful “story coat” visits early childhood centers and pre-K-6 classrooms throughout the school year. The facilitator reads stories aloud, and introduces new vocabulary in Dine Bizaad, English and sign language. As the young listeners get restless, she leads them in fun, specially designed exercises. As they move, the listeners connect their imaginations and bodies to the images and teachings of the multicultural stories.

—The facilitator encourages the children to discover relationships between story content and their own lives, and find similarities and differences between other cultures and their own. The physical exercises help the students process the material and make learning fun. Their natural desire to move and experience through the body is integrated into the program as an asset, rather than discouraged as a distraction to learning.

—WIS includes stories that reference the ecology and culture specific to the area where the children in the program live. Familiar landscapes, animals, plants, mythological figures and events are illuminated in new ways by the stories and the questions of the facilitator, helping the students feel connected to their land and traditions and consequently more invested in preserving and exploring them. The children’s sense of historic identity in relation to the land and each other is nourished, becoming another internal resource contributing to resiliency, imaginative wealth and physical health.

—Bilingual and cross-cultural components strengthen students’ connection to their own heritage and their unique communities, as well as enhancing appreciation of diversity and world cultures. By facilitating the development of language skills, cultural literacy, self-care, body awareness, appreciation of diversity, historic identity and resilience in children, the Northern Navajo Nation WIS program helps ensure an empowered group of learners that will continue to value literacy, wellness and community as they grow.

—The WIS program’s creative approach engages children deeply and invites curiosity, enthusiasm, interaction and self-reflection. In the words of Amy Becenti, TSP Navajo WIS facilitator: “What’s in a Story allows the children an opportunity to listen, imagine, add information and be part of a group that experiences together.”