My childhood experience with art started with using fictional stories I created to present scenes and characters inspired by my imagination. I remember creating characters based on different people I met in the playground, in the park, or at school, naming them and giving them personalities, and then making up my own stories. Often I would give my characters different magical abilities to do things I could not, which is the meaning of story creation.

1. How does storytelling in art serve to translate imagination into narratives?

2. How do stories inspired by imagination combine into artists' works to convey their identities and experiences?

3. How can I use storytelling to help elementary school students tap into their imagination and formulate personalized narratives to inform their artwork?

In my art-learning and teaching experience, I am always interested in how we can translate our imaginations into visual artworks, particularly through stories. Therefore, in this self-study project, I plan to explore the process of transforming imagination into stories through visual arts particularly, through teaching drawing, bookmaking, and sculpture. I want to examine how and in what way people will choose a particular method of storytelling to illustrate stories drawn from their imagination.

To answer these questions, I undertook a qualitative case study of my SAS course, Drawn to Stories, in the Pratt Institute Saturday Art School in Brooklyn, New York. I analyzed my teaching as well as student work. My course consisted of 18 students in fourth and fifth grade. I taught three units, each consisting of three lessons, for a total of nine lesson plans.

In the first unit, students learned to draw a fictional aquatic animal based on their imaginative interpretation of the observed subject. In these units, they created related storybooks and clay characters based on their previous work. During this course, I sent out a questionnaire to learn about students’ inspirations behind their stories and the meaning of their imaginative stories.

1. History of storytelling and narrative art
2. Other artists and educators who use storytelling to make meaning or to express themselves
3. Storytelling in the classroom - teaching strategies
4. Pedagogical practices that incorporate storytelling
5. Culturally responsive teaching and the brain - Zaretta Hammond

In the interviews with art teachers, I asked them the following questions:

1. How do students usually describe the scenes and characters they imagine

2. From your observation, what is the creation process of students narrative artworks？

3. In your experience, how closely do the stories created by students relate to their real-life experiences and backgrounds?

4. When creating, do students/or you pay more attention to the core of the storytelling or the form of the artwork?

5. When different students describe a narrative artwork, are their interpretations similar? If similar, what factors affected them? If not, what do you think is the main reason?

6. What strategies Have you tried to help them better create/write their story and which strategies to better illustrate them?

In the questionnaires I sent out to students, I asked them:

1. What inspired your story?
2. How are you inspired to create your characters?
3. What are you discovering about yourself through your stories? What do you want to express and communicate through your stories?
4. Have you made an art story before? How? Please provide specific examples

• Students' Stories based on their personal experiences and understanding ​
• Teachers As Facilitators
• Teachers usually encourage students to give out more details and more creative elements
• Used Storyboarding and Sketching
• Narrative art in a positive environment
• Sharing, affirmation, and caring as story facilitators
• Learning Partnership between Students and Teachers
• My SAS experienced a classroom atmosphere
• Play Music

• Students considered the inspiration behind their work to determine the narrative style they should use to create their stories.
• Although teachers do not intervene in the inspiration and creation process of students' works, it is essential to guide students to use better creative approaches and methods and create a positive learning environment.
• Creation in the classroom not only helps students receive new knowledge more effectively, but individual help and the sharing of narrative works among classmates can also improve students' understanding of the course and strengthen their skills.
• As a practicing artist myself, Even if I create multiple different storyboards, I can still boldly imagine different endings for my characters in any story.