There seems to be a necessity in many schools these days to find learning strategies that will help improve student achievement. In the mission statement of many schools is also an expression of a desire to form the character of students. In my own journey through the MEd program, I have been looking for strategies to improve student achievement and character. My claim in this paper is that stories are a learning strategy that can help improve student achievement and student character. I claim that stories help build relationships, engage the imagination and emotion of students and build character. I give various examples and reasons for why stories help build relationships, engage the imagination and build character through the literature review. I also make the case, through the literature review, that building positive relationships and engaging students will help improve student achievement. The application of this paper shares my experience as a student where I was able to understand abstract concepts,build relationships and gain interest in a subject through the power of stories. I also share my experiences as a teacher with facilitating story sharing and how this helped build positive and deeper relationships in the classroom. Finally, I share particular examples of stories and their application to various subjects in the Grade 5 curriculum. This paper contributes to the literature about learning strategies that help build relationships, engage students and form character. I hope that curriculum committees see the importance of stories when designing curriculum. More importantly, I hope this paper encourages discussion about learning strategies that build relationships, engage the heart and mind of students and form the character of students
