How Teachers Can Use Stories In Teaching Classroom Lessons
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The document discusses the powerful role of storytelling in education, explaining how narratives can engage students and enhance learning. It outlines steps for teachers to transform lesson plans into stories by identifying conflicts, utilizing personal and external anecdotes, structuring the story, and practicing delivery. The key takeaway is that effective teaching mirrors storytelling, as both require deep knowledge of the subject and an understanding of audience engagement.
How Teachers Can Use Stories In Teaching Classroom Lessons
- 1. ON THE BOARD Stories can Teach How to turn lesson plans into narratives that engage students by Aileen S. Santos Once Upon A Time, In A Classroom Much Like Yours… …a teacher discovered that she could easily command her students’ attention by using these six simple words: “Let me tell you a story.” You’ve probably made this same discovery yourself. And you might even admit that during your own days as a student, you reacted the same way to these words. Think about it. Do you remember the lesson that your favorite English teacher talked about on November 4 of the school year when you were in fourth grade? No? But do you still remember the fairy tales that you heard when you were a child? Our brains were made for stories. We never truly learn isolated facts; instead, we learn everything in context. Our brains are arranged in such away that the “apple” file is right next to the “color red” file, the “Snow White” file, and the “poison” file. In our brains, the “FRUITS file cabinet” never stands alone in one corner, it’s always connected to all the other cabinets, and these connections are present because they mean something. Stories are the chains that link the facts together and make them hard to forget. When you give facts an exciting context, they suddenly become stories, meaningful and memorable. The good news is the ability to tell stories is a gift all good teachers already have. Teaching Is Storytelling Good educators and good storytellers are alike on one crucial aspect. They haven’t just 2 Star TEACHER DECEMBER 2006 memorized the information they will impart, they know it backwards and forwards, inside out. Because of this, they can tailor the information to fit their audience, such as including more or less information, changing the sequence, explaining certain parts in greater detail, and so on. Award-winning textbook author Joy Hakim says, “It is the storyteller’s job to make the world around us understandable. Think of teaching and storytelling as entwined disciplines and you will bring coherence and inspiration to your classrooms. Finding the story in a subject is to discover its essence. If we can train our students to pattern the world into stories we can turn them into powerful, analytical learners.” How To Find (Or Create) Stories For Your Subjects Learning objectives are important, but they can turn your lessons into a race. Reaching the finish line means you were able to deliver the lesson, but it’s never an assurance that the lesson was actually learned. Here’s how to turn lessons into stories. Step 1: REFRAME LEARNING OBJECTIVES INTO “CONFLICTS.” This is a technique that is regularly used by scriptwriters for educational television shows. They take the learning objective, then ask themselves two questions: l Can not knowing the lesson objective (for example the scientific method) prevent someone from getting what he wants? Or l Can knowing the lesson objective (the scientific method) help someone get what he wants? Whenever someone (a character) wants something that he can’t seem to acquire right now… that is conflict. PHOTOS COURTESY OF SMART PARENTING PHOTOS BY JUN PINZON Storytelling = Creating Meaning
- 2. STEP 2: DELVE INTO YOUR RICH STOREHOUSES OF STORIES There are four sources that you can always look to for stories: 1. Existing Stories These are stories from books, from the Internet, or even stories you’ve heard others tell. Now that you know your conflict, find out if it matches with a story you’ve heard/read before. For example: For a lesson on “the scientific method,” you could use the story of how Thomas Alva Edison worked on inventing the light bulb. 2. Your Own Memories Look back to when you were about as young as your students, and try to remember the things you were interested in – you were so interested, in fact, that you ended up using the scientific method to learn more about it (even when you didn’t know it!). Did you use the scientific method to find out the best way to attract your crush? Or how about the most effective way to make sure your parents allowed you to go to the party? 3.Your Own Imagination This territory is free for all! Even if you have no ready-made stories to use, you can always invent one (or develop one from a mixture of fact and fiction). Just always make sure that your story’s lead character is someone your students can relate to. For example: You can invent a story about a teenage boy who is shipwrecked on an island, and he has to find ways to survive and be rescued. His existing resources include objects from the ship, as well as the plants and trees on the island. 4. Your Own Analogies Stories don’t have to be directly related to the topic in order to be relevant. You can use the power of analogies to create stories where animals are the main characters (fables), where the scientific method is compared to looking for friends on Friendster.com, or where predicting which contestant wins on Pinoy Idol is akin to forming and testing hypotheses. STEP 3: STRUCTURE YOUR STORY Now that you have their attention (“Let me begin this lesson by telling a story…”), make sure that you keep it. A useful technique used for creating movies, comic strips, and commercials is called “the sequence treatment.” Also known as “the sentence outline,” the sequence treatment breaks down the entire story into bullet points that say exactly what’s going to happen next. A two-hour movie will most likely have an average of 60 sequences; a short story will most likely have five. To make your story as simple and precise as possible (and easier for you to remember), use the five-sequence plot as your structure: Stories and Books To Get You Started As you begin to use more stories to engage your students, remember that you don’t need additional acting abilities in order to make sure your story is a success. The most important thing about being a storyteller is the same with being an educator: You can only give them what you already have. “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” said Robert Frost. Although you don’t always need stories that make them cry, always try to use those stories that have made you care. Sequence 1: Begin with your character. Say something about the character that will help your audience like him and root for him. Sequence 2: Tell them what your character wants or wants to happen. Again, this should be something the audience could easily relate with. Sequence 3: Introduce the conflict. This is the meat of your learning objective. What is preventing the lead character from getting what he wants? Will he be able to save the day? Sequence 4: Show your character trying to resolve the conflict. Make him struggle a little, keeping your students wondering “What will happen next?” Sequence 5: Everything turns out for the best. Maybe the character “wins,” and gets what he wants. Or maybe he realizes that he already has something better. Either way, it’s a moment when the character has grown a little wiser, a little stronger… and you can end your story with a positive note and a happy ending. STEP 4: PRACTICE TELLING YOUR STORY OUT LOUD You could practice telling your stories in front of a mirror, or even in front of your dog, but the best way to become better at storytelling is to actually tell your stories to as many live audiences as possible. The way live listeners react will give you great insights into improving your stories: they might be entranced during those parts you can still add more drama to, they might yawn a little during those parts that need more humor. Best of all, their reactions will show you which stories work best.• Aileen Santos is a former high school journalism teacher and television scriptwriter for children’s educational programs (Hiraya Manawari, Sineskwela, Bayani). Currently, she is a corporate trainer for the creative people of Summit Media and practices oral tradition storytelling in their residential community’s organizations. l One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale Written & Illustrated by Demi This book tells the story of Rani, a clever girl in India who saves her village from hunger by outsmarting their greedy raja. How does she do this? By being good at math! When the raja rewards her for a good deed she has done, the only prize she asks for is “One grain of rice, doubled each day for 30 days.” How much rice does this all add up to? Find out in this story, as you teach your students all about exponents! l How Do You Use A Barometer? www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/angelpin.htm A classic story about a physics student who comes up with a multitude of answers to their final exam question: “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.” Although none of his answers comply with “conventional physics,” the student shows that not only does he actually know how to use a barometer (as well as other physics formulas), he knows how to use his mind as well. There are other versions of this story online, but the URL above will give you the most complete account that’s best for teaching physics and critical thinking. l Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes pages.zdnet.com/storysocks/library/id49. html The real story of Sadako is not as horrifying as in The Ring. Sadako was actually a little girl who wanted to be able to do the things all little girls do, so she tries to fold 1,000 paper cranes from her hospital bed, believing in the legend that whoever can do this can get well. But are paper cranes enough to combat the effects of atomic radiation on her body? This story is useful for teaching science (atomic energy & radiation), biology (effects of radiation on cells), geometry (creating paper cranes), crafts (origami), mathematical problem solving (how much time does it take to make 1,000 paper cranes?), and of course, history. DECEMBER 2006 Star TEACHER 3