Story-tell me what you want, what you really really want.

During our edcamp breakout room we discussed the concept of story-telling in education.

Some people see storytellers and “think it’s a theatrical, exaggerated show more akin to acting,” (Friday) and would be hard-pressed to see teachers in that role. Matthew James Friday‘s article Why storytelling in the  classroom matters counters this stance saying that teachers are story-tellers, and story-tellers are teachers. Friday’s stance is quite literal, saying teachers should brush up on their folk tales and story analysis, whereas my attention during our edcamp was on the classroom and lesson as the story being told.

It’s cliche and cheesy all at the same time, but my background in improv has shown me how our lives and interactions can follow patterns; some patterns are more pleasing and exciting than others. In our classes we are already discussing lesson construction, when to have a “hook,” how to transition subjects, etc… I think fully embracing a “lesson as story” mindset can allow for more natural “hooks,” and engage the student by making them a part of the story, not just it’s recipient.

Role-play is a particularity good example of this in practice. Carleton College in Northfield shows examples of how role-play can be extremely helpful in teaching students entry-level geoscience. I myself took part in a very similar role-play last year at UVic. The professor had us split into groups and take on the roles of various tribes or organization in Africa who were attempting to resolve a land dispute. Each had different invested interests in various plans or outcomes, and we were to work amongst each other, making deals or alliances where possible to further our cause. I do think this specific role-play was problematic for a class of predominantly white settlers, as it had us take on the role of displaced indigenous peoples and try to compromise with colonial powers, but the structure of the lesson was wonderful. Further, role-play exercise could be done while still letting the students engage with their own priorities and ideas. This could be accomplished through the teacher taking on a role, but the students remaining themselves and acting in whatever way they see fit. I am mostly approaching this from a social-studies perspective, as this is one of my teachables and history is rife with important persons that the class could “converse” with.

Pushing this concept further , I think we as teachers can plan our lessons in such a way that provides opportunities for our students make decisions and engage without overtly presenting it as a story-telling exercise like role-playing. Our lessons have a beginning, middle, and an end. What can we learn from our favorite stories in terms of their structure that we can bring into our classroom? If we lecture too long is that basically a never ending paragraph? If we see unit’s as chapters, why not include some sort of cliffhanger from one to the next, segueing content?

All in all, this edcamp brought up a ton of useful dialogue, and I am excited to participate in the format again!

@californong