PEDAGOGY
tell me a story
Storytelling as a powerful tool in the classroom
Once upon a time, a teacher entered the classroom with a big surprise. She brought with her a story, which she shared with her students, to their utmost delight. The students enjoyed the story and they learned their lesson through that story. The teacher loved the fact that everyone learned. The students felt good about having fun while learning. Their parents were more than satisfied with what their children learned. And they all lived happily ever after. The end.
Of course, using storytelling as a pedagogical tool in the classroom is more complicated than that. Nonetheless, despite the extra effort required to use stories in class, it makes perfect sense for all teachers to learn how to become good storytellers and add storytelling to their arsenal of effective teaching strategies.
STORYTELLING FOR TEACHERS
We tell stories every day. We actually think in narrative form. On a daily basis—whether you’re thinking of getting groceries after work or meeting up with friends to watch a movie—you talk to yourself in your head using words that create a series of connected actions you intend to undertake. Yes, that series of actions make up a story.
Stories have been with us since ancient times. It’s how we, as a species, pass information to other people. So even with cave drawings or some primitive language with a limited vocabulary, man has been able to pass down information from generation to generation through the power of storytelling. It’s as natural to us as breathing.
As a teacher, you can therefore use storytelling to pass down information to your students effectively.
WHY TELL A STORY?
You should actually ask, more specifically, why tell a story in the classroom? Stories—good ones, especially—can significantly improve the way you teach and how your students learn.
Consider the following—
Stories make topics more engaging. Stories can be quite captivating—they can easily create a strong connection with the audience. In most cases, good stories have a strong emotional impact on an audience. As such, good stories are sure to catch the attention of your audience—your students—who’d all be eager to know what happens next in each and every one of your intriguing and well-crafted stories.
Stories make schoolwork more enjoyable. Stories—good stories told well—are fun. And they have the power to change the classroom atmosphere. If done right, they make both the subject and the teacher more accessible to students. Through stories, lessons can be presented in a less intimidating manner. This helps reduce your students’ learning resistance and anxiety and therefore encourages more active participation in class.
Stories make it easier to learn. Stories are often concrete—they make it easier for you to explain abstract ideas. In a subject like Science, for instance, your students will find the simple schema of a story much easier to understand than the particular scientific concept the story is supposed to illustrate. Thus, stories make it easier for you to explain—and for your students to learn—these complex topics. Moreover, you will notice that stories work well with all kinds of learners.
Stories make students develop critical skills. Stories help children improve in so many ways—everything from improving speaking, writing and listening skills to developing a love of stories, a love of reading and a love of the language. At the same time, the right stories help children gain more self-confidence and they promote a positive attitude towards diversity and other people’s cultures and beliefs. By developing your students to perform better in school and become better individuals overall.
HOW TO BE A GOOD STORYTELLER
By now, you’re probably seriously contemplating on adding storytelling to your teaching arsenal. Or if you’re already armed with this strategy, you’re now thinking about using it more often. What’s stopping you? Ah, yes. You’re not sure if you’re good at telling stories.
Fret not, dear teacher. There’s so much you can do to improve your storytelling proficiency.
You can level up your storytelling game by working on the following—
Simplify. Your story must focus on just one idea and you should make sure you stick to that idea. Oh, and make sure it’s aligned with your learning objective (After all, this is what storytelling in the classroom is all about, eh?). What is your theme? How is it related to your lesson? What information is unnecessary (and should therefore be eliminated to reduce the clutter in your story)?
Organize your ideas. Define your story elements well by developing the story theme, setting, and of course, believable characters. Make a feasible outline (considering the audience, story length, alignment with your lesson objectives and other concerns). How clear is your outline? Is it good for your particular audience (your students)? Is your story appropriate for the allotted time (Is it too long or too short?)? Does it align with the lesson (Does it help your students learn the lesson?)?
See it happen. Visualize the setting and characters. Visualize the action taking place. Make sure your characters are likeable and relatable to your audience. Is the story clear (Will it make sense to your audience?)? Is it enjoyable (Will your audience be entertained by your story?)?
Focus on your delivery. It’s not enough that you have a good, well-organized story. Your story needs to be told well—really well. Work on your choice of words, inflection, facial expression and body language, since all these contribute to a spellbinding story. If it’s good enough, you then learn the story by heart, perhaps even word for word. How good are you at delivering your story (What else can you do to improve your delivery?)?
Grab the attention of your audience. At the start, present a mystery, a puzzle or a problem to be solved (which you will most likely unravel towards the end of the story), something that will immediately captivate your audience well enough for them to be interested in your story. Towards the end, bring home your story with a eureka moment that provides a stimulating resolution to your story. Is your story interesting enough? Is your story relevant enough? Is your story told well enough to grab your audience’s attention?
Level up your storytelling skill set. Improve your storytelling game by adding visuals, movement, sound effects, costumes, props—anything that you think can help bring your story to life (Try the Fun-tastic Four strategies on Training Module No. 3, pages 10-11). What can you do to make your story more interesting and enjoyable for your audience?
Evaluate yourself objectively. Get feedback from a test audience. Find out if your story has confusing parts or if you used jargon that makes it difficult for them to understand. Ask if they have suggestions on how you can improve your story or story delivery. Did they enjoy your story? Did you achieve your teaching goals? Did they remember facts? Did they learn the lesson (Can they apply it?)? Make revisions when necessary.
Keep on learning. Become better at storytelling. Read folktales and fables, watch videos of good storytellers, join a theater company, and most important of all, practice, practice, practice (and don’t forget to have fun doing it!). What do you plan to do to further improve your classroom storytelling skills?
By working on your skills, you’d be a master storyteller in no time. And you can definitely use this newfound talent to your advantage—in terms of better teaching and learning in your classroom.
Keep at it!
TEACHING WITH STORIES
You think you’re ready to take on our classroom storytelling challenge, eh? It’s not that hard. With enough practice and experience, you’re sure to be good at it.
Create stories that can help you illustrate new concepts. This is especially useful for when you’re teaching concepts that your students may find too complicated (or boring).
Invent new and better ways to present your stories. This will help keep your audience glued to their seats each time you tell a story. Variety counts!
Put yourself in the narrative. Share your own experiences or invent a story, makes no difference. Make it believable enough for your students to think that they too are part of the narrative—that’s when the storytelling magic happens.
In time, your efforts will pay off.
Sooner or later, they’d be singing songs about you—that once upon a time, there was this teacher. She was a good teacher. She worked on her storytelling skills well enough to be the best storyteller, not only in the school, but in the entire kingdom. People came from near and far just to listen to her stories—and her lessons—and each time, she mesmerized them with wonderful stories that only she can tell.
And they all learned.
Your students are most likely familiar with the concept of dressing up as their favorite character from Japanese animation, comic books or TV shows, so why not take the concept into the classroom? Dress up as one of the characters from the novel or short story you are discussion. Transform into Ibong Adarna, perhaps (and teach the lessons from the bird’s POV!). If the science lesson is about atoms, you can dress up as an atom just by using old newspaper and some paint. This can definitely help hold their attention, at least.
Albert says: “Your costumes don’t have to be elaborate and grandiose. This is an opportunity for your imagination to take flight; you can become the Ibong Adarna just by wearing a paper beak and sticking some colored feathers in your hair. If a character or concept that you want to cosplay has a complicated costume, simplify it. Your students’ imagination will complete the costume for you.”
Stories are made up of parts. So what you’d do is break up your story into parts, put them in sheets of papers, and have your students arrange them according to the proper sequence. This is a fun way for your students to really understand your lessons, whether it’s a story, procedure, cycle of any other thing that goes through a series of steps. Just make sure that they’re having a fun time figuring out the right sequence of your chain of events. It’s a guaranteed way to ensure they all learn.
Albert says: You can always have each student do this independently. Of course, it’s way better if this is done by groups or by the whole class working as one. Increase the fun factor by hiding pieces of paper in and around the classroom so they’d first have to search for them. The most important tip of all? Allow them to make noise. It’s when you’d know they’re enjoying and learning.
Take a picture or draw an illustration that’s related to your lessons, paste it on a piece of cardboard, and cut it up as a puzzle that your students can put back together, individually or in groups. This is an excellent way to introduce any new topic to your class. And depending on the difficulty level of your puzzle, it can be the perfect interaction activity for your students. Use this creative approach to kickstart the discussion by asking your students to share their thoughts and opinions about the image they just assembled.
Albert says: “Obviously, with students divided into teams, this can be a good game to play in class. It’s also an innovative way for you to make individual learning more fun for your young learners. Be creative with your visuals. Add some suspense by cutting up the images in such a way that would make it difficult for them to guess the image. This will make the activity more fun and exciting.”
Present a new topic through storytelling. Make it informative. Write a script that uses several keywords that will appear several times during the story. Assign an action for each key word and have your students perform the action every time they hear the key word (For instance, have your students say “Whoosh!” and wave their arms whenever they hear the word “Wind”). This approach allows you to introduce a new lesson to your class in a way that’s fun, interactive and memorable.
Albert says: “This is a very powerful technique for any teacher, even those who are not comfortable with teaching in a very expressive way. With the right script and the right attitude, you can show your students that you’re not such a boring teacher after all. Just deliver the story aloud, with gusto, so that your students can follow your lead and act with gusto. Trust me, they will remember your lesson.”