Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Power of Storytelling

Yikes! It has been forever since I blogged. I sure hope I remember how. Things are going great in my first year of teaching, but as expected, things are crazy busy. I feel like I am desperately treading water, and the time just flies by each day. I look back each day, hoping that I taught the students something, but hardly remembering all the lessons we did. The good news is that I do feel like I am keeping my head above water... I am certainly not drowning, but it's not a leisurely swim either.

I had a realization this week about my style of teaching. I have a student who goes to the extra help room for every independent work assignment. So, he is with me for the lesson, and then goes to do the work in The Learning Center, or TLC. This week I sent him with a math workbook page practicing multiplication with zeroes using mental math and turning them into 2x1 multiplication problems.... things like 80x2,100 or 90x500. The teacher in TLC called me to ask how long we'd been doing 2x2 multiplication because the student wasn't getting it. I explained to her that the way I had taught it was not as a 2x2, but as a 2x1, adding the zeroes at the end. And I told her the story I told my students... the story of ghost zeroes.

As I was teaching how to work the problem 80x2,100, I concocted a story of ghost zeroes. I suppose I was inspired with Halloween approaching. I wanted the students to set the zeroes aside, but not forget them, so I told the students they were ghosts who flew away temporarily so that we could work the 2x1 problem of 8x21. And then the ghost zeroes flew back at the end to give us our final answer. I even rewrote the problem with dotted zeroes instead of solid ones.

That's when I think I really realized the power of storytelling. Students who had been struggling to grasp the concept caught on right away. Even my true strugglers who joined me at my small group table for independent work time, caught on. All I had to say was where are your ghost zeroes, and they wrote the problem just the way I had and got the correct answer.

Then I thought some more and realized, I tell A LOT of stories when I teach. Whether I am weaving them to "explain" a concept, telling the story of something that happened in history, or telling a personal story to help relate a concept or bring it to life for the students, I tell stories. And I don't just stand there droning on. I TELL the story... I am really quite spazzy. I think it helps hold my students' attention and keep them interested in what we are talking about. And hopefully the end result is that, not only do they learn the concept, but they remember the story and take it with them forever.

Whether you are classroom teacher, substitute teacher, specialist, or support teacher, you can always use storytelling to help your students understand anything. All it takes it a little creativity and some energy to tell it.

9 comments:

  1. If not for my skills as a story teller, and most children's overjoyed reaction to it, I dare say I might have left subbing ions ago. Kids meet me once and forever after, the rewards throughout the day are 'if they get everything done, we'll have enough time at the end for another one of my stories.' Teaching children is an opportunity to be a stand-up comedian, minus the hecklers. I ham it up, create voices, draw, whatever it takes. And that nature in me does flow into the actual lesson teaching aspects of the day as well. If we intend to grab & retain kids' attention, we must be at least as animated as they are and not be embarrassed to do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so correct! And, yes, I think it's even more important to make that impression as a sub.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for sharing!! So true my kinders that aren't able to recognize many numbers are getting subtraction because my subtraction stories amuse them!!! You inspired me to write a post about my subtraction stories!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I'm glad I'm not the only crazy one. :-)

      Delete
  3. Cute- you gotta do what you gotta do for that information to "stick!" Good job!

    Always A Lesson

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the read. I love the idea of reading out sections in 5-10 minute intervals. Study has shown the brain can retain information for a certain amount of time. Cut the stories into sections and discuss each section. Good read. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW! What a great blog idea. I want to blog about your site and let all the substitute teachers in my district know about this site. Wonderful information!! I found you through TBTS.

    TheJugglingTeacher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! You are most welcome to blog about my site. Just include links, and I'll be your best friend. LOL!

      Delete
  6. Taldeen manufacturing plastic products like green ouse, green house cover, agricultural solutions products, fumigation films, Hay cover, open uv block plastic films, geomembrane plastic, high thickness films, high thickness rolls, five layer extrusion films, up to 18 meter wide films, mulch films. These are the agricultural solutions products of Taldeen. Green house cover

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...