The Power of Telling Stories in the Classroom

At the high school we were recently treated to a couple of lessons on "real talk" by one of our own teachers.  Real Talk describes his practice of communicating with his students in way that is meaningful for both parties.  Thinking of the way that we talk to our students forces us to ask a couple of tough questions like; what are the do the words we use matter and are there shared experiences we can draw upon to resolve conflicts.

To give us a sense of his methodology the teacher Geoffrey told us a couple of stories from his experiences; one was from an experience he had in college and two were experiences from his classroom.  Each of these stories had all of us on the edges of our seats!

Geoffrey has the reputation of being an excellent classroom teacher.  I know him a bit personally and find him to be delightful and engaging.  But I've never been in his classroom so I don't really know that much about his practice.  However, when he started telling us (the whole faculty which is around 80 teachers) stories from his experiences I had an immediate sense of the power of his teaching.  

Now, I fancy myself something of a story teller.  I love to tell stories to my classes that highlight certain physics principles.  The kids love them, remember them, and often site them during class discussions and even on tests!  

This got me wondering; what is it about Geoffrey's story telling (and story telling in general) that makes it so (anecdotal-ly) effective in the classroom.  In reflecting on Geoffrey's stories I realized that he opened up to us and shared part of his history with us; he let us into his world.  By connecting us to his past he's allowing us to share an experience with him.  By providing that context he is creating a bridge for us to move forward together in shared understanding.  

Stories allow us to give a part of ourselves to the kids - which allows them to give a part of themselves to us.

One of my favorite movies is a 1987 Joe Mantegna film called "House of Games".  It's a con man flick.  To me the most interesting part occurs when Mantegna's character is explaining the origin of the term "con man".  According to the movie the term comes from "confidence man".  He says that the key to gaining someone's confidence (in order to dupe them) is to give them your confidence first; to put your trust in them.  

Not that I'm saying teaching is a con game, but if you expect kids to be themselves with you, being yourself (open and honest) with them is a good start and telling stories is a great way to do this.

I didn't see that one coming...a student misconception

I teach introductory physics.  I don't teach math.  I am not trained as a math teacher nor am I well read in math education.  So I guess I'm not too upset with myself that this happened:

The class in question is the lowest level of physics that we teach.  Almost every kid in the class needs it to graduate.   50% of the class has a diagnosed learning disability - and consequently the class is co-taught with a learning specialist.

These kids have never really experienced a ton of success in school.  So we go out of our way to create a learning environment that is as engaging as possible, underpinned with solid pedagogy.

One of the skills I'd like the kids to have is the ability to find the slope of a line on a graph (with data table).  Today - before I asked them to calculate the slope I asked them if they know what "slope" meant.  I don't normally take student silence to mean that they don't know - more than they are unwilling to be the first to share.  However, this seemed different.  

So I waited (I'm big into "wait time") and finally one kid blurted out, "You mean y = mx +b ?"  This got nods and murmurs from the other kids.  So I asked, "Which part of y = mx + b  represents the slope?"  More silence...more waiting.  

New strategy...I drew the diagram shown below on the board.

And asked them, "Which of these do you think has the largest slope?"  
After some more waiting...one of the kids volunteered, "They are all straight so they have the same slope!"  

Um...what?

I definitely didn't see that one coming.  Is this part of a math misconception with which I'm not familiar?  

After polling a bit deeper I heard one of the kid say - they all have a slope of 1; don't they?

I was thinking - what is going on here?  Clearly they're working from a play book which I've never seen.  Where does this stuff come from?

So what's the point?  I didn't know that kids had this issue - and I wouldn't have known if I hadn't been doing the Socratic Dialogue thing.  I was asking questions and WAITING some answers.  

What did I do?  I wanted to connect the vocabulary word "slope" to something that they have a concrete feel for.  I asked them if there was an everyday word that we could connect with slope.  [Granted I don't think that slope is that tough of a word but it has been used for them in a math class context so they are confused because of the abstract nature of their math classes].  I asked who of them has ever been hiking.  They all raised their hands.  Then I asked which of the lines above would be the most difficult to hike up.   I actually drew little hikers on the graph.  

They agreed that the blue would be the hardest to climb.  Why?  It is the steepest.  This was a consensus answer.  When I asked them to rate the slopes again one of the girls said, "Wait...slope is just steepness?"  

Eyes wide open - mine!

What to do on the First Day of School

What to do on the First Day of School?  This is a question that lots of teachers ask themselves every school year.  For the past 6 years I've been doing the same thing and will do it again this year because it is awesome!

On the first day I do a series of discrepant event demonstrations.  There are about 8 of them - I can describe them another time - and I like them because they fun and interesting on the first day of school.  But there is more to a good demonstration than entertaining the kids.

Too often traditional science teachers do demos as a "show-and-tell".  Where they do a demo and then launch into a full explanation of the science involved.  Even worse are the teachers who do a demo and then they challenge the kids to explain the science with no context or models to apply.  

Current research into demos shows that these methods are ineffective.  http://bit.ly/PGSRxv


"We find that students who passively observe demonstrations understand the underlying concepts no better than students who do not see the demonstration at all, in agreement with previous studies. Learning is enhanced, however, by increasing student engagement; students who predict the demonstration outcome before seeing it, however, display significantly greater understanding."

No kidding!

So here's what I do:  
First I describe the event (without the outcome). 
Next I ask them to predict the outcome (I like to give them multiple choice).
Then they have to vote!  I mean they really have to vote - out loud, in front of their peers.  
Once they've all committed to their votes I do the demo.

At this point I don't care about the actual answer.  Its all about engaging the students in their own learning.  This really sets them up for the whole class.  There are no answers from me - you've got to figure it out for yourself.

Advice to New Modelers

Here in Michigan school doesn't start until after Labor Day.  So I'm sitting here watching last night's episode of Breaking Bad (how awesome is it) and thinking about the first few days of school.  I still get nervous before that first day.  I suppose that'll probably never go away.

This doesn't compare however to how nervous I was before the first day of school after my first modeling workshop; I was freaking out!  How do you go about implementing a whole new curriculum and process?

I was, like many new modelers, to just say "forget this" and go back to what I was doing before the workshop - I was doing just fine.  But deep down I know that we all know that modeling is so much better; how could you really go back?

So what advice can I give?  Below is some advice from two experienced modeling workshop leaders.  Read it and take it to heart.  Good luck this year!

Larry Dukerich has led many Modeling Workshops.
He wrote to his new modelers in Aug. 2010:

Implementing bits and pieces of modeling is generally not as effective as trying to adopt it full force.  However, external constraints and possible discomfort with aspects of it may make it not feasible to jump in with both feet all the time. I would say that using the worksheets, quizzes and tests in a traditional sort of way is doomed to failure.  One possible compromise would be to try to do as much of a given unit using a modeling approach as one could. If equipment or other constraints are too great of an impediment for some topics/concepts, then teachers can tell students that they are returning temporarily to a more traditional approach, but plan to get back to modeling as soon as possible.

Jess Dykes, the mechanics Modeling Workshop leader at that site (Mansfield University in PA), added:

I will echo the sentiment regarding full implementation offered by Larry. While full implementation provides a challenge for teachers in their first year of modeling, if they revert back to traditional methods, this will undermine the method, and will not produce the engagement or improvement that everyone is hoping for.  So, as Larry stated, the teachers should implement as much as possible, and "revert" as infrequently as possible, and more importantly, continue to use the modeling method as much as possible.  The fewer transitions the students perceive, the better the buy-in from students, parents, etc.

Next, on the subject of teachers who are dealing with the extra challenge of teachers in their district who are not modelers, I cannot offer much advice. My own district went to the process as a group, and we were a "team" the entire time; talking, reflecting, rethinking, re-attempting, etc. as a group.  Which, of course, led to myself and Ray Howanski (a former chemistry teacher at Ridley) becoming workshop leaders.  I've also been extremely fortunate in that we have had a great deal of support from our administrators, on both the school and district levels.  I would suggest that the support from administrators would be the first line of "defense", and that using the FCI, ABCC, etc. would be beneficial tools as well.  I would suggest that those teachers consider asking their fellow teachers to give the FCI, ABCC, whichever is appropriate for them, as pre- and post-tests (post-tests only, if both are not possible) to compare results.  Even if the post scores are not dramatically different after the first year, it is my opinion that the low scores on such an "easy" test can be eye-opening for all but the most stubborn "traditionalist" teachers.  Also, the research for the effectiveness of modeling is available on the modeling website, and I recommend that it be distributed to anyone who wants to know more about it, even if the question may not be posed in the nicest manner.