What is learning?
Learning is growth. Learning is seeing things from a new perspective. Last semester I had a class where we studied Web 2.0, and it was about web applications. One of the goals of this program was to become life-long learners. It is amazing to me all of the knowledge available to us. Their is more knowledge available then we could ever possibly dream to learn. A high school teacher told our class we are only allotted a gallon full of knowledge in a vast ocean of life. The more I learn the more I realize their is to know.
This week learning about the case based theory, I have been thinking a lot about storytelling. I use social stories quite a bit as a teacher, as more of a therapy item. For example, I wrote a story about the fire drill for an autistic student scared to death of the fire drills. It may have gone something like this...
Sometimes at school we have a fire drill. Often fire drills come as a surprise. The fire drill is not meant to scare people. It is so all of the students know what to do if their were a fire. We all have specific places to line up.......etc, etc.
I guess I was always amazed at how well these usually worked. It is only the truth, written as a story. But students could connect with them, illustrate them, it became such a help to them. Moreover, I love stories, some of the most interesting people I know are fantastic story tellers. They have a way of making stories come to life. I had a very theatrical history teacher, it was so much fun to learn about history through his stories. Learning can be best effectuated when told in story form.
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What a terrific idea to use stories as a way to deal with issues a student is having. Your students are lucky to have you! It makes sense, of course, that stories would be helpful. Think of all the children's books out there that are designed to help young people work through issues such as potty training, adoption, divorce, or anything, really. By reading or hearing a story you can experience something without actually having to experience it. You can learn in the safest way possible, and remember it because stories are memorable. Just saying, "Slow and steady wins the race" will have very little impact, but when that principle is combined with the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, suddenly everyone remembers and knows it.
ReplyDeleteI really love that you were able to use a story for a student who was having a difficulty about something. That is really good advice for alot of teachers to use. I agree with your view on storytelling. I really think it's an effective way to learn and can really enhance the subject being taught.
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