Every lesson in the classroom tells a story. Whether it’s the story of how rain evaporates, how dinosaurs became extinct or how the seasons change, everything can be framed in a narrative. In fact, there’s a lot of evidence that supports teaching with a storytelling method. What’s more is that you can couple this method of introducing new concepts with visual diagrams or graphic organizers to better solidify new ideas in your students’ minds.
Studies Support Storytelling, Brain-Based Education and Visual Learning
According to Educational Specialist Lisa Kirby, storytelling is compatible with the popular brain-based learning strategy.1 Leslie Owen Wilson at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point says brain-based learning or education is “a comprehensive approach to instruction using current research from neuroscience” that “emphasizes how the brain learns naturally.”2 In a study mentioned by Kirby, framing concepts in a narrative or story helped students recall more than 90 percent of the information that they were exposed to.
Studies have also shown that the use of visual learning and graphic organizers improves students’ learning comprehension and retention. These two – storytelling and visual learning – can improve students’ overall comprehension, retention and ability to recall information.
Use Graphic Organizers to Tell a Story
Kirby says to ask your students to create a story to help them recall the multi-step process of different learning material, like the biogeochemical cycle for example. You could ask your students to create a visual diagram that explains each step in the storytelling process with a graphic organizer in Inspiration®, Kidspiration® or Webspiration Classroom™ service. In fact, in Inspiration, we have a template titled “Biogeochemical Cycle,” which helps students visualize the story and further place the new learning into memory.
By framing the learning in a story and representing that story visually, your students will preform better in retention exercises. So how are you helping your students learn new complex processes with storytelling and visual learning?
Thanks for stopping by!
Mona Westhaver
President and Co-founder, Inspiration Software
- Kirby, Lisa. “Differentiated Instruction and Brain-Based Learning.” Web. 17 May 2011. <http://www.thearcoftexas.org/site/DocServer/Kirby_Thursday_DI_and_Brain_Based_Learning.pdf?docID=335>. [↩]
- “Overview of Brain-based Education.” University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Web. 17 May 2011. <http://www.uwsp.edu/education/lwilson/brain/bboverview.htm>. [↩]
