It seems a sensible place to begin a focus on how story telling can shape culture is to consider how to tell a good story. We all have examples and anecdotes either that we have directly experienced or that have been passed down to us by other members of staff.
Some people are great story tellers. There will be colleagues in the staff room holding everyone's attention through a tale of their previous lesson, but similarly, we will find some students more engaging based on their power to communicate. So what are they doing right? While they might be operating unconsciously, for others it needs to be a learned skill.
Science can help us. In a study conducted a Princeton University (Stephens, Silbert and Hasson 2010) clear relationships were found between a well told story and responses in the brain. Certain parts of the brain light up under an MRI scanner if a noise or taste is alluded to. Therefore, we need to prompt these responses with our stories.
Scienceofpeople.com gives five tips for a well told story which I have adapted for our context below.
#1 Don't commentate; describe
Most of the people we tell stories to in a school will have had similar experiences. We all have 'that' student and have worked with 'that' member of staff so a long monologue isn't necessary. Your audience probably already knows your characters. Instead, allow yourself to become specific. Who was there? What did the main characters say? What was the response of the room?
#2 Use sensory information
Activate the sensory cortex of your audience by focusing on the sounds and feelings in your story. If it takes place in a classroom then everyone has that experience. Tell them how it sounded and felt and they will immediately relate.
#3 Fill your stories with emotion
Don't leave out how you felt. Regardless of what some media might say we are not robots standing in front of a paid for PowerPoint asking teenagers to copy it down into exercise books. It's healthy to have emotions bouncing around as you teach and if you tell your audience these they will feel it too. Empathy causes a reaction in our brain and the feeling in your story begin to be mirrored. It helps to build trust and goes along way to the story becoming a lasting memory.
#4 Edit, Edit, Edit!
'Telling the truth in your stories isn't the same as telling EVERYTHING!". I have met a lot of students who have deployed that sentence very effectively. Think about what you want to get across from your story and what you want remembered and use details and tips from above to support this. Take almost everything else out. Does it matter that earlier in the lesson you wrote the wrong date on the board? No? So leave it out. Is it important that you had adjusted the seating plan 5 minutes before the start of the lesson? Yes? Then leave it in.
#5 Don't thrown in spoilers!
Stick to the order of that story so it replays in the same sequence as it happened. A smart way to think about it is to not give details that you didn't already know at that point. Let the tension remain in the story so your audience discovers things at the same pace as you.
Before we start to tell the stories that shape the culture of our schools, make sure you are telling the story in the right way. After all, what might a bad story tell stakeholders about the culture?
For more information look at
'How to Tell a Great Story: Learn Science of Storytelling' on scienceofpeople.com
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