5 Ways to Motivate Students Using Stories

It's true that a key to teaching is to ask the right questions, but it is also important for students to have the motivation to want to know the answers. The best way to motivate them is to use a compelling story. Incorporating a story as an active part of a lesson will keep students engaged and focused. 

You can make up stories, tell your own stories, source them off the internet, or find them in books. It doesn't matter where you find them, but they should have characters in them that create empathy and stir emotion. Students will relate to characters that solve problems or undergo some kind of transformation. Here are five ways to use stories in the classroom.

1. Introduce a concept

Straight facts and figures do little to capture attention, whereas a story can make a powerful impact. If you want to introduce the concept of climate change, for example, hitting students with too many facts can overwhelm them and even frighten them. 

Many stories have been written about climate change suitable for a variety of ages. You can use these stories to introduce the concept of climate change in a meaningful way. 

For example, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss was written long before climate change became a household term. It is a wonderful story about the dangers of disrespecting and polluting the earth and reminds us of the part we have to play. 

2. Introduce a new topic

According to assignment helper from Melbourne, at the beginning of a lesson, the best way to introduce a new topic is to tell a story. It doesn't have to be a long and complex one. For example, if you want to teach students about idioms, you can tell a simple story about how you love to play hockey and you went into town to buy a new hockey stick. 

You saw one that you really liked but when the assistant told you how much it cost, you said: "Wow, it really costs an arm and a leg!" This opens the door to talking about how funny idioms can be and you could get students to tell stories using their own examples. 

Perhaps you are teaching your class fractions and division for the first time. This is where your story can benefit from some props. Magicians often ask a helper to come to the front and when they try to juggle, they break plates and the magician puts them together. A magician type story like this using your own props can work well in math when trying to teach fractions and divisions. 

Many parents hear the request, "Do my math homework for me," but they often battle to communicate even the most basic math skills to their children. Telling stories with props is one of the easiest ways to make even complex topics easier to grasp. 

3. Nurture listening skills

Listening skills are important in every facet of everyday life. There is no better way to improve listening skills and attention span than by telling a good story. The best way to hook the listeners is to tell a story with a problem, so they want to keep listening to hear the solution. This is a tactic you can use for just about any lesson. 

If you're describing any process, you can create a world in which it is missing to illustrate its importance. 

For example, if you were teaching the concept of photosynthesis, you could tell a story about a world where the flowers didn't have any leaves. Students love a story with some mystery and they will immediately start to try and figure out a solution for themselves. 

4. Encourage interaction

Co-constructed stories or unfinished stories encourage interaction. You can tell the first half of a story presenting a problem and then divide students into groups to think about solutions. 

There are many free interactive story resources online. An engaging, interactive audiobook may be able to do what boring textbooks or abstract concepts can't. It makes learning more relevant to reluctant students. Here are some interactive short stories that are great for young children. 

5. Boost creativity 

When students listen to a story, they have to use their imaginations. This process encourages them to form innovative ideas and encourages free thinking. You can help with the process by engaging as many of their senses as you can transport them to a different world. 

If you're giving a geography lesson, for example, you could tell a story about a child who lives in a specific country, play a song from that country, give students a picture to hold, and even offer a type of food the child would eat to activate touch and smell. This may seem like hard work, but your story will create a lasting impression. 

Conclusion

Telling a story is a powerful way to communicate, touching emotions and humanizing learning. It is an important way to communicate truth and provides a connection point between two people, providing meaning, context and deeper understanding of the world. It helps students to learn difficult concepts and introduces them to new vocabulary. 

It brings dull topics to life. Stories can also boost creative, teach moral values, encourage interaction and increase verbal skills. They stay with people far longer than facts and statistics and if teachers become great storytellers, what they teach will be remembered for years to come.