Phenomenon-driven storylines
The Shift to Storylining in the Science Classroom
Why Change?
The ultimate goal for our students should be to allow them to become self-directed learners so they can be successful in any situation once they leave the classroom. This was a primary motivation of the National Framework for Science Education that led to the creation of the Next Generation Science Standards. These documents are not checklists of content to cover like the standards of the past. Instead, they provide a holistic view of how students learn science best, all based on decades of learning research. This fundamental shift is bigger than a classroom, a school, a district, or even your State; this is a national push to allow our students to be able to compete globally.
What has already been acknowledged is what students take with them from what is taught in the science classroom. It is not the content we hope they will remember, but the practice of science, the skills needed to figure out problems and critically think to make sense of our world, that students will carry with them to college and career. In Appendix C of the Next Generation Science Standards, former president of the National Academy of Sciences Bruce Alberts is quoted as stating “rather than learning how to think scientifically, students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts.” This sums up the major shift that must occur if students are to be prepared for post-secondary education and careers.
Science classrooms are now focused on the Three Dimensions which go beyond content and address these important science practices. The Three Dimensions that are now being employed and assessed in science classrooms include Disciplinary Core Ideas (content), Science and Engineering Practices, and Cross-cutting Concepts (concepts that help link ideas across disciplines). So how do we change what goes on in science classrooms to make these fundamental shifts work for students?
What is Storylining?
Storylining is more than just curriculum; it is a pedagogical method that increases student ownership over their learning by putting them in the driver’s seat. By focusing on the coherence that leads students from lesson to lesson over just the instructional flow that was the focus of traditional classroom curricula, students see the motivation to move to the next lesson. It also integrates the overarching concepts of science within storyline units, unlike the fragmented and disconnected stand-alone units of the past. Storylining is cyclical in nature, always leading with authentic, real-world phenomena, and revisiting the overarching concepts in different contexts throughout the school year. Students should have opportunities to transfer their conceptual understanding to new situations that presented to them and this transfer should be the focus of three-dimensional assessments.
What does this require from students?
Students who have been exposed to traditional science teaching may struggle with this change. However, this change is absolutely critical and necessary to them growing as learners. Students who have found success in listening to lectures, rote memorization, and regurgitation of facts may find storylining frustrating at first. This is to be expected and completely normal. Even recent studies have found that though students claim to have learned more from lecture, they actually learn more from active learning. To increase the level at which students learn, they need to be engaged in activities that involve figuring out over just learning about (active learning over passive learning), collaborative problem-solving, higher-level critical thinking, and productive struggle. Students must understand that the struggle is important! This is why standardized tests, college lecture halls, and other more traditional measures of success are continually changing to more contextual, active learning.
Research also supports the teacher acting as a facilitator of learning, not a deliverer of information. Many states evaluate their teachers using the Charlotte Danielson rubric which places “teacher as facilitator” in the highest category. Storylining also is supported by the research, also outlined in NGSS Appendix C, which details how the focus on the Science and Engineering Practices prepares students for the many experiences students face after they leave their science course.
The success of Storylines
The storylines created for teachers, by teachers, are being used in high school science classrooms in at least 40 states and several countries with great success. The lead writers were extensively trained by some of the national leaders in science education in order to create model curricula that aligned with the National Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards. There are also published storylines for K-12 science classrooms available at nextgenstorylines.org that follow the same pedagogical methods in encouraging students to think, problem-solve, and become self-directed learners.
What can I expect to learn?
The map on the right shows the progression
storyline-FINAL-to send.pdf