Community Through Technology: An Online ESL Instructor Toolkit

Making Connections with Storification

In Bruner’s exploration of mind and culture (1990), the author offered a critique of cognitive science’s focus on the mind as an information processor, saying that this approach had led the field astray from the human connection to the mind, where study of the mind’s connection to meaning, culture, and the search for meaning, the primary pursuit of humans, was neglected. The author discusses the psychological concept of framing, wherein human beings organize experiences in their mind by segmenting events in the world and characterizing how they flow together (56). The typical way people do this is in narrative form, which helps individuals make sense of what they experience in the world, and evidence has shown that “what does not get structured narratively suffers loss in memory” (56). Put another way by Dickey (2011), “narrative is ubiquitous in human reasoning and allows humans to assign meaning to their experiences” (457).

Hammond put forth that information itself, to be learned, must form a relationship with prior knowledge (2014) and that one way to create this relationship is through storification, which can be a powerful pedagogical tool to aid in building connections and collaboration. Also referred to as story-based learning and narrative-centered learning, storification broadly refers to turning a learning activity or content into a fictional or nonfictional narrative to make the activity more engaging (Deterding, 2016). By presenting content through story, students make connections between the new content and the known content that makes up parts of the narrative, and they also make connections between the new content and their familiarity with the concept of stories and story structures. The incorporation of storification in a class can increase students’ engagement (Prestopnik & Tang, 2015) and improve students’ learning, retention and motivation, while also bringing a level of enjoyment to learning activities (Akkerman et al., 2009; Dickey, 2011).

According to Hammond, storifying content promotes student learning, and storification can help students attach meaning to new content to aid in their understanding of abstract concepts by presenting those concepts in relatable ways (2014). The author also notes how collectivist cultures rely upon the oral tradition of stories (along with music and repetition) to transfer and build new knowledge, and that the narrative and social engagement involved in this process reinforce learning and make that learning more “sticky.” She notes that Latino, African, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian countries all have long traditions of oral storytelling. Activities where students themselves “storify” the key ideas and concepts of new content will foster deeper learning with more connections by “helping students work through the four cognitive routines: identifying similarities and differences, finding relationships, noticing how things fit together whole-to-part in a system, and recognizing point of view” (135). Employing narrative as a pedagogical tool, the author states, “lets the brain take big ideas, abstract concepts, and dry facts and transforms them into something we can more easily remember” (135).

Aura & Hamari reported on the impact of creating an immersive storified experience into the pedagogy of 6th – 8th grade classes. The experience was immersive in that the teachers “transformed the majority of their curricula, classrooms and school hallways to align with fictional (e.g., Harry Potter, Disney, Star Wars) and nonfictional (e.g., Grand Canyon, sports arena, ocean) worlds through re-designed curricula and unique classroom design so as to create engaging, comfortable and home-like school experiences for students” (1). In the ethnographic case study, the authors were interested in learning how teachers employ storification in their pedagogy and what impact storification has on teacher and student “attitudes, experiences, and behavior.” Storification aligns with a constructivist, interactive approach, and thus can lead to a more socially connected classroom (2). The authors note that the K-8 school in the study viewed storification as a continuum, where some instructors only had their environment physically “storified,” some only incorporated storification into their pedagogy, and others did both. This insight can bring comfort to ESL instructors looking to integrate storification into their pedagogy by making the prospect of employing storification in one’s own classroom less daunting, knowing that instructors can provide learning benefits to students by storifying only parts of their students’ instructional experience; to be beneficial, it is not required to make an immersive, semester-long narrative and tie every lesson to that narrative. The more one can do with storification, the more potential benefit, but small changes to the physical environment, to a single lesson, or to an assignment, can all have a positive impact. The authors found, through a series of interviews and focus groups over two weeks, that most teachers felt the storified elements contributed to higher levels of student engagement, interaction, and cooperation, with students “becoming more active with homework and participation,” and for the teachers, it “brought a new excitement to their job” (2021, p.5).

This podcast from three SEL teachers explores the cognitive why supporting the case for use of storification in the classroom and offers practicle tips.

Angela, Nic, and Kevin (Hosts). (2023). Using Storification to Engage Students [Audio podcast episode]. In A Slice of SEL. St. Croix River Education District. https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/scred-sel/episodes/41--Using-Storification-to-Engage-Students-e1upa4s/a-a9akkes

Heyward (2010) examines the idea that it is not only cognitive engagement that impacts how well students learn and understand new concepts, but that emotional engagement can also play a big role. Psychologists and neuroscientists have shown that when strong emotions are connected to an event, memory of the event is improved, and the author points to research that has linked drama as an effective mechanism to create emotional engagement and provided evidence showing that in adult and higher education, “role-play as a learning activity . . . improved learner understanding and engagement” (197). And while there is ample evidence, as discussed in this project, showing the benefit to students’ learning when they feel they are in a supportive community in the class, absence of conflict is not a requirement to make this happen. In fact, conflict engages our emotions directly and leads to more memorable experiences, with studies of students interacting in groups showing “the cognitive conflict that occurs between peers when they approach an issue from different perspectives is highly conducive to cognitive development” (198). While dramatic readings can help students connect more with the characters and their emotions and have been shown to help with literacy, Hayward points out, reading from a script can create a somewhat superficial emotional reaction, whereas dramatic role-playing can create more of an “immediate, real, and emotional” reaction, which benefits learning. However, role-play itself is not a guarantee of emotional engagement, so the author puts forth a framework and strategies they have used successfully to engage students emotionally with dramatic roleplay. First in the process is dividing students into three to five roles that all have perspectives on a controversial issue relevant to the course and providing students with background information and sources that inform those positions (the teacher, as well, should take on a role to enhance students’ belief in the dramatic world being created); followed by a period of “warm-up” informal role-playing; then followed by structured roleplay, which the teacher can begin with something like an “announcement from a state official regarding a proposed policy related to the central issue of concern," followed by submissions on the policy from each group; and finally, instructor-led reflection on the role-play, which includes students being able to see the source materials the other group used to support their perspectives. Using this process, the author found that “participants perceived that the emotional nature of the role-play assisted in the retention of key course concepts . . .” (201).

Noting how, while there is ample evidence to support the idea that narrative structure plays a central role in human cognition, research on narrative use as a pedagogical tool is limited, Dickey set out to investigate the impact of narrative design in a gamified learning environment on intrinsic motivation, curiosity, plausibility (“the interplay between the narrative storyline and the affordances of a game environment,” or what decisions the user understands as being available to them based upon the perceived boundaries of the gamified environment), and “transference of game-based experiences into pre-writing activities” (464). In the case study, 20 college writing students played a 3D, interactive, adventure-style murder mystery game that had a loose narrative and where students encountered clues to collect as evidence for their argumentations and made decisions on how to advance through the game. There was no single linear path through the game, and the goal was not to ‘win the game’, but rather, to construct a cohesive argument supported by direct evidence the students encountered. Dickey points out that while most uses of narrative in education involve timelines, “digital gaming environments illustrate how space and architecture can be used as compelling infrastructures for narrative, based on spatial relationships, rather than timelines,” and calls digital gaming environments “narrative spaces” (457). In the analysis of data collected through observation of student interactions, chat logs, observations of student activity in the computer lab, questionnaires, and informal interviews, the author found participants mostly seemed to be intrinsically motivated by the idea of participating in a “game” and noted that students were all familiar with the adventure-style genre of the game and “immediately looked for patterns to match their schema for how [the game] should work” (463). Students’ existing understanding of gamified environments, common game mechanics, and the role that narrative and character play in navigating a narrative-based environment can help students make connections with new knowledge they encounter in the narrative-based game. However, in designing these environments, attention should be paid to present all necessary information to students who may not be familiar with game-based mechanics to create a level starting point and mitigate any chances of negative impact on self-esteem and motivation if those with existing gaming experiences are perceived by those without as mastering activities much more quickly. Another method to mitigate this potential issue is to poll students to see who does have more experience with gaming, and then to disperse these students across all the groups. The authors also found that curiosity was invoked by the students, but with some it was due to the loose narrative and for others it was due to the physical environment of the game. Students used the loose narrative they encountered to develop their own narratives (theories) about who killed whom, how, and why, and students also came up with multiple scenarios, often with opposing scenarios argued with the same evidence, providing insight into “how small elements of narrative (evidence) evoked students’ existing narrative schemas” (467). These findings suggest that (1) structure of narrative can be used to increase students’ curiosity and therefore motivation, and (2) by carefully choosing what information to leave out of a narrative (for the students to fill in), an instructor can reinforce target concepts and invoke the students’ narrative schema to enhance memory of those concepts.

Hughes, et al. (2022) also note the power of story and narrative to increase student engagement and make complex topics or problems more relatable and understandable, but the authors focus on the power of story to engage with diverse perspectives and enhance empathy, a powerful force for building community. Indeed, as a tool for building connections, “the quickest path between yourself and another person is story” (Gargiulo, 2005, 21, as cited in Hughes, et al., 2022). ESL classes are often rich in perspectives and diversity, making them ideal educational settings for use of personal narrative to build community. As Hughes, et al. highlight, storytelling requires not only one student to conceive (most often through writing) and speak orally on a topic, but it also requires active listening on the part of the listeners, making this a powerful integrated skills activity. Employing storycrafting instruction, students can create compelling narratives based on their own experiences, and they can also storify targeted areas of the course content to engage with a topic area.

In addition to the connections between new content and prior knowledge that storification creates, it also provides for shared emotional experiences, which can be very powerful in strengthening those connections among students to build classroom community. Akkerman et al. made a distinction among three possible implementations of narrative in the learning environment, each of which involve a different way of experiencing a story, detailing these as (1) receiving a story, such as reading and watching as a story plays out and being unable to influence it, (2) constructing a story, where the student participates in building the story by deciding upon narrative elements, and (3) participating in the story, where the student takes on the role of an actor in the story and experiences and influences it in real time (2009). The authors found in their study that students showed higher levels of engagement and motivation when constructing the story and higher still when both constructing and participating, highlighting how the more engaged with and immersed in a story a student becomes, the greater the potential learning gains.

This podcast from the British Council's Teaching English series explores the use of story as a pedagogical tool for developing students' English skills.

Hamdan, W., & Sowton, C. (Hosts). (2023). How can we use 'story' to teach English? [Audio podcast episode]. InTeaching English. The British Council. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2023-02/TEBC2_E5_web.mp3

TEBC2_E5_web.mp3

How can we use 'story' to teach English?

A promising concept for online classes where students can both construct and participate in the story is a virtual field trip or virtual story building activity. Lei (2015) discussed the benefits of field trips from the literature, including preparing students for lifelong learning, aiding in achieving factual, conceptual, and affective objectives, and adding variety to the instructional activities, which can increase student motivation. The author then investigated the potential of virtual field trips, with virtual typically understood as students “visiting” a place via computer, without physically changing their location. Virtual field trips, the author puts forth, offer more flexibility since they do not have the same constraints of time, place, weather, and possible safety considerations as actual field trips. Disadvantages noted include possible technology related issues, that students are not able to use all five senses, challenges in aligning a virtual field trip with specific course goals, and the online environments are simplified versions of the actual environments. Many of these disadvantages can be mitigated in another take on the virtual field trip, as detailed by Hannans when discussing her experiences creating a virtual field trip experience for her students. The author sent students in her online nursing course out physically and asynchronously into the community to record their observations and then report back to the class in a video VoiceThread, using the VocieThread Mobile app, which allows users to record their surroundings as they report on something within those surroundings. For the specific activity, the students went out into the community to locate community health education and resources, such as cardiac health education resources and automatic external defibrillators. This type of activity holds many potential benefits for language learning students, presenting them with opportunities to go out into the community and engage with real-life language scenarios. A virtual field trip could use narrative as the foundation of the experience, with students choosing the roles they will play and/or the areas they will explore as a certain character to gain the desired information as called for in the activity. In addition, the instructor could use a mystery, quest, exploration, or any number of other storylines as the basis for the narrative and have students work in teams, each member gathering certain information and then coming back together synchronously or asynchronously to solve the problem or create an argument. This type of asynchronous interaction with the “outside world” towards a common purpose and shared goal has great potential for building community, and this type of activity could also be combined with any number of gamification techniques such as escape rooms to create a fully immersive, multimodal, multidimensional activity.