Call on the twin pillars of variety and storytelling to give your learners different routes into the learning happening in your classroom

General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of things the teacher can do.

Making use of Different Media

Variety is the spice of life.

So the saying goes.

And it’s true.

Variety creates motivation.

It brings novelty.

And that is both engaging and motivational.

One way of drawing learners into the learning is to use a variety of media in your planning.

Here are twenty examples:

Television programmes
Films
Cartoons – animated or drawn
Radio programmes
Songs
Internet sites
Interactive games
Books
Worksheets
Articles
Images
Playlists
Podcasts
Paintings
Historical documents
Sounds
Magazines
Newspapers
Objects
Leaflets

Calling on a selection of media over the course of a term, a year or even a scheme of work means providing learners with a variety of ways to access information and ideas.

There are three key benefits of this.

First, by using a range of media you are increasing the chances that all learners in your class will find at least one medium that suits them well and through which they can come to understand ideas and information with ease.

Second, variety is good in itself in the classroom.

It helps to raise engagement and maintain motivation.

It creates difference through contrast and, in so doing, generates novelty. Something to which we are all drawn.

Third, the medium is the message.

Using a range of media means that you are presenting learners with ideas and information that are conveyed and structured differently.

There is a qualitative difference in the communication that takes place through one medium as compared to another.

For example, consider what a television programme can do in comparison to a book – and, indeed, vice versa.

A good way to incorporate a variety of media into a single lesson is by using the Activity Stations group work task.

Learners work in groups and must rotate round a series of different stations you’ve set up in the classroom, all connected to the topic of study.

For example, you might have a laptop playing a video, another one playing a song, a collection of postcards at a third station, an article at a fourth, a set of large, glossy photographs at a fifth, a laptop running an interactive game at the sixth and a book at the seventh.

While this takes time to plan and set up, the benefits are high – in terms of engagement, motivation and learning.

(Alternatively, look to use a range of media across a term, a topic or a sequence of weeks.)

How does using different types of media help you to differentiate?

Different media play to different learners’ strengths.

By using a range, you will be doing your best to engage learners, giving them various opportunities to connect with the subject content.

Variety is likely to increase motivation which, in turn, increases the chance of learners engaging with the lesson and making progress.

Different mediums allow information to be conveyed and structured in different ways.

Some learners may find it easier to assimilate knowledge in one way rather than another.

Calling on the Power of Narrative

Storytelling is an excellent tool for creating engagement, contextualising concepts and explaining what things mean.

Much media is concerned with storytelling, of one form or another.

Stories that have a human element to them (and most do) give learners a point of reference with which they can identify.

Here are five ways you can use narrative to engage your learners and, in the process, differentiate.

Concepts Embedded in Stories

Concepts, by their nature, are abstract.

When introducing learners to new concepts, you can use narrative to bring these down to a more concrete level.

This helps all learners gain purchase and understanding.

Those learners who struggle with abstract thinking will benefit the most.

An example is a lesson looking at the concept of justice.

This could be contextualised through a story about an individual’s fight to overturn a miscarriage of justice.

The concept of justice is deeply embedded in such a story, helping learners make sense of it (and aiding subsequent recall).

New Topic Stories

Stories are an excellent way of introducing learners to a new topic.

Of particular note here are stories conveyed through films.

The multisensory experience increases the story’s effect on those watching and immediately draws learners into the world of the storyteller.

You don’t have to watch an entire film.

A short extract is usually enough.

For example, imagine a Year 4 teacher decides to begin a unit of work on recycling by showing ten minutes of Wall-E.

Or a maths teacher starts a unit of work on calculus by playing a five-minute clip from the film Stand and Deliver.

In both cases, learner expectations are upended, and the film contextualises the learning that is to follow in a completely different way.

Use Narrative to Explain Key Points

Tell a story to your class to explain a key point or to convey an important piece of information.

By putting what you want learners to know into a narrative form, you often make it more memorable than would otherwise be the case.

This has been known for thousands of years.

Examples of storytellers conveying messages include the Buddha, Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. to name but a few.

Use Narrative to Create Coherence

Try building a clear narrative into an individual lesson or across a scheme of work.

Share this with learners and then continually return to it.

The goal is to help learners order, store and contextualise new learning in relation to the story.

For example, a geography teacher might plan a lesson on population change and build it around the story of house in the suburbs of a city.

Or a Year 5 teacher might plan a unit of work about the solar system, and wrap this up in the story of the development of space flight in the middle of the twentieth century.

Dramatise Your Stories

An important element of storytelling is drama.

When using narrative to explain things or to contextualise ideas, make use of drama to further engage learners and to heighten the tension in what you are doing.

Dramatic techniques include pausing, use of the body, altering the speed, tone and volume of your voice, exaggerated facial expressions and irony.

How does using narrative help you to differentiate?

Narrative can present complex or abstract information in a way that is easier to access and simpler to understand.

It is a way to help all learners come to terms with the content of a lesson.

Contextualising ideas through narrative helps learners to locate information within their own worldview and life experience.

This makes it easier for them to assimilate and interact with that information.

The dramatic element of storytelling is a good way to engage all learners, but particularly those who struggle to assimilate information and ideas that are abstract or complex.

Stories are easy to remember.

You can use them to help all learners memorise and recall key information.