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Stories are to humans as water is to fish. We are constantly surrounded by them without necessarily being aware of it. But what is a story and what does it look like?
Second City, the renowned Chicago-based improvisational theatre company, defines a story simply as:
‘A character in pursuit of a goal in the face of some challenge or obstacle.’
Let's look at how this applies to a famous example: The Wizard of Oz.
• The main character: Dorothy
• Her goal: To follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City and find her way home to Kansas.
• The obstacle: The Wicked Witch of the West, who has a vendetta against Dorothy, has other plans for her.
Here are three more examples. Can you identify these stories?
- Two young lovers want to live happily ever after. But their feuding families won’t allow it.
- A high school teacher gets involved in a life of crime, determined to secure his family's financial future before terminal cancer claims his life.
- A humble hero must destroy an evil object to save his world. But the object corrupts all who possess it, tempting them with power and drawing them into darkness.
Answers:
- Romeo and Juliet
- Breaking Bad
- Lord of the Rings
[Note: this is a game you can play in class. Take it in turn to describe a famous story according to the character-goal-obstacle format and find out who can identify the book, TV series, film, etc.]
The power of 'What happens next?'
Great stories thrive on uncertainty. They create questions that keep us engaged:
- Will Dorothy get to the Emerald City, find The Wizard of Oz and return to Kansas? Or will the witch stop her?
- Can Romeo and Juliet's love survive their families' feud?
- Will Walter White successfully launder his money for his family before he dies?
Such will-they-or-won’t-they questions are called 'stakes' and all stories have them. They are what keep us turning pages late into the night or binging on Netflix series. They tap into our natural curiosity, compelling us to keep going. They are fundamental for keeping readers, viewers and listeners interested, invested and involved.
Story stakes in the classroom
This same principle can revolutionise your teaching. If we want to create periods of prolonged student curiosity, a little bit of story awareness can go a long way. It may require rethinking how we plan and structure our lessons, but the payoff is worth it.
When students are genuinely curious about what comes next, engagement follows naturally.
Unfortunately, traditional English teaching approaches sometimes miss opportunities to build suspense and engagement. For example, lessons that must always focus on a grammar point or require us to explicitly state our teaching aims at the start of the class can kill the curiosity.
How would you feel if you were learning a language and your teacher began by saying:
'Hello students. Today you are going to learn to talk about things you like doing and say how often you like doing them. This is a class on adverbs of frequency. Please open your books at page 37.’
Rather than telling students what they will learn before going through the motions, we can use story to create immersive learning experiences with questions and moments of discovery along the way.
Experienced teachers know this and understand the value of:
- Starting the class with an intriguing question or puzzle.
- Turning grammar points into problems to be solved.
- Presenting vocabulary through stories.
- Creating mini-cliffhangers between classes to spark curiosity for the next class.
- Using real-world materials with compelling stories as springboards for discussion.
Learning a language is an adventure. By understanding some basic storytelling principles, we can create lessons that captivate students and make them keep coming back for more.
The LessonStream lesson plan library
If you are interested in using story to structure your classes and engage students, look out for the new LessonStream lesson plan library.
Each activity makes use of a narrative from a short film, viral video, photograph, urban legend or other story-based materials. Each lesson plan includes detailed teaching notes and offers step-by-step guidance to show you how to spark curiosity, boost creativity and fuel communication.
Thank you for reading!
Jamie
