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Teachers
Use The Story in Your Classroom!
Using media in the classroom is an excellent way to draw students into your lessons. The Story is particularly well-suited for children because the accounts are personal and very motivating.
Carolyn Dunnum is an AP European History teacher at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School in North Carolina. She heard an episode that included interviews with an ex-skinhead and a holocaust survivor. Carolyn wrote to say she would be using this program at the beginning of her upcoming semster. She added: "I think it's a perfect articulation of the perspective history offers, and the importance of learning and growing from the pains and
triumphs of history."
Interested in using the story in your classroom? Use these tips adapted from the WNET'S National Teacher Training Institute.
Before Class:
- Listen to the story
- You don't need to share the whole story with your class. Select one or two clips for students to listen to.
- Make sure you are ready. Have your computer or MP3 player connected to speakers.
- Have the story cued.
- Keep the lights on to ensure the listening is active.
During the Lesson:
- Begin with an introductory activity. Consider a fact-finding activity that determines "what I know already about the subject."
- Give students a Focus for Media Interaction: a specific task or responsibility to keep in mind while listening. This keeps students on-task, and directs the learning experience to the lesson's objectives.
- Pause a lot. You might pause to:
- Control the amount of information
- Check for comprehension
- Solicit inferences and predictions
- Define a word in context
- Highlight a point
- Ask students to make connections to other topics or real-world events
- Change the pace by asking students to talk about what they've heard
- Write in journals
After the Lesson:
Students should feel that what they've heard is important and is related to what they are learning. Consider concluding the lesson with hands-on activities, student-centered projects, and/or an investigation. Radio has the power to engage students' imaginations. Try this: Ask them to imagine what something looks like, or to draw what they heard.
