How ReTelling the Story Saved My Class
once upon a time
not so long ago and not so far away i
lived through what might be
every professor’s worst nightmare at
least pre-covet 19.
the semester started off great with
students eager to learn
prepared for class but about at midterms
five weeks into the semester about where
we are now
students started looking a little like
this
but what it feels like from the front of
the classroom is that it looks a little
more like this
as if the undead have all decided to
come to class
on the same day and i was
faced with a fork in the road how do i
engage
students in ignite learning how do i
invite
students into an experience that helps
them remember
that learning is a full contact sport
i learned that retelling the story was
one way that i could bring students into
a shared experience
my favorite illustration of this concept
occurred one day when i was telling the
story of king david a beloved king
in israel king david
from his palace saw a woman bathing on
her rooftop the woman’s name was
bathsheba
david summons bathsheba and sleeps with
bathsheba
and the first thing that bathsheba
utters in the narrative is
i am pregnant and so david summons uriah
bathsheba’s husband
expecting him to provide a cover-up for
what has happened in this situation
however uriah does not cross the
threshold of his home out of solidarity
with his comrades
who are expanding the territory of
david’s kingdom
and when that doesn’t work david sends
uriah to the front lines
the story was going along as normal
except today at this point in the story
one of my students responds oh
am i allowed to say that ted
anyway that was what the student said
and the student i think
got right what was happening in this
moment
and was invested in the moment and it
inspired me
to rethink how i engage my classes
when i tell these stories as if they’re
entertaining even if somewhat
problematic
and they are and when i teach them as if
there’s something
valuable to be gained from them
regardless of our faith or
ethical traditions and there is
i notice a palpable change in my
classroom
the energy goes up students respond they
react they smile they laugh and
sometimes
even swear and sometimes they tell
stories of their own
in response these stories are not just
long ago
and far away they beg retelling
just like any good story
education at its core is an act of
storytelling
as professors we tell stories that help
invite our students into different
experiences we tell stories that explain
the intricacies of the universe
rather through words or through formulas
or through numbers
we tell stories that wrap our students
as students
in different times different languages
different places
we tell stories of long ago and far away
of here and now hoping that this will
form our students into holistic
well-rounded individuals
this impulse is affirmed by the ancients
teachers of rhetoric who would prepare
students for public careers
would advocate for storytelling as a
vehicle for learning
it was able to ward off boredom and
useful
informing moral citizens
pseudo cicero who wrote his rhetorical
handbook adhering
in the first century bce
describes exactly what to do if your
hearers become
bored he says if your hearers have been
fatigued by listening
we shall open with something that may
provoke laughter
a fable a plausible story
an ironical inversion on based on the
meaning of a word an ambiguity an
innuendo
a banter a naivete you get the idea
i can’t help but think that pseudo
cicero must have seen something akin to
what i see in my classes
as as midterms approach no matter
how enticing i try to make the stories i
think no matter if i did
backflips off the desk at the front of
the room
i’ve not tried that yet students don’t
seem compelled by the story
and to be fair they’re living off of
barely any sleep
caffeine and god knows what else
and at some point they quit reading for
class
i prefer not know how early that
actually happens i’m happy in my naivete
here
but at some point i faced a fork in the
road
what was i to do should i
should i double down and rage quiz my
students into submission
to read their assignments or should i
find a different way to entice
and invite and reform the way i think of
story
and of class i clearly
chose the latter retelling the story
saved my class one of the unintended
benefits of this was
i realized that it invited students into
a shared
learning experience even if students had
read
the assignment on their own they had not
yet been
invited into a communal community around
these texts
which is what story is and it’s what
story
does it brings us into a shared
learning experience which facilitates
communal learning
it wards off boredom and is useful
in forming our students into whole
people part of the power of the oh
story as i affectionately remember it
is it reminded me to reform my classes
because these stories are not just long
ago and far away
they transcend time a story about a king
living in the 9th century in israel
could affect a student
in such a way that they would verbally
respond in class these stories help us
to remember that we are not alone for
example if i asked you to tell your own
story of a time that you could not see a
way forward
perhaps you would share the who the what
the when and the where
but the why and the how i would argue
involve an act of curiosity and of
and of vulnerability it invites
us to find ways to make meaning where
there seem to be no ways forward
it helps us to remember that even though
it feels like the oh no moment is the
end of the story
it’s not that’s not true
because the story continues but then
and if we can learn from others but then
moments
how they found ways forward how they
owned their mistakes
perhaps we can do the same if we can
learn
from stories where humanity is shared
and kindness bestowed
perhaps we can do the same if stories
that delight and appall us can teach us
about the world
and teach us how to respond to it with
creativity
innovation and generosity then maybe
retelling the story will not only save
us from boredom
and invite us into a shared learning
experience
maybe retelling the story will help us
re
narrate our experiences to create a
kinder
more curious more generous and less
boring world
thank you
you