Look! A teacher using stories to teach!
I love this story. This teacher, author, etc (see bio) wrote a series of books using guess what - stories - to teach things like history and science. This quote from a county school science coordinator, "teaching science through stories rather than unconnected snippets of formulas and information is gaining popularity" - is kind of a bittersweet, double-edge sword. On the one hand, yea! On the other hand, umm...haven't we used stories to teach for a lot longer than we have used something like the classroom? This next quote really nails it ""If you talk to any first-rate scientist about a particular development, you will very quickly hear a narrative, because the way good scientists think about developments in their field is in terms of stories."
So we are realizing what we all already do; we use stories to impart not just data but to lodge that data within a meaningful context. The science texts by Hakim are also described as witty, fun to read and they have been fact checked by scientists at MIT. Wow. Horribly accurate, fun, well-written science and history texts...I'm surprised some secret textbook cabal hasn't snatched this lady up yet and 'disappeared' her. Why imagine what would happen is standards like that caught on?!
From Joy Hakim's site,
"To find a story in a subject is to discover its essence. If we can get our children to write story-centered nonfiction, they'll have to research, do some critical thinking, and organize and use their thoughts. Few things can prepare them as well for the challenges of the 21st century."
Amen sister.
I just looked on Amazon, and it looks like none of the books are over $20. I might just buy a set for our local middle school library.
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