The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in — and stay tuned in — to watch drama.
~David Mamet, playwright and screenwriter
I don't usually get my teaching tips from television screenwriters, but I thought the above quote was worth some thought. If drama has a wide definition–let's say drama is a story resulting from human interactions–then adding drama to our teaching is definitely a way increase student engagement–the "tuning in" that David Mamet talks about above.
Our students often aren't here for the information, they're here for the drama. The students frequently find that drama in the actions of their peers. One of our jobs as teachers? Try to create that drama in our subject matter and class activities. Is drama necessary for learning? No, but it sure can help. Some ways to create that drama? Building teacher-student relationships, and including stories about content matter and school.
Last week at my school, a teacher sent out a link to an inspiring (and dramatic) Rita Pierson video on teacher-student relationships. Some teachers discussed it at lunch, a few other teachers commented by email. Teachers engaging other teachers, all right. Another example: also last week at my school, a teacher announced "Staff Spirit Day" with the theme of "Hey, I went to college!" We were to wear our college sweatshirts and tell students positive stories about our college experiences.
No college sweatshirt being handy, I donned my high school FFA jacket–yeah, that's right, vocational agriculture all the way. I was part of an amazing high school FFA team–we competed in nursery landscape contests across the state and even made our way to nationals in Kansas City.
The FFA jacket I wore last Friday prominently featured the name of my high school, a neighboring school district to the one in which I now teach. As I was sharing stories of high school and college, one of my current students reminded me, "Ms. Johnson, my grandpa was your high school biology teacher!" Sure enough, which meant that my teacher-student-teacher relationship with this family now spanned two school districts and several generations! Good, we've got some human drama.
This high school biology teacher, as I described to my class, was a colorful character, a former Marine who was able to do push-ups with one arm while suspending himself between two student desks. He brewed coffee in his science prep room and gave us worms to dissect. He retired with the graduating class: the students proclaimed him the "Senior senior."
Then, from another student, "Ms. Johnson, how about instead of doing the lab today, you just tell us some more stories?" Well, I went ahead and took that as a compliment, but yes, I did recognize it as a diversionary tactic on the part of the student. Nope, we were going to proceed with our lab about double displacement reactions. Before doing the lab, the students were going to need to write and balance the relevant equations.
Any bit of drama I could find in double displacement reactions? Maybe I could humanize it a bit. In double displacement reactions the ions change partners. If silver and nitrate ions are paired together in the reactants, then silver and chloride would be partnered up in the products.
One student heard that and very slyly announced to the class, "I'm going to write switchy-switchy on my paper." Not appropriate. However, I'm not kidding, after his comment, I think everybody in the class got the idea of what the ions did and they were able to predict the products of the chemical reactions! The power of drama. Now I just needed to incorporate it intentionally.
Telling a brief anecdote, a mini-drama if you will, works better than almost anything else for engaging students in following safety procedures. "So what exactly are the products of this double displacement reaction? Well, you can see those products if you look there on the floor–someone from the last class accidentally spilled them. See that big brown and yellow stain? That's not the kind of thing you want in your eyes! Wear your goggles!"
Every bit as important as student engagement is teacher engagement. Without engaged teachers, our education system isn't going too far.
How do we get those engaged teachers? Just like we try to encourage student choice and ownership of learning, teacher choice and ownership of professional development is important as well. Teachers are going to engage with and implement professional development that they choose and own. Same thing with state and local school structures, course offerings, standards and assessment: teachers need some voice, and if teachers are included, these systems will be more successful!
I have to admit that I humanize, anthropomorphize, Science to help kids get it. It really does help them remember! 🙂
I was in FFA myself, and spent many Novembers in KCMO…though I doubt I could fit into my official dress any more!
The last point you make about teacher engagement is important…this past year my district has focused on teacher-lead workshop offerings for PD. Rather than a sit-and-get from some supposed expert, we’re learning from our peers. It has been great, and very well received by staff, since they are in sessions with teachers who understand not only the realities of teaching, but the realities of our community, district, and building. It makes a huge difference when teachers can have this kind of positive influence on each other.