The Power of a Good Story

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"People are hungry for stories.  It's part of our very being." -Studs Terkel

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Have you ever lost the attention of your child?  It was because he was hungry for a good story and got lost in his mind searching for one.  

There is a lot of amazing science on the power of a good story, and how humans think and narrate stories in their mind as a way to organize information.

Let's look at the benefits storytelling has on learning.  

"Our brains are wired to understand and retain stories."  Jennifer Aaker, Stanford

It is effortless to remember a good story especially when we have made it our own, and stories are a multi-sensory experience that ​actually engage the same parts of the brain as the real experience.  

In the lesson on efficient learning, I highlighted how that the multi-sensory experience builds stronger memories with greater depth.  When people hear stories, they make them their own and insert themselves in the story.    It is in that moment that when we make the stories our own that a lasting memory is built.   

Cuisenaire Rods colorful and playful quality leave room for children to create their own stories, and in those stories lies math that we can playfully draw out.  Math becomes a sword by which they wield amazing journeys through square mountains and refreshing rectangular pools filled with interesting sea creatures. 

In the Discover section of this course, I show you ways to add stories to the math structures Gattegno presents in his textbook, but you can implement these same methods with other manipulatives like pattern blocks and Anglegs (see Get Tools for more manipulative ideas).