Mastering concepts to ace a test is one thing. But to apply the concepts learned to something outside the class? That’s a different challenge.
A math formula on a blackboard. (Photo by jittawit21)
I once sat by a pool table in a bar and the guy I was with said that what he loved about the game was that it was all about calculus.
Now, I took calculus in high school and don’t remember anything in it about pool. If that had been part of the curriculum, I might have paid attention and gotten a better grade than the “C” I barely earned.
Many teachers struggle to show students how subjects like math and chemistry apply outside the textbooks and labs. But give the same students the challenge of finding the concepts taught in the classroom out in the real world, they’ll do that.
Inequity is at the root of so many problems they see around them and through social media and in movies and shows. These problems are difficult to comprehend if you don’t understand the numbers at the heart of them: taxes, revenues, profits, population, resource distribution. There are all kinds of ways chemicals affect the world they live in, good and bad.
That’s why we designed News Decoder, which helps students tell stories about the world they inhabit, to be subject neutral. We didn’t design our program for English or writing or journalism classes. We see storytelling as a way to explore and incorporate and understand all subjects: math, science, history, politics — you name it.
Putting down the books
In some ways News Decoder’s storytelling workshop gives students a chance to breathe.
We know that so many university-focused teens spend time and anxiety preparing for tests. But once an important test is taken, they are mentally exhausted.
When students spend a week with News Decoder, finding a problem to explore, researching it and telling a story from what they found, they have a chance to reflect on and apply some of the things they learned in school.
We say, put away your textbook. Look around you. Listen to what people around you are saying. What problems do they talk about? Can you find people affected by a problem and someone knowledgeable to help you explain it? How do the concepts you learned in class apply?
We want students to take their learning into the real world and interact with real people by connecting with local organisations, community members and professionals across a range of fields and thought leaders.
Students become teachers.
Sure, students need those high test results and high grades to get into a good university. But when you compete against so many other students who have similarly high test scores and grades, other things can become differentiators, something like a story published on a global news site like News Decoder.
That’s one reason why so many students we work with end up in top universities. But there’s other reasons. We see storytelling as transformative. In researching problems, finding solutions and telling stories about what they found, students turn into teachers.
Don’t underestimate that challenge. It is one thing to memorize concepts to pass a test. But if you have to explain those concepts — not to a teacher who already knows, but to someone completely ignorant — that takes a real understanding.
How many times have you stumbled trying to explain something you are sure you know to someone else? When I transitioned from a practicing journalist to someone who taught journalism I was haunted by the saying “those that can’t do, teach.” But I found the opposite. So many people who can “do” can’t teach. They know how to do something well, but when they try to teach someone else how to do that, they can’t.
When students go from media consumers to creators and producers — to storytellers — they become confident. This sparks leadership.
Remember that calculus class I barely passed? I was no dummy. I’d been pushed a year ahead when I aced algebra. But in subsequent math classes I found myself increasingly disconnected to what was taught. It all put me to sleep. I ended up avoiding all math courses at university.
At News Decoder, we want to let students discover the connections between their lives and what they learn in the classroom, whatever the subject. We do this by asking a simple question:
What do you see and hear around you?
Marcy Burstiner is the educational news director for News Decoder. She is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication at the California Polytechnic University, Humboldt in California. She is the author of the book "Investigative Reporting: From premise to publication."