Narrative

One thing that I notice when I do demonstration lessons is the fact that students are very easily drawn into a narrative (another of the productive pedagogies) and engage very easily with problematised situations presented in the narrative form. Last week we drove to Rockhampton, then Mackay and onto Middlemount, back down to Rockhampton and then to Gladstone before returning to the Gold Coast. In Rockhampton I had the chance to do a quick demonstration lesson with some Grade 2-3s.

On the spur of the moment I decided to tell the students about the amount of time I had been spending travelling and that I bought some lollies at a Garage to help alleviate the boredom. I told them that I thought the shopkeeper had not given me enough change and asked them to help me see if I was short changed or not. I could have just told them what I bought and what I paid and then asked them what change I should have had but I don't think this would have engaged them in the same way as my narrative did.

Over the last few days we have driven over 1500 kilometres and it got so boring so when we stopped for petrol I went into a garage to buy a mini Kit Kat for 35 cents, a packet of butterscotch for $1.45 and three mini packets of M and Ms for 45 cents each. I gave the cashier a $5 note and she gave me $1.65 cents change. That didn't seem right to me but I was too tired to think straight. I am sure she short-changed me. What do you think?

The class was very sympathetic and did their best to solve the problem. It didn't seem like a boring maths problem to them and they really did want to help me out. For some students just using coins to make the amounts was challenging, for others finding the total amount spent was enough challenge but some students managed to get all the way and find out what change was required. Not bad really since it was quite a complex problem. I have used similar stories with students of other ages too and would urge you to try to create narratives to surround your problematised situations whenever possible. Age does not seem to be a barrier to narratives-all kids enjoy them. Perhaps it is because there is an element of gossip in them.