Teaching With Stories

• Students have a difficult time with reading that they don't understand. "It sucks."
• The teacher uses fun stories to make ideas within science more relatable to students. 
• The "cult of seriousness". Who says that science/ learning in general, can't be written in fun language?
• the need for professional exactness within science texts has made the language of these texts completely incomprehensible for students. 
• Emotional connection is much more important than exact, precise details. Leave out some details. 
• Sometimes you have to lie in order to tell the truth.

There are countless ways to implement story telling in the social studies. Movies, tv shows, songs, music videos, etc. already exist to tell stories and reenact historical events and governmental structures. Movies and shows such as Lincoln, the West Wing, Gladiator and the Patriot come to mind off the top of my head  Stories can also be told using games and reenactments during class. Projects, such as creating an american colony or having students write a song, can also be used to help students get a more real idea of the themes in social studies.