Chapter 6 Reflection, Applying Story Maps: Seeing the Core, Mapping the Story

When I first started reading chapter six in Ohler’s book, I struggled a bit with the visual story portraits shown as examples of his previously explained stories. While I had understood his references to the stories, seeing the story portraits/story maps written out didn’t really help me understand what his point was. However, since I know that I often don’t understand the visual representations that work for some (such as concept maps), I continued reading in hopes that something would make the reading more clear. For that reason, I was happy when I got to the very next section, as I felt the part about him telling the story he shares at workshops he teaches was the most valuable section in the chapter. In this story that he tells out loud in typical storytelling fashion, Ohler leads his participants through the process of story mapping, and helps them to see the value in the steps he takes to create his stories (Ohler, 2008, p. 89).

Although I have read some other comments by colleagues who didn’t necessarily appreciate the tediousness of his telling of this story, I actually found it very valuable, and the most interesting part of this chapter. Yes, the way that he left sections out and changed parts made for some moments of wondering where he was going, but I found it very similar to what teachers need to do to reach students in classrooms every day. It really helped me to go through that process with him, and related that back to how it would work in my own classroom with my own students. Ohler stated at the end of this chapter that if we had heard a lecture about a similar topic, we most likely would have forgotten it in a week, but that there was a good chance we would remember his story (Ohler, 2008, p. 94).

He was so right, and that is exactly the struggle I feel teachers need to go through to find the best ways to get kids to remember the information they need to learn. We can lecture all day every day, but the kids most likely won’t remember much at all. But if we can somehow change that lecture into something interesting, a story perhaps, or an activity, anything really that will capture their attention, then we have a much better chance of them truly learning. That simple fact is what I appreciated most from this chapter, because it really reminded me about how important that aspect of teaching is when kids are learning something such as storytelling.