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Storytelling
Story-Driven Explanations That Build Schema and Boost Learning [FREE RESOURCE]
Jamie Clark
June 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
👋 Hey there!
In this edition of ⚗️DistillED, we explore how to make explanations more memorable and meaningful by using powerful storytelling.
What is storytelling?
Storytelling is the art of explaining ideas through connected, meaningful narratives—where events unfold in a sequence, concepts build on one another, and cause-and-effect relationships.
In the classroom, storytelling helps explain concepts and important ideas in ways that make content more interesting, memorable, and easier to understand. When I was an NQT (newly qualified teacher), I remember a senior colleague describing the ranch in Of Mice and Men as a pressure cooker. Before diving into the specifics, he artfully explained how all the tension—loneliness, jealousy, and fear—built up inside the ranch until it finally exploded. It went something like this:
“In Of Mice and Men, the ranch is like a pressure cooker slowly heating up, hissing quietly while no one pays attention. At first, it appears calm—just men going about their routines—but underneath, tensions are steadily building. Curley prowls around with constant jealousy, desperate to prove he’s tougher than everyone else. Crooks is shut away in his room, weighed down by loneliness and bitterness. Lennie’s huge strength simmers dangerously, always on the edge of slipping out of control. As conflicts start to bubble over—like when Lennie crushes Curley’s hand with terrifying ease—the pressure inside the ranch grows hotter and tighter. Finally, when Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife, the pressure cooker explodes in a rush of fear, rage, and revenge, and all the hidden anger bursts into the open, leaving nothing but chaos in its place.”
I vividly remember his use of emotional expression, deliberate pauses, and even gesture to bring the story to life and make every detail feel important.
Being an English teacher, I’ve always been an advocate of the typical five part narrative structure. Not only is this framework useful for creative writing, it’s incredibly useful for teachers to plan explanations.
Journalist and author Ros Atkins also highlights how powerful narrative can be: when we shape information as a structured story—with a clear purpose, tension, and progression—it becomes far more engaging and easier for students to follow and remember.
“The best explanations deliver an abundance of relevant, useful information via the best-told stories.”
Atkins advocates for various story structures depending on the content and context of the listener. Here are some great examples he recommends:
Chronological: Use the passage of time to guide your structure, breaking the story into clear stages as events unfold.
Finish–Start–Finish: Begin by outlining the outcome, then rewind to show how it happened, before returning to the conclusion.
Zoom Out: Start with a specific event or detail, then gradually widen the lens to reveal the bigger picture and deeper context.
What Someone Said: Anchor your explanation around a striking statement or finding, revisiting it throughout as a reference point.
So, why does all this matter? Let’s dig into the science…
Why are stories so effective?
Daniel Willingham explains that the most important factor in memory is what students think about while learning. Stories help focus that thinking on meaning, because they naturally encourage students to look for connections, grapple with questions, and care about what happens next. Stories are:
Easy to Understand: Students look for cause-and-effect links in what they hear or read, and this helps them make sense of new ideas more easily.
Super Interesting: Stories encourage students to think just hard enough to solve small puzzles and figure things out for themselves, keeping them curious.
Very Memorable: Because stories make students think about what ideas mean, they are much more likely to remember them later.
“The human mind seems exquisitely tuned to understand and remember stories -so much so that psychologists sometimes refer to stories as ‘psychologically privileged,’ meaning that they are treated differently in memory than other types of material.”
Willingham argues that structuring lessons with the Four Cs—causality, conflict, complications, and character—and ensuring students understand the central question helps them think about the meaning of what they are learning, rather than just memorising disconnected facts. His Four Cs are as follows:
Causality: Show how ideas or events are linked by cause and effect.
Conflict: Present a problem or challenge that creates curiosity.
Complications: Introduce twists or obstacles that deepen understanding.
Character: Focus on a central figure, idea, or process that drives the story.
How do I implement stories effectively?
The Four Cs are key ingredients that make stories effective, but they are not a rigid sequence. Instead, we should:
Use them as organising principles for planning new material across lessons.
Consider all four elements when thinking about how to present explanations.
Let’s explore his Four Cs—Causality, Conflict, Complications, and Character—through the lens of a History lesson on Henry VIII and the break with Rome.
Element | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
Causality
| Highlight how events or ideas are connected. Cause-and-effect helps students see logical progressions and remember what happened and why. | “When the Pope refused Henry’s annulment, Henry passed the Act of Supremacy, broke from Rome, and made himself head of the Church of England—changing the course of English history.” |
Conflict
| A central problem or tension drives engagement and gives purpose to the narrative. | “Henry VIII had no male heir. His wife, Catherine of Aragon, had only given him a daughter—putting the Tudor dynasty at risk.” |
Complication
| Introduce unexpected developments or competing interests to make the story richer and more memorable. | “The Pope was under pressure from Catherine’s nephew. Meanwhile, Anne Boleyn caught Henry’s eye and refused to be his mistress. His court was split.” |
Character → Purpose: Anchor the lesson around a key figure, concept, or idea. | Focusing on a main character or concept helps humanise or organise the material so it feels coherent. | “Henry VIII was bold, proud, and determined to control his legacy—even if it meant defying the Pope and reshaping England’s future.” |
Until next time — stay curious, stay clear!
Jamie
Where can I find out more?
Story-Driven Explanation Planning Template
To support your planning, I’ve put together a template to guide you through building a narrative-rich explanation using Willingham’s Four Cs—Causality, Conflict, Complications, and Character.
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Checklist and Slideshow
This week’s ⚗️DistillED+ resources are a checklist and PowerPoint slideshow for teacher CPD. They include the WHAT, WHY and HOW of effective and artful storytelling to explain concepts and ideas.
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