The Love Island Edit:
What Teachers Can Learn From Reality TV’s Storytellers
By Emma Zande
Fall 2025 Intern
What do the editors of Love Island and pre-K teachers have in common? It’s a lot more than being great at pretending that everything is under control! They’re both working overtime to turn absolute chaos into something people can actually follow. Editors shape narratives, pace, emotional beats, and engagement to create something that people can follow and understand—just like educators do daily. And by understanding how reality TV keeps people invested, educators can use these principles to create more engaging, structured, and emotionally resonant classrooms.
The Power of Framing
Reality TV editors sift through hours of footage to cultivate and share a clear narrative with viewers. Teachers do the same when framing lessons. They come up with a “hook” for that day’s lesson and solidify the essential storyline to pass on to students. To do so, educators can choose to lead with curiosity or conflict, making sure that “why it matters” to students is clear from the start. This framing language creates engagement by phrasing lessons as mysteries to solve, games to win, or uncharted territories to explore!
Pacing Matters
Reality TV excels at keeping things exciting by avoiding long, flat stretches of time. They vary the pace, switch up the scene, and utilize energy shifts when they occur. In the classroom, educators can use different tools to be mindful about the pace of the classroom and when the need to switch things up arises. Educators can use short, varied segments to maintain engagement. They can alternate between high-energy activities and calm moments, using “beat changes” to recapture wandering attention. This might look like warming up with mini lessons, doing quick check-ins, and utilizing transitions to reset the group.
Character Arcs
Like editors crafting character growth, educators can contribute to and highlight their students’ growth. They might notice progress over perfection, highlight the “mini arcs” of their students, and showcase growth moments both publicly and privately. This reinforces motivation, belonging, and students’ identities.
Strategic Spotlighting
Reality TV editors often control who gets the most screen time, which can play a huge role in shaping audience perception. A similar phenomenon is true in the classroom—students who are more outgoing and confident with answering questions and participating in discussions may get more “screen time,” contributing to their own self-image and their peers’ perceptions. Educators can use strategic spotlighting to ensure equity in participation, giving quieter students their moment to shine. This can help prevent students from being “typecast” (the troublemaker, the shy one, the overachiever) and contribute to more dynamic class discussions. By rotating roles, voices, and responsibilities, teachers can help all students feel like they belong in the classroom.
Invisible Editing
Good editing is invisible. Smooth transitions, tightened scenes, and removed chaos help to increase engagement and keep viewers engaged in the show. Educators play a similar role in the classroom. They set clear procedures that make the day flow, prep materials beforehand, and anticipate disruptions before they happen. This is their invisible editing: students don’t see all the behind-the-scenes work, but they definitely feel it.
Confessionals & Reflections
Reality TV uses confessions to let characters reflect, vent, or explain their thought processes. Educators can also give students space to process things. This could include quick reflective moments like exit tickets, short check-ins, or “turn and talks.” It could also mean giving students private channels for emotional expression, like journaling or art. Finally, educators can normalize pausing and taking a moment to articulate their thoughts and emotions by modeling this behavior themselves. When students have the space to reflect, vent, and explain, they develop emotional literacy and social skills like empathy.
Avoiding Manufactured Drama
This is where editors and teachers completely diverge. If you’ve watched any reality show recently, you’d know that editors might bring a tiger in on a helicopter if it means they’d get higher ratings. Educators, on the other hand, understand how important it is to avoid common “drama edits” in the classroom. Villainizing students, overreacting to small disruptions, and letting a handful of moments define a student’s “character arc” can be pitfalls that lead to classroom drama. But by choosing compassion over spectacle, educators can keep a calm and positive classroom running smoothly.
Ethical Editing: Keeping it Real
Reality TV is also notorious for manipulating reality. Educators, on the other hand, do the opposite. Ethical “editing” means presenting information honestly, giving students agency in the narrative, allowing authentic voices, and practicing transparency.
Shaping Their Story
Teaching is its own form of narrative construction. When educators borrow the best parts of reality TV—framing, pacing, spotlighting, and reflection—they create learning environments that feel intentional and engaging. And instead of a camera crew and a private island, all they need is the willingness to shape a better story for their students.
Photo by Sam McGhee for Unsplash
