2020-11-11T10:42:23-05:00 2017-06-20T13:52:48-04:00 2020-11-11T10:42:23-05:00 Acrobat PDFMaker 11 for Word uuid:aeb63166-20f0-4ddc-9714-711ccfe541eb uuid:0a989043-2eb5-470c-9c62-bfd1e601eae7 2 xml 16.01.02: Their Stories Live On ELA Jenna Flickinger story writing narrative interview storytelling culture mexico mexican muertos grief Adobe PDF Library 11.0 story, writing, narrative, interview, storytelling, culture, mexico, mexican, muertos, grief RCCSD Their Stories Live On Jenna Flickinger Introduction This unit on storytelling was created for seventh graders that could potentially be used during the time of the fall holidays, Dia de los Muertos and continue through Thanksgiving. The context of the holiday Dia de los Muertos, which celebrates remembering and honoring the dead, provides the perfect opportunity for young people to ask about those who have passed. Thanksgiving, a time when we usually see an influx of family gatherings, is a unique opportunity to interview living relatives about their lives. This unit would be part of a larger trans-disciplinary unit along with their Spanish class and Social Studies class, which would focus on other content aspects, with Dia de los Muertos providing the context. The program these students are enrolled in, International Baccalaureate (I.B.), requires planning for transdisciplinary units when possible, encouragement of the students to be global thinkers, and planning purposeful use of all four modes of communication. I will plan for the use of all four: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The unit could be used in a non-I.B. setting as well, as it will be aligned to the Common Core. My goal for these students is for them to gain insight into the essence of stories, what stories are made of, what the act of storytelling does for us as humans, and the many functions stories serve in a society. They will learn to become better storytellers through studying what makes a good story and how stories evolve. Learning what makes something qualify as a story and what a good story includes will provide a platform for using this information in a meaningful way: acquiring the life story of a deceased loved one and interviewing a living relative for their stories they would like to share. They will read articles about why we tell stories in general, and the functions they serve in our lives. Even though the unit will largely focus on people-as-storytellers and how cross-cultural that is, their assignments will be on the personal side. I want them to gain a personal appreciation for the act of storytelling. They will first explore what makes a good story, which will be particularly useful for any future writing assignments in school. Then they will experience a progressive storytelling process, conduct a recorded interview with a family member to attain a story about a deceased loved one, study the video, write their own narrative of the loved one’s life story, and then possibly repeat those steps with a living relative during the Thanksgiving holiday break. In conclusion they will reflect on the storytelling process using my guiding questions. Background This unit is written for students of a Middle Years Programme, which is a branch of the International Baccalaureate program. These students chose to be in this program to become more internationally-minded and gain the understandings they need to become good global citizens. 1 The student body is made up of mostly Caucasian students, with a small number of African American students and some of Asian descent. There is only one English Language Learner in the group. The large majority of the students are strong readers, and they truly enjoy being challenged in the English classroom. I taught these students when they were sixth graders and am building off what they learned about oral traditions in a previous fairy tale unit. Following a unit on the elements of story, this unit will be a deeper look into the meaning behind the stories they hear, through authentic storytelling experiences with family members. It is vital that they learn that a story is composed of more than the stages of plot. Any class of students, middle school or older, could participate in this unit, because it uses a developmental approach to building better stories.

1 I.B.Organization, "Language and literature course," International Baccalaureate®.

Accessed January 01, 2017, http://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-

programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/.

2 Elaine Reese, “What Kids Learn From Hearing Family Stories,” The Atlantic.

December 9, 2013. Accessed October 3, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/what-kids-learn-from-

3 Lucy Calkins, “Understanding a Small Moment Story,” Heinemann, Accessed

November 1, 2016, http://books.heinemann.com/Shared/onlineresources/E00604/SmallMomentsSession1.pdf

4 Julie Beck, "Life's Stories," The Atlantic, August 10, 2015, Accessed November 20,

2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/life-stories-narrative-

psychology-redemption-mental-health/400796/.

5 Noah Richler, "Short History of Story," BBC World Service (audio blog).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ldy7b.

6 Julie Beck, "Life's Stories," The Atlantic, August 10, 2015, Accessed November 20,

2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/life-stories-narrative-

psychology-redemption-mental-health/400796/.

7 Andrew Stanton, "The clues to a great story," Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great

story | TED Talk | TED.com, February 2012, Accessed October 01, 2016,

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story .

8 Andrew Stanton, "The clues to a great story," Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great

story | TED Talk | TED.com, February 2012, Accessed October 01, 2016,

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story .

9 Noah Richler, "Short History of Story," BBC World Service (audio blog).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ldy7b.

10 Dave Isay, "Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear." Dave Isay:

Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear | TED Talk | TED.com.

March 2015, Accessed October 15, 2016, https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_w

I will have the students in my Language and Literature class for 50 minutes each day. These classes are very small, with up to 15 students in each class. The students are very self-driven and so, are equipped to propel themselves through the steps of this type of long-term project. Given who these students are, this project will enable them to take their story writing skills to the next level. At the end of this unit my students will understand that telling a story may start off as checking off a list of components required, but that the true meaning comes from understanding what purpose the story will serve. Perhaps they will learn that engaging in good conversation with someone in their family, or someone they don’t usually spend time talking to, will bring a new dimension to what storytelling does for them as people. Rationale As previously stated, these students are strong readers. Their writing skills are not as strong as their reading skills, but their heavy love of reading provides the means for them to be proficient writers. The art of storytelling, however, either written or oral, comes more naturally for some people than for others. Those that are good at telling stories most likely had plenty of experience with authentic storytelling from family members and are avid readers. However, being well-read doesn’t guarantee that one will be a good storyteller. For most people, it is likely they need some guidelines to follow for creating a “good” story. This is what these students need. Besides learning how to recognize the elements of plot in pieces of literature, they have had limited study of what is involved in telling a good story. This becomes apparent when their fiction short stories lack reader engagement, lack character growth, and appear as more of a sequence of events that lack emotional connections. Author Julie Beck, from The Atlantic magazine, explains “When you’re a kid, it’s mostly about plot... This happens and this happens. You’re not tuned into the idea that a character develops.” 2 Recognizing this weakness in writing, my goal has become to take them through the process of building a better story, a slow evolution of an idea that will become a worthwhile narrative by the end. A story can be described as an idea worth sharing, and we artfully, and in our unique ways, craft the manner in which we deliver the idea. Having a personal writing style and voice is always considered a good thing. But for the sake of enhancing everyone’s story-writing skills, the goals of this unit have to include addressing the aspects that all stories have in common. And since all children are starting at different levels of experience with stories, we should create a common place for them to start, and then purposefully build on to each step. If you ask a class of seventh graders, “What is a story?” or “What makes something a story?” They will answer with things such as: characters, conflicts, climax, rising action, falling action, resolution. I believe most seventh graders could accurately complete a story map about a film they were watching, identifying all these elements of the story, but if told to fill in all the stuff in between, the things that aren’t recognizable building blocks of a story, elements, they wouldn’t be able to say what was missing from the story. These are things like: emotions, inciting incident, drawing the reader in, the character’s motivations and how they’re shown through their thoughts and actions, constructing anticipation for what comes next and how the story will end. It’s these such characteristics of story that students struggle to plan for when they are writing their own short stories- the making-you-care, the anticipation, the wonder, the sensory details, the making the reader feel like they are going through it with the main character. The education field has recognized how difficult this is for students and has addressed it in early childhood writing programs used in schools, such as the Lucy Calkins writing program. 3 In this writing program, in as early as first grade, students are asked to write focused personal narratives called “Small Moments”. This requires the students to recall a recent authentic experience and describe it in full, as if the experience was being watched through a magnifying glass. If creative writing workshops or required writing units were approached with this mindset in later years of schooling, perhaps middle school students would be better at writing the stories in terms of the character, and not as a list of events happening to the character. This is a concept we have discussed in our seminar. In particular, what my students are having trouble with are things that Andrew Stanton, a PIXAR screenwriter, explains as crucial to writing a great story: making the reader aware of the conflict early in the story, “constructing anticipation”, creating an environment so the reader feels like he or she is experiencing it with the main character, and invoking wonder in the reader. My students’ stories tend to appear more as extended lists, or sequences of events that happen to the main character. Essentially, their stories are looking like glorified timelines. But as discussed in seminar, stories shouldn’t be written as an account of all the things that happen to the protagonist. In general, even the best writers in the group write stories that lack the essential elements that make the stories relatable and enjoyable, making it difficult for the reader to invest in the story. Some even have no clear conflict for the characters to resolve. So since many of their stories are appearing as very long lists of things the main character goes through, I realized I should take a developmentally-appropriate approach to refine their storytelling habits. We will start with a common ground, which is that stories begin as lists. We will build a process for building their stories from there, using a combination of the levels of story according to Richler from the BBC Podcast A Short History of Story and some teacher-determined definitions- Go from timelines to lists, to expanded Small Moments, to Lunchroom Gossip, to Myths and Legends level, to Epic Material. It will be important that the students understand why our attention should be given to storytelling as a topic, and that they do not assume it is only because their English teacher wants them to be better writers. One goal is for them to get involved in talking to their parents more, or maybe having a good conversation with someone with whom they don’t normally engage. “When people tell others about themselves, they kind of have to do it in a narrative way—that’s just how humans communicate,” reports Julie Beck. a stronger knowledge of family history have more robust identities, better coping skills, and lower rates of depression and anxiety. Family storytelling can help a child grow into a teen who feels connected to the important people in her life.” 4 By assigning them a writing assignment they are pushed to have tough conversations with family members, and quite possibly learn something new about their family. Storytelling amongst family members provides many benefits for kids, according to The Atlantic. “And adolescents with Though this is predominantly a writing unit, I will plan for all four modes of communication to be accounted for.: Reading the articles provided about the role stories play in our lives. Reading and writing when creating their personal narratives. Speaking and listening when interviewing a family member and studying the video of it. Writing when writing the narrative of the person’s life. Actively and purposefully using all four modes of communication stays true to the goals of the Common Core Standards, as well as the language aims of the International Baccalaureate program we use. Objective My objective is for 7th graders to become engaged in a storytelling progression which demonstrates to them the steps involved in a creating a story worth hearing. We will call them “levels” of stories. Each student will write a story through the scaffolded process. They will learn the guidelines for what Pixar Filmmaker, Andrew Stanton, says a writer needs for creating a good story. This will help them answer the question “What is a story?” or “What makes something a story?” After going through the process of building one of their personal narratives, they will then conduct interviews with family members to learn some family stories. They’ll engage in authentic storytelling with those family members, and then create new narratives based on their stories. They will do this using the levels of storytelling we have practiced. The interviews will be recorded, so they will make observations of that storytelling experience with that person, and reflect on the meaningfulness of the experience, and ponder on the implications of these stories being shared. This will help them answer the question, “Why do we tell stories?” This unit is best understood as two separate parts. Part I works to answer the question: What is a story? Part II works to answer the question: Why do we tell stories? Part I: What is a story? Concepts and Classroom Activities Concept: A story is more than a plot diagram. As an opening activity, ask the class to brainstorm answers to the questions “What is a story? What makes something a story? What does a story have?” Naturally the initial answers will include the labels found on a story map, but the point is for them to arrive at thoughts that go further than the “rules” they’ve learned in school. Discussion can be guided to thinking a story is an idea or a thought worth telling. A story is the passing of an idea from one person to another, etc. Concept: A story begins as a list. As we learned from Noah Richler, the author of the BBC podcast “A Short History of Story”, lists are precursors of stories. 5 Our brains create lists and the lists get modified and we are left with an assembly of items on that list arranged to create a story. The items on the list are the building blocks of a narrative. It is important that it’s recognized that this is true for all stories, no matter which culture they are from, because this is how our brains work. This is made evident by listening to how very young children tell the story of their day. They list the sequence of events as they remember them, and the oral story often sounds like a list. It is important for the middle-school students to grasp that this is not the form their storytelling should take, as it isn’t developmentally appropriate to their age group. Also, we should all agree that that type of story, a list of things that happened that day, would be a very boring story. A story that is worth listening to must be a more evolved version of that list. Activity 2: Make a Timeline and Make a List Each student will make a timeline of his or her weekend, marking at least four events per day, not including eating and sleeping. They may include eating if the meal happens with other family members or they go out to a restaurant (basically if they’re with other people). Any activities that spans a long period of time should be recorded only once on the timeline. When the students return to school after the weekend, they are to choose one event from that timeline to write about. They should consider what the most interesting event was, which one might be worth telling to other people. They begin that process, though, by writing a list of thoughts, memories, feelings, etc. that come to mind when they recall that event. Concept: A story begins as a list, continued… As discussed during the seminar, students don’t even realize that when they write stories, or tell stories, they are beginning with a list in their minds and then expanding them with the things that make something into an actual story. Since young writers tend to limit their story-writing to writing a sequence of events happening to the character as more of a list of events than as a narrative, then it will be helpful for them to deliberately write a “story” that is no more than a list of events put into complete sentences. This is a natural next step to demonstrating the vast difference between a list and a story. Activity 3: List Story The students will take their lists and convert it to a “List Story”, deliberately not adding any more aspects of excitement or intriguing details than was on their list. They can include elements of the 5Ws, who was there, where it was, what happened, as well as any other meaningful labels they wrote on their lists. This will be known as the “List Story”. At this point, the students will notice the “List Story” is not that great of a story… yet. It probably looks like something a four-year-old would say when you ask him or her “How was your day at school?” This elicits a List Story answer, such as “I did this… and then I ….and then… and then this happened… list… list... list...” Four-year olds’ stories are not much fun to listen to, because they are usually an endless list of events on a timeline. Their stories don’t follow the guidelines of good storytelling, which the students will soon learn. The next step, though, is to work on making it a story worth listening to. Activity 4: Lunchroom Gossip In order to make a story worth listening to, the students must add the element of having an audience of the story. To experience how this impacts the storytelling process, students will tell their stories to an audience of friends. They will use the “List Story” as a base from which to tell their weekend story orally. They will record this conversational retelling, so that they may later study the changes that occurred. They should be encouraged to tell the story as naturally as possible. Most likely the students would notice their version of the story changed slightly because the audience has changed, and they care a lot more about enticing the listener and being interesting. The storyteller would have chosen the items from the list that make for a better story, since they want to tell their friends a story worth hearing. We will call this level of storytelling “Lunchroom Gossip”. Afterward, they should agree this was a much better version of the story, because they made sure it was worth hearing. What they will most likely find is that they worked much harder to make the story interesting because they care what the audience thinks, may have possibly made some additions to increase the suspense, and are concerned with “painting the picture”. They will finally care what their stories sounds like. The main goal of this activity is supported by Julie Beck’s analysis in the article “Life’s Stories”, when she says, “…the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are influenced by more than just, well, ourselves. The way people recount experiences to others seems to shape the way they end up remembering those events. One way {this happens} is that people tailor the stories they tell to their audiences and the context.” 6 Concept: There are “guidelines” for good storytelling. According to Andrew Stanton, a screenwriter for PIXAR, there are guidelines to creating a good story, not rules. 7 Even though I know these students have heard versions of these guidelines in other contexts, such as in my English class and those of previous English teachers. I believe the information presented in this format will help them crystallize these guidelines. As we have discussed in class, they need to understand that a conflict is the foundation of every story. Ultimately, the sequence of actions in which the characters participate is on a course for solving the story’s main conflict. To make the reader become engaged in the story and care about the main conflict getting solved, the storyteller must present the conflict early in the story. Some resources would label this as an “Inciting Incident”. Activity 5: A Story Worth Hearing Their stories aren’t necessarily worth listening to, yet. This is the point where they learn specific advice from a professional storyteller, Andrew Stanton. Andrew Stanton is a screenwriter for PIXAR and he offers advice through a TED TALK called “ Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story” . Students watch the TED Talk once with the goal of comprehending what he is saying. Then they watch a second time with the goal of taking notes keeping in mind the driving question for Part I: What is a story? They should focus on what advice he gives for how to make a great story. After taking notes from the second viewing, their answers should be discussed as a whole group. Which pieces of advice are already familiar to you from analyzing literature in English class? What do you notice about the stories that have captivated our culture, like The Hunger Games and Harry Potter? Which guidelines of storytelling did they encompass? Activity 6: A Story Worth Hearing They will then make their final version of their story, which will be called “A Story Worth Hearing”. They should have freedom to embellish what they’ve already written with the goal of making the story worth someone else’s time to read it. It is then time to apply what they have learned from Andrew Stanton to their Lunchroom Gossip story. They will purposefully apply one piece of advice Andrew Stanton offers. Have them highlight their changes on their typed story. Also, they should explicitly state which piece of advice they attempted to follow in this version, so that the teacher knows what to look for when reading it. This makes for an appropriate assignment for a formative grade for how well they applied their chosen piece of advice. Students may write pieces of advice such as… 8 Stories must keep us anticipating, wondering what the outcome will be, how this will get resolved. Readers like to problem-solve while they’re reading. It draws us in. Make the audience put things together. Don’t give them 4, give them 2+2. Good stories promise the story is worth your time. Good stories have human connections, transcend time because they connect humans through time and space. The reader should connect to the main character, even if he doesn’t agree with what they do. A character has to have a spine, what drives them to do all their choices, what makes them tick. Change is fundamental to a story. A good story has a strong theme running through it. A theme is a universal idea, topic, message, or lesson. A story that is truly worth telling will leave the audience with the conflict resolved and a universal theme left in their laps for them to hold on to forever. Concept: There are levels of storytelling. The students have been participating in a storytelling process, laid out in a way that helps them build to a story worth hearing. The theory behind these steps of storytelling are gathered from a BBC production, A Short History of Story podcast. 9 Using a combination of the author, Richler’s, terms for these levels of storytelling and my terms for the others, the students will finally define those levels. This is a classic process of “Concept Attainment”, where the major understandings of the unit are not front-loaded to the students at the beginning, but are attained through a process of activities that leads the students to arrive at the understandings on their own. This may be explained using the following diagram.
Stories that Live On: are meaningful to those who pass them on, and the essence of them can transcend time, have universal themes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Story Worth Hearing: Makes a promise to the reader that the story is worth hearing. Lunchroom Gossip with good story “guidelines” deliberately utilized in the narrative ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lunchroom Gossip: a retelling of the List Story with the added element of audience ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Story: your list of ideas/thoughts, put into sequential order to form a retelling of the event ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List: collection of thoughts/ ideas/ sensations Activity 7: Analyzing the Storytelling Process… What is a story? The students will use a graphic organizer that maps out the steps they have taken to build their narrative, the “Story Worth Hearing”. The class should become familiar with the elements of each step, as seen on the triangle diagram. The teacher and students should discuss which type of story might be told in different contexts, which purposes they serve, what they expect they would see in different venues of storytelling (movies, dystopian novels, Disney stories, conversations with friends). With all of their steps in front of them (Timeline, List, List Story, Lunchroom Gossip) for analysis, the teacher will distribute the Storytelling Process graphic organizer. They are to closely analyze their thought processes, and the changes they made between each version of the story. Essentially, they’re looking at how their stories evolved as the audience changed and as they learned more guidelines to what makes a story worth hearing. They record what changed between each version in the space between each level of story. At the end, these observations should be discussed in small groups. It is likely they will recognize more in their own story by hearing what others noticed in theirs. Now that PART I: What is a story? is complete, it is time for the students to put their narrative-building techniques into practice with a meaningful objective: Get the student involved in a situation of authentic storytelling, with their parents or other older family members. Part II: Why do we tell stories? Concepts and Activities Concept: Stories are immortal. As an opening activity, brainstorm answers to the question Why do we tell stories? Hold a discussion based on what the students come up with. Discussion can be guided with suggestions such as, What purposes do they serve? Why do some continue to exist over long periods of time? What might be the difference between those that stand the test of time and those that do not? Concept: Life stories are narratives. Are our lives made up of stories, and then later remembered as a STORY? Is the history of a person’s life reduced to a story once he or she has passed away? We will discuss these difficult questions, and superimpose what we have learned makes up a story onto our own life stories and those of others to attempt to answer this question. Activity 8: Seeking a Story Acquiring the information needed to write the life story of a loved one, alive, or deceased, can prove to be very difficult without the guidance of a professional. Because this task has already been tackled and conquered by the non-profit organization called StoryCorps, we can learn how to do this right from the best source. This is the point where they learn specific advice from the founder of StoryCorps, Dave Isay. He leads a TED Talk called, “Everyone Around Your Has a Story the World Needs to Hear.” 10 Similar to the process they followed earlier with watching Andrew Stanton’s TED Talk, the students will watch this new TED Talk one time for comprehension, and the second time for recording his Dave Isay’s words of wisdom. They should keep in mind what they gain to learn from him, which is help for answering the driving question for Part II: Why do we tell stories? After taking notes from the second viewing, their answers should be discussed as a whole group.

orld_needs_to_hear.

11 Dave Isay, "Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear." Dave Isay:

Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear | TED Talk | TED.com.

March 2015, Accessed October 15, 2016, https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_w

orld_needs_to_hear.

12 Andrew Stanton, "The clues to a great story," Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great

story | TED Talk | TED.com, February 2012, Accessed October 01, 2016,

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story .

13 Julie Beck, "Life's Stories," The Atlantic, August 10, 2015, Accessed November 20,

2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/life-stories-narrative-

psychology-redemption-mental-health/400796/.

14 Dave Isay, "Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear." Dave Isay:

Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear | TED Talk | TED.com.

March 2015, Accessed October 15, 2016,

https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_w

orld_needs_to_hear.

Activity 9: Interview for Their Stories. StoryCorps has composed an excellent resource of interview questions to use when you want to hear someone’s stories. These questions are available on StoryCorps website as well as on the app. Using this collection of questions as guidance, students will design an interview that will allow them to learn the life story of someone who has passed away or of someone that is still living. This is how they are doing research for their narrative. When choosing or writing interview questions, the students must consider the following: Since they will be expected to make a timeline of the person’s life, did they choose questions which will help paint the picture of each time period if that person’s life? When a student sits down with a family member to record this interview, it will essentially act as an authentic storytelling experience. Recording the experience is important for their analysis and furthering their understanding of why we tell stories. Soon after conducting the interview they will answer reflection questions on the experience. They will examine the experience for- What elements of story did the storytelling possess? What level, or category of story did the story fall into? If you write the story you just heard, might it be modified again? We will also answer the reflection questions about the experience. They will give initial answers to the reflection questions but will revisit these after they have written their lives as narratives. Activity 10: Their Stories Live On In class, with the recording in hand, make a timeline of the person’s life. This is the “List” version of the story. The student should analyze the timeline for a few things: an event that teaches something that should be amplified during the telling of the story, a part of the life that should be further researched, or gaps in the timeline which should be further questioned. For homework, students should seek the answers to develop their timeline. They should start thinking about choosing a narrative headline. When choosing a headliner students can think about: What makes this story worth telling? How would this person want to be remembered? What could you say is their legacy? What makes his/her story timeless? This engagement in authentic storytelling, will support their current understanding that List Stories aren’t sufficient. Real stories, good stories, include the details that are worth telling: the emotional connections, suspense, sensory details, and dramatized accounts. The interview situation, where the students are asking adults to share their stories with them is naturally the “Lunchroom Gossip” situation. It is very likely the storyteller wills tray from the questions asked in order to tell something worthy of the listener's time, and avoid including the parts that don’t make for a good story. But these listeners have been charged with recording that person’s story. They must now arrange the information they learned from their research into the form of a narrative. This writing will automatically assume the format of a narrative. They are required, however, to inject some guidelines of good storytelling that they learned earlier from Andrew Stanton. They must pass on a story worth hearing. To reach this goal, they will have to be deliberate in choosing a “Narrative Headliner” to be the thesis, if you will, of their stories. This step is making the “Story Worth Hearing” version. These Narrative Headliners are suggestions, based on possible responses from the What Makes a Story Good? brain storm, the Why Do We Tell Stories? brain storm, and the advice from the PIXAR screenwriter. Examples of Narrative Headlines are: Every good story has __________________. Stories are our way of ________________. You know you’ve heard a good story when __________________. We can learn a lot from the stories we’re told. Stories have a very important role in our lives… We tell stories from the past to __________________. Learning about the people who have become before us helps us understand who we are. In a good story, the main character goes through change. Change is part of life. Passing down stories to the next generation helps us keep family traditions going. Concept: Sharing stories is a pure experience. According to Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, interviewing a person can be the most important thing in that person’s life. Telling our stories is a testament to our mortality. “Participants know their stories will be here when they’re gone.” 11 Andrew Stanton of Pixar explains it as, “We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning, and nothing gives us greater affirmation than through stories.” 12 By these students recording the interviews, preferably by video, they will have a permanent treasure from that experience that they will appreciate for years to come. Also, Julie Beck explains this as, “In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.” 13 When faced with the observation that people going through the interviews tend to have emotional reactions and even cry during it, Dave Isay points out that people aren’t crying at the stories they’re hearing because they’re sad… they’re crying because they’re “hearing something that’s authentic and pure, in a time that we don’t know if what we’re listening to is an advertisement or another lie.” 14 Students will ponder big ideas, such as:

If this person I’m talking to can frame his life as a story, does that mean my life is a story as well, and will continue to be one when I’ve passed away? Activity 10: Reflecting on the Experience… Why Do We Tell Stories? Through the process of guided reflection, these students will come to some realizations to help them answer the driving question of Part II. They will end the unit by reflecting on the storytelling process in which they just participated and by reflecting on their insights, using guiding questions, such as: What did hearing this story do for you? How did it make you feel? What did you learn from it? How did it make your parent (family member) feel when telling it? What do you think he/she got out of it? If you learned the story of someone that has passed away, do you believe that person is glad you asked about his/her life? Do you want to tell other people the story now? Why or why not? What specific purpose did this story serve you or anyone else? Is it all a narrative? How do you know? Did the story change as you were writing it? If it did go through some changes, does that make it any less meaningful? How might this influence how you write stories from now on? Are they giving us facts or are they giving us their perception of how they remember something happening? Why do you think it's important to pass on this person story? Is it because we get a theme or a message out of it? Do you think we would continue to tell these stories if we didn’t get some benefit from them? Is the story they’re telling mostly composed of “good stuff”? How much truth is there in the story the person told? Would the deceased person say that his or her death was the end of the story? Or does the story carry on? What theme can you attach to the person’s life? How does someone’s death alter how people talk about that person? Will his or her stories live on? What part did you have to play in that? Extension Activity If time allows and the students have interest, have them conduct an interview with a living relative, if they haven’t already. And if they have already, ask them to interview a different person. They will engage in a similar process again, when they interview a living relative, or someone who is much older, who can offer a bountiful life story. This is the perfect family project to be assigned over the long Thanksgiving holiday, where they’re likely to be in contact with many family members. What the students will find is that the person telling the story of his own life, most likely won’t be able to separate the List elements from the narrative elements. He may or may not tell his life story as a timeline, or a list of sequential events. He will likely tell about the events of his life (on the timeline) as if it were a meaningful or beneficial experience where he learned something, grew as a person, or solved a problem. These are the elements of story we want to be highlighted with authentic storytelling. Appendix A This unit will implement Common Core State Standards for Writing. The students will be lead to write narratives to develop real experiences and events using relevant descriptive details and well-structured event sequences. They will do this with a focus on narrative techniques, such a dialogue, pacing, and description to develop the real experiences, which they have learned from professional writers. They will use sensory language to convey the experiences of the character in the narrative. Students will organize a narrative that unfolds naturally and logically. They will write a closing that reflects on the narrated experiences and events. Bibliography Beck, Julie. "Life's Stories." The Atlantic. August 10, 2015. Accessed November 20, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/08/life-stories-narrative- psychology-redemption-mental-health/400796/. Calkins, Lucy. “Understanding a Small Moment Story.” Heinemann. Accessed November 1, 2016. http://books.heinemann.com/Shared/onlineresources/E00604/SmallMomentsSession1.pdf Isay, Dave. "Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear." Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear | TED Talk | TED.com. March 2015. Accessed October 15, 2016. https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_w Orld_needs_to_hear. I.B.Organization. "Language and literature course." International Baccalaureate®. Accessed January 01, 2017. http://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma- programme/curriculum/language-and-literature/. Reese, Elaine. “What Kids Learn From Hearing Family Stories.” The Atlantic. December 9, 2013. Accessed October 3, 2016. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/what-kids-learn-from- .

Richler, Noah. "Short History of Story." BBC World Service (audio blog).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ldy7b .

Stanton, Andrew. "The clues to a great story." Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great

story | TED Talk | TED.com. February 2012. Accessed October 01, 2016.

https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story

Notes