Describe a meaningful learning experience that started with a story that you heard.

My dad would gave me many lectures on why I should try hard to succeed in school and one of those stories is about my mom upbringing. She was brought up as a poor farmer in the countryside of China where no one in her family up to this point had formal post-secondary education. She was able to escape this lifestyle by doing exceptional well in school to where she got scholarships to big universities in China. And now she is able to support a good lifestyle for me and my brothers.

What made it impactful for you?

The story was impactful to me because of the embedded important life lessons in the story. My mom had to walk hours to school everyday because she wanted to receive the best formal education she could and not at her local school in the countryside; the takeaway my dad wanted me to understand is that I should put in as much effort as possible in the stuff that I find very important to my future. It was also impactful because of the inspirational way my dad told the story, the resilience and determination that my mom had in the story made me want to inherit those same traits.

What senses did it appeal to?

The story appealed to my auditory, visual, and emotional senses. It obviously appealed to my auditory senses, words and spoken language used by my dad in the story were heard and created an emotional and intellectual connection through the sense of hearing. It appealed to my visual senses through vivid descriptions and imagery that enabled me to create a mental image and visualize the scenes, characters, and settings. The story also evoke a wide range of emotions for me, including happiness, sadness, fear, hope, and gratitude.

Did you recognize any of the storytelling techniques reviewed this week?

I recognized quite a few of the storytelling techniques in my dad’s story. The first technique is bring characters to life. He was very description about the people in the story to create the illusion of three-dimensional characters. Another technique used was ” Show, not tell”, my dad’s story used scene-by-scene construction of events and dialogue instead of narration that allowed me to better visual what was going on. And lastly, my dad’s story utilized the technique of ” end with a positive takeaway”. In this case it was the piece of advice that hardship is necessary for success and showed by the example of mom escaping a lower social class due to her hard work.

What storytelling techniques have you used instinctively and which ones require more work for you?

Everytime I tell a story, I instinctively personalize the story and bring characters to life. I’m always describing characters in detail to create three-dimensional characters and show how the story is related to me. However, that being said all the other techniques such as suspense and build-up that require more work from me. I often get too excited or hone in a specific details too much and don’t build the story in a progressive way.

Which techniques will you focus on moving forward?

I will try to focus and be aware of the other techniques that I don’t use in my stories such as, Immerse my audience in the story, , show. don’t tell, build up to S.T.A.R moment, and end with a positive takeaway. I will achieve this by first trying to capture my audience’s attention with a reason for why they should listen to the story and maintain a proper progression of events in the story. Have the events create suspense and end with a message that the audience can takeaway and possibly apply to their own life.