Storytelling for Change.doc

8/14/2019 Storytelling for Change.doc

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Lesson Plan onStorytelling for Change

Why this session? To effectively touch the hearts and minds of our intended

audiences and move them to take action, Community Development Workers (CDWs)

can learn how to use stories as an effective tool. Stories are entertaining and easy

to rememer, and they tend to provide emotional and cultural !hooks" ### allowing

the audience to identify with the place and the characters ## without making them

feel ad aout their current lack of knowledge or inaction.

Stories can move us to action 1) by showing us what to do, 2) by insiring or

motivating us to do what needs to be done, and !) by showing us how a

roblem could change" i

#chievement$based %b&ectives

$y the end of this session, participants will have%

&. 'rticulated the importance of storytelling as a CDW skill.

. dentified an open#ended story from a closed#ended story and in what

situations each type would e used.

*. Written an open#ended and a closed#ended story using the steps to writing a

etter story.

+. racticed story telling.

-. Critiued their own and their co#participants" storytelling skills.

'ime% + hours

(aterials

/to 0ets 1alaria story

Timed and Targeted Counseling materials including rolem Story and

ositive Story 23amples of teaching materials, especially any that are in a narrative format

from the CDWs" own work (ask participants to ring)

Storytelling for a Change Page 1


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'dditional e3amples of educational materials for those who cannot ring

e3amples (facilitators should ring, ideally include some that are stories

depicted y pictures)

Stes

1" Stories *!+ minutes

2veryone loves a good story. $ut stories are more than entertainment%

45Stories6 are the most effective form of human communication, more powerful

than any other way of packaging information.7 eter 0ruer

-#s.) What kinds of stories can you think of8 9ote down the answers on a piece

of flip chart paper (and add e3amples if needed). There are stories aout talking

animals and people with special powers, there are stories to help us rememer how

things were long ago, there are love stories and adventure stories with happy

endings and with sad endings, and many more kinds of stories.

Some stories are mostly for entertainment, others are intended as teaching

stories, and often the stories we love the most are entertaining, emotionally

compelling and help us learn something aout ourselves or something that relatesto our own lives.

Two categories of teaching stories that you may e familiar with are falesand

parales.

:ales and parales are oth short stories that teach a moral lesson. :ales

typically involve animals, mythical creatures, forces of nature, etc. that are given

human ualities. arales typically involve people. n oth cases, the story is told to

teach a point, often a moral lesson. :ales sometimes stated the teaching in ashort phrase or sentence, called the 4moral7 of the story, at the end.

Some well#known fales (in the western world) are 'esop"s :ales, such as 4The

Tortoise and the ;are7


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-#s.)Who can think of a parales, fale or traditional story that has een used

to teach children8

-#s.) Why do you think that stories are used so often with children8

-/0lain) Despite the detailed information that is often found in a story, stories

are one of the easier things for us to remember" Stories are also

entertaining. They tend to hold children and adults attentionmuch etter than

a lot of other methods.

Teaching through stories is also helpful when you do not want to ma.e someone

feel bad about their lac. of .nowledge" t helps the person to think aout what

needs to happen in a given situation. t also allows them to identify with the

character in the story who finds a solution to the prolem.

There are many different types of stories. n Timed and Targeted Counseling,

Problem Stories, where things don"t turn out well, and Positive Stories, where

things have a happy ending (see e3amples in 'nne3 &) stories are used to help

CDW"s counsel mothers so they can learn from common scenarios that lead to risks

for mothers and children.

>ight now we want to talk aout two types of teaching stories% closed#ended and

open#ended.

2" efinitions and /0amles Closed$ended and %en$ended Stories *34

mins"

a. 5ead Story 61" ractice ahead of time and e sure to watch your pacing, e

animated, and use different voices for different characters. >2'D the closed#

ended story, 4$lood Worms7 elow then use the uestions to derief.

b" 7lood worms *2"4 minutes

There were once two rothers named :ernando and ;ernando. The two rothers?

farmland was wearing out, so they decided to move to a new village called 'gua1ala. 'fter otaining permission from the chief of a neary town, they uilt new

houses and started their farming. 's they were walking to the river to draw water

each day, they talked aout how surprising it was that hardly anyone else got water

from the river. They asked their neighor, 1r. Tufo, aout the situation, and he

told them that each family had their own well. :ernando looked at ;ernando and



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frowned, ut said nothing. @ater the two rothers talked aout how unsociale

this was for each family to have their own well instead of gathering at the riverA

'fter finishing work on the farm each day, the rothers athed in the river

efore going home. 'fter three months, they oth egan having elly pains and

soon started noticing lood in their urine. ;ernando graed his rother y thearm, looked him in the eyes in a panic, and said, B$rother, the townspeople are

poisoning usA They do not want newcomers to farm hereAB They went to the village

chief to complain.

pon e3plaining their troules to the chief, the rothers were told that, years

efore this, many of the people in the village had elly troule and lood in their

urine. /ne of the tries in the community egan to argue with the other trie, and

neighor accused neighor more and more, accusing each other of putting curses

on their household and making them leed. The smaller trie of people wasplanning on leaving and moving to another village when a health worker advised

them that the disease came from tiny creatures living in pools and streams where

people athed. These ay worms went through the skins of the athers and

traveled through the lood to their ellies. The villagers also learned that the eggs

of the worms were passed in people?s urine or feces, and would e washed y rain

into the pools.

$oth tries, upon the advice of the health worker, egan to use shovels to ury

their feces, uilt latrines, and stopped urinating in the river. They also dug wellsto draw water for drinking and washing. /nce those who were ill were treated at

the health facility, this kind of elly pain and loody urine were no longer a prolem

in their village. The two tries egan to get along with each other, as well.

The two rothers followed the e3ample of the rest of the villagers, and soon

ecame healthy again. 'fter that, whenever they had a prolem, they were sure

to first discuss it with their neighors to see what they could learn from them.

-#s. articiants after reading the story)

What was the principal prolem in the story8 5$loodworms

Schistosomiasis.6

What happened to the two rothers after athing in the water8 What

symptoms did they have8 5$elly pains, lood in urine.6



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What did they think caused their illness8 5The townspeople are poisoning

usA6

What did their neighors tell them8 52ach family had their own well. lus

what the chief told them....6

What was the solution to the prolem8 5Stopped urinating in river, dug wellsfor drinking, get treatment for disease, don"t athe in contaminated or

uncertain water.6

n terms of health, what are the things that we learn that we should do

from this story8 -#dd Construct and use latrines, construct and use

wells for drin.ing 8 washing water, treatment of disease")

;ave people in your community (or country) had prolems that stemmed

from using river water8 Could they resolve the prolems they have y doing

similar things (latrines, wells)8

c. (/0lain%) This is a closed#ended story. ' 4closed#ended story7 is an account ofan event, true or imaginary, that promotes the adoption of actions or attitudes.

Specific things (ehaviors) are mentioned in the story that we want to promote

in communities. 9ow let"s read an open#ended story.

d. 5ead story 62 -below) or ask a volunteer ahead of time to read the story. $e

sure to practice ahead of time, watch your pacing, and e animated. ;ere is an

e3ample of an open#ended story, Called 4Story of a Death7 that is used y

World Eision in Timed and Targeting Counseling. They call it a 4prolem story7,

since it raises a prolem ut doesn"t tell what to do aout it. They also use4positive stories7 (or closed#ended stories) that have happy endings and show

how to solve prolems y using the key ehaviors. When these stories are used

y CDW"s they are used in comination with a flipook with pictures to

illustrate the stories.

Story of a eath in 9ffa :illage

'mina is pregnant. She wakes up early and she works hard all day.

Sometimes she lifts heavy things. She doesn"t have any help. She has no

time to rest. n the afternoon 'mina sees her pregnant friends on their way to the

health facility for their antenatal visit. She continues to work.

/ne day while working in the fields, 'mina notices lood on her clothes.

She doesn"t tell anyone.



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'mina washes her clothes ut she doesn"t tell anyone aout the lood

ecause 'mina doesn"t know any of the danger signs to look for when

she"s pregnant.

The ne3t morning 'mina wakes up with a lot of lood on her mat. She

calls to her husand to get help. 'mina"s husand runs around the villagelooking for transportation. ;e finds that most of the men are in the

fields with their o3carts. t takes him a long time.

$y the time he has found help and comes ack to the house he sees that

'mina has died.

What were the main prolems in the story8 What do you suppose went wrong8

-List their resonses on newsrint")

;ow could these prolems e prevented8

;ave people in your community ever had these kinds of prolems8 ;ow can we prevent this prolem8

e. -/0lain)This was an open#ended story. 'n 4open#ended story7 is also an

account of a true or fictional event, ut the prolems raised in the story are

not resolved in the story. t does not have a moral, does not promote anything,

and sometimes does not have an ending. The participants hearing the story

guided y the facilitator"s uestions are left to determine how the prolems

could e resolved. See another e3ample of an 4open#ended story7 in 'nne3 &.

!" ;ses and Limitations of 7oth 'yes of Stories *14 mins"

-#s.) n what situation do you think you would want to use a closed#ended

story8

-#dd)


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involve people in deciding what things they would do to solve that prolem, an open#

ended story would e more appropriate.

-#dd) %en$ended stories are used when you want to loo. for solutions to

more comle0 roblems, for e0amle, cross$generational se0, leading to thesread of =9:8#9S" When you do not have an idea of a clear strategy to tackle

a particular prolem, think of using open#ended uestions. With an open# ended

story, you can generate a list of activities of things (rainstorming) that can e

done in the community to comat a prolem. 'fterwards, you could use a closed#

ended story to promote one or more of the activities (e.g., a story on how to

convince younger girls not to marry older men). Fou should notuse an open# ended

story when people have already decided what action they will e taking to resolve a

prolem, or when there is really only one good way to properly resolve a prolem.

3" ;sing >uestions #fter the Story the ey to ;sing Stories*2+ minutes

(23plain%) 9t@s imortant to always use discussion Auestions after a story is

told"

-#s.) What types of uestions you think would e useful to use after a closed

#ended story is told8

-#dd) 'fter you have given the participants the 4direct e0erience7 of a story,

there are several uestions that you can use to take participants through the

other steps of the 'dult @earning Cycle Draw this on a flip#chart and e3plain

that the story itself is a kind of direct e3perience when you listen to a story you

imagine you are there.



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-5eflection)

What were the main prolems raised in the story8

;ow did people try to resolve the prolems8 What happened8 ;ow did theyfinally resolve the prolem8

n terms of health (or agriculture), what were the most important practices

that were mentioned in this story8 (>ememer to write their ideas down when

possile.)

-ecision)

;ave the people in this community had the same prolems that the people in the

story had8

What did you learn from this story8 Would it e possile for people in this community to resolve the prolem in the

same way8 What might the challenges e8 What would e easy to implement8

Should we do that8

-#lication)

;ow could we egin that work8

-#s.)What type of stories would e useful to use after an open#ended story is

told8

-#dd) Several uestions that you could use are%

-5eflection)

What were the main prolems raised in the story8



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What else might e making things difficult related to these prolems that were

not talked aout directly in this story8

;ow could the people in the story resolve the prolem8

;ow could the people in the story prevent the prolem8

;ow would you descrie the reasons for the prolem in this story to a friend8

-ecision)

What did you learn from this story8

;ave you seen that prolem in this community8

Would it e possile for people in this community to resolve the prolem in the

same way (referring ack to one of the ways that they have mentioned)8

Should we do that8

-#lication) What are the ways that we could prevent that prolem (or resolve it) in this

community8

>ememer%

a. t is e3tremely important to let people discover the message for themselves

instead of giving them the answers.

. The uestions used after a story should point out the negative conseuences of

negative ehaviors and the positive conseuences of positive ehaviors.

4" Buidelines for Writing Stories *14 mins"

#s. articiants to brainstorm in their groups and report out suggestions for

writing a closed#ended stories. >ememer this part is only aout writing or making

up the stories, not aout T2@@90 the stories.)

-Write their suggestions on newsrint, then add some of the following

suggestions if needed)

;se the names of real lacesthat people know in your stories.

The story should look like something that could betrue, not a fantasy.

1ake the story simle and clear.

t should take no more than five minutesto tell the story. (This does not

include the uestions that are discussed after the story).



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Do not forget that in a closed ended story we are trying toromote secific

behaviors. 1ention a few key messages or specific ehaviors that someone

did in the story, and repeat them where possile. :or e3ample, it would e

clearer to say, B1artine persuaded her relatives to help her uild a hand

washing station at their home 7 than to say 41artine decided she wanted tohave etter cleanliness and hygiene at her home7 .

Bive names to the eolein your story and the settingor mention the

profession (for e3ample, the schoolteacher) instead of calling them,B the

manB or B the youth.B That makes it easier to rememer the story.

9nclude enough detail to ma.e the story interesting, but not so much

that the imortant messages get lost in all of the detail" Some people

say that the rule of thum is that it should e like a man"s wife"s dress

short enough to e interesting, ut long enough to cover the suGect.

7e descritive and dramatic aout important parts of the story. @et thereader know what eole@s emotionswere at different parts of the story.

=el the reader to visualie what is haening in the story, as if they

were watching it happen. :or e3ample, instead of saying, BThe romoter

found that :elipe had a fever,B you could say, B'ndrea, the romoter,

noticed that eads of sweat were forming on :elipe?s forehead as he

struggled to reathe. She uickly took his temperature and oth she and

:elipe?s mother gasped when they found that it was already +& degreesAB)

't times, you should use a little bit of humorin your stories ut the humor

should not e the central focus of the story. t"s good when stories are

funny enough or uniue enough that people want to tell the story to other

people.

Teaching in villages is sometimes laughed at or simply ignored when it

conflicts openly with current eliefs. :or this reason, stories should e

constructed to include the traditional .nowledge or belief and to move,

through the means of the story, to an action that will help solve the prolem.

Sometimes stories used for teaching carry hidden messages that were not

intended. f story telling is to help people gain confidence and to value theirculture, care must e taken not to ma.e local ways or ersons loo. all

bad, and outside ways or ersons loo. all good. f the weakness of a local

custom is pointed out, a eneficial custom should also e mentioned.

Fou can draw comarisonsin your stories. :or e3ample, a family who took

their sick ay to the health facility for treatment and a family who did not.



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Fou can write a story where someone doesnt .now how to do something

correctly, learns how to do it, and later alies the s.ills that they@ve

learned"

D" Writing a Closed /nded Story -34 minutes)

-#s.) ;ave you ever made up a story to entertain children8 Was it easy for you

or hard to do8 1ost people find that it gets easier with practice. $rian 1cDonald,

the author of 9nvisible 9n. # Practical Buide to 7uilding Stories that 5esonate

gives steps to writing a etter story. ;e says that most stories have these same

steps. (Write the stes on a fli chart or give them out as a handout)

&.) /nce upon a time HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

.) 'nd every dayHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*.) ntil one dayHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH+.) 'nd ecause of thisHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-.) 'nd ecause of thisHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I.) ntil finallyHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

J.) 'nd ever since that dayHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Do these steps seem familiar to you, now that you think aout it8

-#s.) Would a few people volunteer to help me demonstrate this for the group80et two or three volunteers to come up and then egin. will do step one, 4and

then will stop and the first volunteer will continue with step two, and so on. We

will go around until we finish the story. :or this e3ercise we will keep it pretty

short, so you have time to practice in your groups.

($egin with a description of someone and where he or she lives, then stopK)

f someone gets stuck, and can"t think of anything its ok to pass it on to the ne3t

person or ask the group for ideas.

'fter the demonstration, ask participants to play this game in their small groups

going around and making up a story, for aout - minutes.



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Then, ask participants to pair up and work on a short story related to their work.

0ive them &- minutes to work on their story, and ask for volunteers to share their

stories with the whole group.

Thanks everyone for their participation and say, now that we have learned how towrite stories, we are going to look at what it takes to e a good storyteller.

E" Story telling -D+ minutes)

#s. articiants to thin. of someone they .now who is good at telling stories"

What are some things that the erson does that ma.es it really interesting

for you?

;ave some stories availale for participants, one or two stories per small group.

Tell participants that they will have a chance to practice storytelling in small

groups of * + people" #fter each erson tells their story, use this section

below to let the erson reflect and to give suortive feedbac."

Plan to rint out this section out as a handout or write it on a fli chart for

the articiants

5eflections Firstof all, encourage the person telling the story to reflect on the

e3perience, asking them these uestions.

;ow did it go for you8

;ow did you feel telling the story8

Did you speakloudly enough and clearly enough so that everyone could hear8

Did you use changes in voice intonation (not monotone)8

Did you rememer to use different voices for different characters in the

story8 (if there were different characters)

What would you do differently ne3t time8

Suortive feedbac.Ge0t, group memers share something they li.ed aout the

way the person told the story.



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'fter that, if they have suggestions for improvement, each person can share /92

suggestion, and say 4=ow aboutK or What ifK.7 Such as, 4;ow aout slowing down

Gust a little87 or 4What if you took a deep reath efore starting78

>ememerL don"t overwhelm your friend with suggestionsA =ust one suggestion per

person.

2ach group memer takes a turn to practice telling their story, reflecting and

getting group feedack. Then the group should select one person from their small

group to present their story to the larger group.

f there is time, have one person from each small group present their story to the

larger group. ;ave everyone give them a round of applause.

Then either move on to the wrap#up or to the story writing practicum in 'nne3 &.

9ote% Depending on the purpose of the training and the time availale, you may

choose to go on to 'nne3 to practice improving stories that have already een

written, or to do more work on writing their own stories.

H" Wra$u *1+ minutes

What is the single most important thing you learned today8

What is one thing that you plan to do as a result of this workshop8

What feedack can you give us to make this workshop etter the ne3t time we

present it8



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#nne0 1

/0amle I %en ended story

J Forming #gricultural eveloment Committees in %.omayoJ

n the village of /komayo lived an 'gricultural worker named 2tienne. ;e had een

instructed y his program leaders to form a community health committee to help

organiMe activities. ;is supervisor, Carlos told him, B$e sure to include the political

leaders ## then your committee will have the power and leadership it needs.B

So 2tienne went to the mayor, a large man with a ooming voice, who welcomed the

idea. B?ll do all the work,B said the mayor. B=ust leave it in my hands. ?ll even

choose the memers.B The mayor chose his rother#in#law, some rich friends, a

ig landholder, and a merchant who had a truck to help carry supplies.

When Carlos returned to the community month after month, the committee

accomplished very little. 't meetings, memers proposed good ideas for

agriculture activities, ut nothing ever seemed to get done. t was never made

clear who was responsile for anything, so no one did very much. There was no

special schedule for meetings. Some meetings ended early ecause nothing had

een planned or ecause so few persons attended. Several of the memers

complained to 2tienne, BThis committee is a waste of timeA We need more

resourcesAB

Soon 2tienne had other prolems. n =anuary, committee memers e3pected free

farming supplies for their families. 'nd y 1arch, they had taken control of

2tienne?s stock of seeds and fertiliMer, saying they would Bhelp with the

distriution.B 2tienne was angry, ut did not know what to do. The committee

eventually started selling some of the supplies secretly for personal profit, until

there were no supplies left.

-#s. articiants afterwards)

What was the main prolem in the story8 What do you suppose went wrong with

this committee8 -List their resonses on newsrint")

;ow could the people in this community prevent the prolem8 >esolve the

prolem8



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;ave people in our proGect communities ever had the same prolem that these

people had8

;ow can we prevent this prolem when we are forming 'g and ;ealth

Committees in proGect communities8

#nne0 2

%tional Practicum Part 1Kdeveloing a stronger story about malaria *D+

minutes

We"ve considered the power of stories for teaching health concepts. Fou have an

e3ample of a story that teaches aout malaria. :or the ne3t hour you will work an

improved version of this story with others then each group will share with the restwhat they have come up with.

9ote to trainer% provide a fact sheet on malaria from a reliale source such as the

following% http%NNwww.who.intNmediacentreNfactsheetsNfsOP+NenNinde3.html

Take 4/to 0ets 1alaria7 as your starting point. ;ere"s what you have to work with.

' cast of characters%

o /to% a oy who gets malaria

o ku% /to"s father and @ita"s wife

o @ita% /to"s mother and ku"s wife

o @ita"s friends

o /ther people in their village

o Qeep /to, ku, and @ita, ut you can add or remove others as you wish

lace% a village in a developing country. Fou can make it any place you wish,

though the original is set in the hilippines.

SituationNoutcome%

o /to comes down with malaria. That"s the only given of the storyline.

o The people in the story learn aout malaria and how to treat itNreduce

incidence of it.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/index.htmlhttp://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/index.html


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Teaching%

o Fou can keep, take away, or add to the points taught in the original

o Write your story so that it teaches a good it or even all of the

critical information from the fact sheet you were given.

o Fou may want to make a list of ehaviors that you want to see change.

:or e3ample, 4Sleeping so that mosuitoes can ite you77Sleep under

a mosuito net7.

Work in tale groups for *O minutes. Spend aout the first O deciding what your

revisedNimproved storyline is. Then spend the last &O minutes deciding how you

want to present your story to the rest of the group. t could e done as a skit or

play, or told as a story.

'fter the *O minutes is up, or more time if needed, come ack together as a large

group. ;ave each tale present their revisedNimproved story. 'sk the large

group to share some of the things they liked the most aout the story.

%tional Practicum Part 2KWriting or imroving your own behavior change

story *1 hour

Some of you have already worked in ehavior change communication. Fou may

already have written a story designed to teach health concepts. /r you may havematerials that teach health concepts that were not written in a story format.

/thers of you may not have rought material to work with. f that is your

situation, choose something from the materials we have here. 5$ring a variety of

teaching materials for participants to choose from.6

2veryone will work on sketching out a new or improved teaching story. Fou"ll want

to sketch out%

Characters% Who will e in your story8

laceNsituation

$ehaviors that you want to see change

nformation that you want your story to communicate



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TensionNconflictNprolem and its resolution

Fou might want to work in pairs, or you might prefer to work on your own. f you

want to work with a partner to find someone here in the group that you would like

to work with on a topic you are oth interested in.

During the reak, find a partner and materials to work on if needed.

'fter you"ve worked for aout *O minutes on your story, we"ll share with each

other what we"ve come up with and get feedack to help us continue our work.



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iMade to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and an Heath,

2007

Storytelling for Change.doc

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