Communicating About Stories

Stories are fun. Stories are easy. Stories are good for grammar, idiomatic expressions, vocabulary, etc. etc. Stories stimulate conversation. We teachers know that, but what happens when we try to convince our students to create a few? A well told story combines the power of good stories with strategy, creativity, deep analysis and hard science, to design and produce communications that spur positive social changes that can be proved and measured. They create innovative media which reaches and engages millions of people every month. They also advise and support public and private sector organizations to use good communication to amplify their impact, create efficiency and achieve their goals.

Seiler and Beal (2011) demonstrate that one of the ways any society or culture ensures the transmission of cultural traditions and values is in its stories. Many of the stories we read as young children contain life lessons. The stories of Dr. Seuss, for example, always have a moral. Green Eggs and Ham teaches us the value of repeatedly presenting ideas in slightly different forms to convince others, and The Lorax provides reasons we should value our natural resources. Even common folk stories such as "The Three Little Pigs" may demonstrate the value of a work ethic. Other stories provide examples of specific cultural values. Most immigrants to the United States bring their cultures' stories with them. Paul Fleischman's novella Seed folks describe how a neighborhood of people from many different countries of origin learns how to become a community.

What are some of the stories you learned, read, or were told as you grew up?
What values did the stories convey or emphasize?
What stories will you or have you shared with your own children or relatives? Why?
Communicating about stories through literary analysis looks critically at a work of fiction in order to understand how the parts contribute to the whole. When analyzing a novel or short story, you'll need to consider elements such as the context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and themes. The vividness of language also makes a good story. It is through the stories of faith, our nation, our ancestors, and our families and through our own stories that we know who we are and why we act as we do. Faith stories offer us a context out of which to make sense of all of life; they offer us images and words that help us to interpret, to make decisions, and to try to move forward.
Reference: Seiler, W.J. and Beall, M.L. (2011). Communication: Making connections, (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Posted in: Literature