Purposeful Storytelling

Expressing inner values and purpose through stories

The inner compass helps individuals stay focused on their values, beliefs and goals. It serves as a guiding force, providing direction and purpose, and helps individuals to make decisions that align with their personal vision for the future. Having a strong inner compass allows individuals to navigate through uncertainties, overcome obstacles and make choices that are consistent with their authentic selves.

This tool helps students to act on their inner values. After identifying what really matters to them, they formulate shared values with like-minded others. Together they create a story that aims to communicate their shared inner values to others. Through this activity, students learn how to be guided by their inner compass in the work they do with and for others, to contribute to building connection and inclusion, and bring about change.

Learning outcome

The student is able to display and act on their inner values and purpose

Acting in accordance with your inner compass while working on collaborative storytelling.

1.Locating Inner Values

30 mins

Introduce the concept of inner values and their impact on personal growth and decision-making. Ask students to choose their top 5 inner values from Brené Brown’s ‘Dare to Lead’ list of values.

Encourage students to consider which values resonate most deeply with their own beliefs, aspirations and sense of self. Remind them that there are no right or wrong answers, and they should trust their intuition and personal experiences. Have students reflect on why these values are significant to them and write brief explanations or examples.

Remind the students to keep their lists confidential for now, as sharing and discussion will follow in later steps.

Tip: we recommend dedicating time to establishing a safe and inclusive learning environment to foster collective learning and make students feel respected and understood.

2.Shared Values

20 mins

Instruct students to form groups of 4 to 6 based on shared or similar inner values. Facilitate discussions within each group by posing thought-provoking questions about their values, such as what inspired their choices and how those values guide their actions and decisions in different aspects of life. Ensure that all group members have the opportunity to share their thoughts and perspectives during the conversation.

Ask the groups to create collaboratively a shared top 5 values list that represents their common values. This list will serve as the foundation for their shared story.

Next, prompt students to decide on a theme for their story that aligns with their shared values and allows them to express those values creatively. Provide ample time for the groups to brainstorm, discuss and finalise their chosen theme for the shared story. Encourage open communication and collaboration.

3.Crafting a Shared Story

4 hrs

Instruct students on the essential elements of storytelling, emphasising key storytelling techniques and principles. Encourage students to develop collaboratively a narrative that effectively reflects their shared values. They should decide on an overarching storyline and discuss the means to construct it. Support students in brainstorming creative ideas, character development and plot progression that aligns with their chosen theme and shared values.

Next, guide students in recording their stories in audio format. Introduce the option to use www.izi.travel to compile their story as a publicly available audio guide.

Tip: download more information on the fundamentals of storytelling.

4.Sharing the Story

1 hr

Instruct students to listen actively to the stories created by other groups. Guide students to provide constructive peer feedback based on the following questions:

Which specific values did you identify within the story, and how did they contribute to the overall narrative?
Can you provide examples of how the values were expressed or demonstrated by the characters or events in the story?

Remind students to maintain a supportive and respectful tone while providing feedback. Facilitate a discussion after each story, allowing students to share their observations, insights and suggestions for improvement.

Tip: provide students with guidelines for giving and receiving feedback.

5.Refining the Story

2 hrs

Instruct students to discuss and analyse the feedback they received for their story together, identifying specific areas that require adjustments or enhancement. Prompt students to brainstorm collaboratively ideas and strategies for incorporating the feedback into their story.

Support students in making necessary adjustments to their storyline, characters, dialogue or any other aspects of the narrative based on the received feedback. Encourage students to maintain the integrity of their shared values while making revisions to ensure a more compelling and coherent story.

Please note, as part of assessment as learning, students reflect using the reflective questions.

The inner compass can only be assessed by the student themselves. Therefore, the learning activity ends with self-reflection. This gives students the opportunity to assess whether they have been true to their inner compass and to reflect on their learning. In Step 5 of the activity, students reflect on their own experiences using the reflective questions.

Purpose

Assessment as learning aims to strengthen the learning process and the development of metacognitive skills. It empowers students to direct their own learning and to become independent, critical self-assessors.

Roles

Self-assessment

Characteristics

Self-regulated learning

Materials

Reflective questions

Download Reflective questions

Brené Brown’s ‘Dare to Lead‘ list of values and guidelines for establishing a safe and inclusive learning environment (Step 1) can be downloaded below.

Fundamentals of storytelling (Step 3) and guidelines for giving and receiving feedback (Step 4) can be downloaded below.

Download Dare to Lead list of values

Download Guidelines safe and inclusive learning environment

Download Fundamentals of Storytelling

Download Guidelines feedback

Dare to Lead | List of Values. (2020). Brené Brown.

Deeply connect with people and places. (n.d.).

Intercultural urban routes(n.d.). Migrantour.

UvA Teaching and Learning Centres (TLC) (n.d.). Storyboarding