Monday, May 11, 2009

Story

Daniel Pink says that, “Reading short stories is a fine way to sharpen your Story aptitude” Collections of short stories are readily available in most libraries. Daniel Pink mentions the One Story literary magazine in the book. Another source of short stories is the Fifty-Two stories blog from Harper Perennial (publisher) which is “celebrating the thriving art of the story by sharing a new one every week.”

4 comments:

  1. The ability to tell a story, to fashion a compelling narrative, is the way to persuade and communicate. People remember stories better than isolated facts. When we "tell a story" to engage prior knowledge, or to close a lesson or to motivate students to continue researching they remember the story. It's easy, quick and cheap to gain knowledge through the Internet, but students often find disjointed facts or information, when we can weave it together for them, or better yet have them weave it together into a "story" their comprehension inproves as does their retention of the material. Therefore the ability to weave facts into a story has added value.

    Pink discusses "organizational storytelling" at length; what he's essentially discussing is the case study method. Stories can provide

    ...context enriched by emotion, a deeper understanding of how we fit in and why that matters. (p, 115)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved Wilde's story so much I wish I were still teaching. The turns of phrase, the ironies! And the lovely language. And the fantastic plot....Ah I wish I could write like that! Can't wait for next week's.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've often found interesting stories at
    http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/

    But some of the best were from the St. Petersburg Times. They run a column called "The Skinny" of stories taken from the wire services. They're usually very short and humorous - often about bumbling burglars, feisty grandmothers, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As an English teacher I am always thrilled to find a new story to read! As Jill mentioned the ability to fashion a story and captivate your audience is truly something that is universal. So many teachers are able to take their content and fashion it into stories that help students retain and appreciate curriculum all the more. No surprise that even Jesus taught through parables and stories.

    ReplyDelete