Tool "Telling your Story"

Language: English

Project Featuring This Tool: All Together Against Climate Change

Themes:Campaigning Environment

Participants learn how to tell the message of their campaign in a personal and convincing way. By explaining what inspires them to take action they will learn how to encourage others to do the same.

Time 60 minutes
Approximate number of participants 6+
Age 10-15
Date published 3 Feb 2012, 15:35

Objectives

To learn how to tell a message in an inspiring way
To reflect on why participants find their message important

Materials

Flipchart paper
A4 paper

Step-by-step instructions

1. Explain to the group that we all like stories. When you are spreading the message of your campaign and talking to people about it, it is always good to tell them why you care about this message, what inspired you to run this campaign and why you are motivated to take action. Telling stories about what inspired you will encourage others.
2. Ask the group to get together in pairs. Each person should tell a two-minute story to the other one. It should be something funny, or about an adventure they have been on. It should be a story about them.
3. Come back together and ask the group: what kept you listening to the story you were told? Make a list on a flipchart of all the things that kept you interested in the other person’s story.
4. Ask everyone to write down the message of their campaign (this should have been formulated in a previous exercise) so that they have it clear in their heads.
5. Form two circles with an equal number of participants in each. One circle should be inside the other with pairs of people facing each other. Each pair should now tell each other in two minutes what their message is and what inspired them to take action and to get their particular message out. Remind them of the list they made earlier about the things that kept them interested in other people’s stories. They should use these things to make their stories interesting.
6. When one person has finished their story, the other one should give feedback to the speaker: was this inspirational? Why (not)? What could have been told differently? Then they swap roles.
7. After both people have told their stories and got feedback, the outer circle moves, so that everyone stands opposite a new person. They repeat the exercise, keeping in mind the feedback they got. You can repeat this a third time if you want.

Debriefing

How do you feel now?
Were you inspired by other people’s stories? If so, why?

Tips

You should do this activity after participants have defined the message of their campaign.

Attached files