TELLING OUR STORIES
a service learning project

Telling our stories is a part of human nature. We want to communicate how we are feeling and what we've experienced. There is great value in sharing our stories with others and in talking about those experiences that define who we are. In this project, you will survey your peers to discover what defines them. You will have to open yourself up to the experience of learning about someone else's life and sharing their story.

1. CHOOSE A THEME
Choose a part of the human experience that interests you. This can be any of the themes that we have discussed this year in class. It can relate to love, money, power, sexuality, etc.

2. CREATE A SURVEY
Create a survey that you will administer to your peers about their experiences relating to the theme you chose. Your survey should be at least 5 questions long.

3. ADMINISTER YOUR SURVEY
Administer your survey to at least 20 of your peers. Through your administering of your survey, you will come into contact with people who have had direct experience with the theme you have chosen to focus on. Choose someone to interview who is willing to tell their story.

4. CONCLUDE YOUR SURVEY
Write about the results of your survey. What did you learn? What did you discover? What did you expect to be the results? What was surprising?

TELLING THEIR STORY

5. CONDUCT AN IN DEPTH INTERVIEW
Write 10 interview questions that focus on your interviewee's experiences and feelings concerning your topic. Take notes on their responses. Take notes of their appearance, body language, hand gestures. Write down specific facts they share with you as quotes that you will use later in your narrative.

6. WRITE THEIR STORY
Write a narrative that tells their story. Create a setting using figurative language and imagrey. Focuson what you want to convey about your topic. Make the story interesting by drawing the reader in at the beginning with a quote or a surprising fact.

POST A BLOG WITH THE STORY

7. CREATE A BLOG POST
Go to Blogspot.com and create a new post that will feature your narrative. Add at least 3 pictures to the blog that convey the theme of your narrative and the content of the story.

8. CONCLUSION AND INCLUDE SURVEY RESULTS
Come to a conclusion for your project. This should be something you have learned as a result of going through this process. Include the results of your survey to show how others are affected by this topic or problem.