TED Talk--TED Radio Hour
Host: Guy Raz
Air Date: December 19, 2013
Framing a Story
For this TED Radio Hour, four TED Talks explore the power of storytelling.
Part I and V--“What Makes a Good Story?”; “What are the Clues to a Good Story?”
By Andrew Stanton, filmmaker
Part I: Andrew Stanton, the filmmaker responsible for such Pixar films like Wall-E and Finding Nemo, indicates that master storytelling is like telling a joke--one needs to have a punchline. He begins with telling a joke about an Irishman man in a bar...the joke ends with a crass punchline, but it really brings home Stanton’s point. He then begins to explain how stories connect people; they affirm who we are.
Part V: Stanton continues his thought about great stories by adding, “make me care.” The design of the story has:
1) Guidelines, not hard rules.
2) A character the audience likes.
3) To invoke wonder.
Stanton professes that we are natural problem solvers. We are drawn to infants and animals because we earn to learn what’s going on...how can we learn what they are thinking? Wonder plays a large part in making a story meaningful because we want to share that wonder. Stanton believes in writing about what you know, a truth based on experience.
Part II--“How Do You Find a Story in a Painting?”
By Tracy Chevalier, novelist
In this TED Talk, Chevalier explains her process for discovering a story within a painting, “The Girl with a Pearl Earring.” She admits that the painting is rather simple, but she discovers a relationship between the girl and the artist by examining the girl’s expression. There is familiarity in the girl’s expression, yet there is a distance or strain that prevents a closeness or further intimacy. Chevalier narrates her own analysis of the painting that breathes life into the painting itself. When asked what makes a good story, Chevalier indicates that it includes a journey, portrays a character that changes, helps us make sense of the world and where we came from, and presents a beginning, a middle (the change), and an end (the “new normal”).
Part III--“How Do Book Covers Tell Their Own Stories?”
By Chip Kidd, book cover designer
What do stories look like? Chip Kidd explains the influence of a strong book cover. He indicates that a book cover must start from what the designer knows, which is most likely the story for which the book cover represents. The book cover is a piece of art that serves another piece of art and it should capture a representation of the story in a snapshot. Kidd’s descriptions offer real insight into the usefulness and influence of a book cover and, consequently, the power of an image. According to Kidd, all stories need a face.
Part IV--“What are the Dangers of a Single Story?”
By Chimamanda Adichie, novelist
What happens if the story you believe isn’t the true story? The idea behind the single-story came from Adichie’s experience growing up in Nigeria reading English children’s books about white, blue-eyed children that ate apples and played in the snow. Adichie realized that when she first began to write her own stories, her characters were white and discussed the weather just like the ones in the stories she read as a young girl. From this, Adichie began to understand the importance of identities that connect a reader to the story; reading about people that feel familiar saves a reader from having a one-sided experience. Adichie cautions her audience about the prejudices of an inherent single-story. For an African, the single-story comes mostly from a Western perspective, one that it is negative, dark, and dangerous. Stories are necessary because they allow us to make meaning of our lives and having another perspective only increasing our awareness of others and ourselves.
Quantitative: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease--80; Grade level--5.2
Qualitative: This series of interviews has a complexity that younger students may not follow, so this series is more appropriate for high school students, specifically 9th and 10th graders since they tend to explore text features of the genres. Structurally, the interviews include clips from the speakers actual TED Talks. The interview allows the speakers to expand their TED Talks so that listeners have a better understanding of how these storytellers actually formulate their narratives. The interviews offer a reflection of the creative process and an artist’s intentions. Students, if listening to all of the interviews, would have to synthesize a criteria for framing a story.
Content Area: English
Curriculum Suggestions: The obvious connection for this TED Radio Hour is English. The interviews could be used to examine an author’s story crafting and also serve as a guide for students when constructing their own stories. However, the same concept could be applied to other disciplines like History, Science, or even math. Whenever a problem needs to be solved, one could apply the themes from the interviews to consider how to address the problem and present a resolution.
Common Core Standards: W9/10.1,3; RL9/10.2, 3, 6, 7
Additional/Digital Content:
- About Andrew Stanton--
- Supplemental information for The Girl with a Pearl Earring--
- About Tracy Chevalier--http://www.girl-with-a-pearl-earring.info/
- About Chip Kidd--
- About Chimamanda Adichie--
- Glogster.com
- Storyboardthat.com
- Toni Morrison interview that discusses how she creates stories--
Personal Thoughts: When considering analyzing texts, I think that Chevalier, Kipp, and Adichie’s interviews offer connections to diverse texts and provide a means of interpreting texts. It is important to note that all the interviews not only examine the nature of stories but also touch on producing stories. These two notions--diverse texts and creating material--directly relate to some of the new requirements directly addressed under the new CCSS.
*Meets the “Media Items” requirement
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