Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes – Part A: Holly's Story
20 minutes – Part B: How A Story Can Change Minds
20minutes – Part C: Dying To Live: Changing Minds?
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Holly's Story

Step 1.

Begin by explaining to students that in this lesson they will be considering how stories can change people’s minds. The first story they will consider is Holly’s – she features in the documentary film Dying to Live. The film examines organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Australia through seven different people’s stories.

Share the following clip with students:

Dying to Live: Holy's Story (https://youtu.be/9T7PytohLYU)

Step 2.

Once complete, distribute Student Worksheets. Invite students to respond to the following in the space provided on their worksheet:

Summarise Holly’s story in a series of dot-points.
Summarise your reaction to Holly’s story in the table below:

What does Holly’s story make you THINK?	What does Holly’s story make you FEEL?	What does Holly’s story make you want to DO?

Step 3.

Ask students to form pairs, and share their responses to the clip. As they are sharing, write the following questions on the whiteboard:

What part of Holly’s story made you think the way you do?
What part of Holly’s story made you feel that way you do?
What part of Holly’s story made you want to take that action?

Once students have spent some time sharing their answers, invite them to participate in a class discussion and share their responses to the question on the whiteboard. Next, call upon a few volunteers to share what they discussed.

Some students may share that they connected with Holly’s story, felt compelled by what she went through, and wanted to take action to ensure that other people don’t have to go through what Holly did. Through your discussion, explain to students that stories are powerful and can be very effective tools when trying to change people’s minds.

Part B: How A Story Can Change Minds

Step 1.

Explain to students that in this part of the lesson they will explore the idea that stories, if told a certain way, have the power to change people’s brain chemistry. Stories can, therefore, influence the way people behave (in other words, stories can change minds).

Step 2.

Begin the exploration of this idea by watching the following clip:

Empathy, Neurochemistry, and the Dramatic Arc (https://youtu.be/dSyyAcrsnT4)

Step 3.

Attach these Seed Discussion Posters to the classroom walls and, once the clip has finished, invite students to grab a pen and rotate around each of the prompts, responding to each with a ‘seed’ for discussion later in the lesson.

As students may not be familiar with the content covered in the clip, a second viewing of it may be required.

Step 4.

Leave the Seed Discussion Organisers on the walls for the time being, and distribute a copy of the article titled 'How Stories Change the Brain' and the Dramatic Arc Factsheet to each student.

Ideally, each student should read both the article and the factsheet; however, it would also work to divide the class into groups and assign the factsheet and sections of the article to different groups to read and summarise for the rest of the class.

Step 5.

Once students have finished reading the article and factsheet, ask the class to arrange themselves so that they are sitting in a large circle with the tables pushed to the sides of the classroom.

Detach the Seed Discussion Posters and lay them on the floor in the centre of the circle, then work through each of the discussion seeds, discussing what students saw, heard and read about the dramatic arc and how stories change the brain.

There may be too many discussion seeds to cover in the amount of time you have. If this is the case, ask the class to nominate the seeds they would like to discuss, and highlight them before beginning.

Part C: Dying To Live: Changing Minds?

Step 1.

Explain to students that in this part of the lesson, they will evaluate whether the way that Holly’s story was told was effective in changing people’s minds. If required, screen the Dying to Live clip again.

Invite students to plot Holly’s story along the dramatic arc (provided on the Student Worksheet), referring to the information provided on the Dramatic Arc Factsheet if necessary. If there are parts of the dramatic arc that are missing from Holly’s story, students should make a note of this.

Step 2.

Ask students to respond in writing to the prompt below (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Was the way that Holly’s story was told effective in changing your mind? If so, how? If not, why not? In your response, refer to what you have learned about Paul Zak’s research into how stories change minds.

Step 3.

Invite students to share their responses and encourage them to reference Paul Zak’s research about how stories can change minds in their discussion.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to consider the ethics of changing people’s minds by responding in writing to this question:

"Do you think it’s ok to change people’s minds using stories? Why/Why not?"

If you have time, invite students to share their responses in a class discussion. Be sure to remind students that it’s ok if their classmates have a different opinion to them.

Differentiated Learning

Extension – Students could read this online article 'The Power of Story' in order to gain a deeper understanding into how stories change minds.

Provisions for Learning Support – Encourage students to use pictures (such as screenshots) to illustrate the dramatic arc followed in the Dying to Live clip.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Dying To Live - How Stories Change Minds

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