FIN Commons

            At Berkeley City College, our FIN team is made up of three English faculty (Scott Hoshida, Cleavon Smith and Chris Lebo-Planas) who also happen to be creative writers. Our inquiry began with a question about the role metacognition plays in transferable learning skills across the curriculum. We began asking ourselves whether storytelling, using the Hero’s Journey as a model, can have any relationship to such metacognition.

 

            Type of relationship? Well… does a BCC student’s awareness of his/her place on the Journey help in that student’s learning process? How so? And if a student is self-aware, and can place themselves on a step on this path, what prevents them from taking advantage of such self-knowledge?

 

            At our FIN focus group on held in March, we came in with the following objectives:

            -To understand if building student’s awareness of their journey through reflection and storytelling helps them achieve in school and in their life.

            -To understand how teachers might use storytelling in their classes effectively.

 

            We had a total of seven students, invited from each FIN team member’s classes. Team members Scott, Cleavon, support staff Esther Suarez  and our student video person Zen Omi were all present.  I was designated to lead faciliate, and Scott helped me guide the group toward more productive follow-up questions.

            After some brief introductions, students were asked to map out their relationships to school, work, family teachers, peers, and community. Poster paper and manipulatives (blocks, figurines – thanks, Esther) were made available for about 20 minutes. Students then paired up to share their descriptions, and seemed engaged by the activity and eager to interact with others.

 

            The following are questions with students’ responses. They may be followed by comments in parentheses – teammates, please add, comment, or deflate.

 

1) How does storytelling affect you?

 

“It makes me a better person…” (Do stories right wrongs, inform us for the better?)

 

“I can recognize parallels – its good to hear another person’s story, I can relate to another’s experience.” (Empathy/Compassion)

 

“I always liked stories –it  makes me relate – (there are things) I can take from another student’s story.” (Same as above)

 

“When I work from paycheck to paycheck,… at the end of the day you don’t got nothing. (Stories?)show them the right path, keep them off the street. “

 

2) How does this kind of storytelling affect you in the classroom?

 

“It affects me (because) I like to talk a lot.”  (A verbal culture?)

 

“It humanizes the institution; institutions are impersonal, sharing stories makes the whole experience, more human, beyond discipline, to life and learning , emotions. (This might speak for itself –that school is perceived as first unfeeling/cold?)

 

“It improves my creativity, to be analyzing a subject and putting it back out there.”

(Stories allow for student creativity – is the ability to attach your own story to another’s an act of creativity? Our FIN group has talked about “making Meaning.”

 

“Storytelling affects my own individual story in life, feeding off one another. Growing into something better, more than just learning a subject – enrolled spiritually, mentally. I’m a mother.”

 

“(Storytelling) builds up my confidence.” (If you can speak your truth, do you have more control over it?)

 

 

3) How does a teacher telling his/her story affects you?

 

“When a teacher tells her story, he becomes a person, we’re one, not on two different levels, not about power – engaging with me,  talking to me, not at me.” (Breaks down the hierarchical nature of the classroom.)

 

“I really didn’t like working in groups but now I see the importance of that, it opens you up, you’re a team, and it shows you how to speak.”  (Builds community, and individual confidence.)

 

“Makes you think about the way you speak.” (Could be a sensitivity awareness, also could be a modeling of the instructor.)

 

“Opportunity to tell our stories, learning styles, feed off each other, we’re one now, that comes from the storytelling.”  (Community via empathy?)

 

4)When does sharing stories not help?

 

“When people aren’t open, I’ll be worried that they are closed, judging me.”

(The classroom needs to be made safe.)

 

“When you are trying to tell me…storytelling, not story response.”

(Listerners need to be just that – without unsolicited judgement, advice)

 

“It might not the place to share (certain information), it might be something you need to tell a therapist or a friend.  You can’t expect people to have the response that you want them to have. You have to accept that when you put your business out there.” (Students have control over what they share????)

 

5) How can teacher effectively use storytelling?

 

“Making it relate to the lesson at hand.” (Relevance)

 

“For an assignment on personal family history – the teacher brought her down to our level, she shared something about her personal life, made me feel less animosity toward the lesson.  She seems so beautiful and professional I felt that we were on an equal level (again, an attempt to minimize power dynamic in class?)

 

“I don’t like a teacher that just teaches from text.” ( gave an example of a psychology class that met at 7:30 am where the teacher began with the topic of sex – the effect was to wake the class up.)

 

“It doesn’t have to be a personal story, just a funny story, something to make me see you as a person, to engage me.  (When a math teacher told a humorous anecdote) I was open to him (and the lesson) after that.  (Making a personal connection)

 

“It introduces us to the teacher.” 

 

In debriefing, the FIN team was startled by the articulateness and richness of student responses. Video of this focus group will be posted soon. It safe to say that we were all deeply moved by the way students spoke to their own situation within the struggle toward academic success, with clarity and candor. Followup interviews are being conducted now, by our most excellent video team.

 

 

Chris Lebo-Planas, for BCC FIN team Scott Hoshida, Cleavon Smith,  Esther Suarez, Zen Omi, Michele Strysko.