What is the assignment? The assignment is to create a 30-45 minute podcast about our personal narrative essay. We did this assignment as a group so we had to collectively come together and crate a new purpose and message. During the podcast we conversed about our essays.
Outline:
Title: The Value of Experience
Kaylee, Jailan, Alexis
Purpose: To show the audience how different experiences can cause you to have a different outlook on things.
Message: Be open minded. Tone: hopeful, energetic, sympathetic Design/Style: Story-telling based/ discussion Context: Background info about each of our stories and how it ties in with the message. Organization:
Opening
Here we will insert some music for the intro and introduce ourselves. Jailan will open up the podcast. We will open with a thought provoking question to get the audience thinking.
Someone in the podcast will respond to the question. The answer to the question will introduce context and the purpose/ message of the podcast. This also will introduce a little bit about what each of us will be talking about.
2. Outline and Persuasive Dialogue
Jailan: During my senior year I had to adjust to a new mindset returning to the track team after injury. I had to learn how to interact with my underclassmen and me more of a leader than an individual. My experiences at the indoor regional championships showed how and why competing for more than just yourself is important. Not only did I need to focus on competing for gold but also help my teammate reach his goals.
Kaylee: My narrative is about crossing the border from California to Mexico and how it was like going to another world. I saw how different they lived from how I lived. Even though they had bad living conditions they always had a smile on their face. This made me feel grateful for what I have because it could always be worse. The message of my story was to count your blessings and always be grateful.
Alexis:
We will ask each other questions about each others experience and expand on it by relating it to our own experience.
- What Mexico looked like when I first crossed the border - Talk about how it was easier for Americans to get into Mexico than for Mexicans to get into America and how I felt about that. Ask my partners how they feel about that.
- What experience changed your outlook on something?
- Why did you feel this way? - How do you feel about the struggles of Mexicans crossing the border? - Was your outlook a positive change? - What changes did you notice in the program after being out for more than a year/ how did it change your interactions? -
We will start the intro with some context about each of our stories and the message. We will transition into one of out stories by asking a question. We will finally conclude by showing how each of our story connects to the overall purpose/ message of the podcast.
3. Conclusion
Change of mindset
Jailan: Being thrust into a leadership role on the team forced me to go from working as an individual to working with others to better the team.
Kaylee: Going to Mexico served as a mind opener, and made her think about the opportunities and that we’re blessed to have. And how the people of Mexico had a happy outlook despite the things we’d feel they were missing.
Address the audience a final time and challenge them to meet new situations with an open mind before shutting yourself off or dismissing them.
Self Reflection Assignment I like that this assignment helps me feel more comfortable with speaking since when we are out on our own in the real world we will most likely be having to speak in front of our peers, not write essays all the time. It was a fun project. The only thing I didn't really like was that we had to use tools from the media center in order to complete the project and we had to meet in person for every part of the podcast. This was difficult because it is not always easy for three group members to meet up and it could get kind of stressful. I think it would be better if you did a speaking assignment but maybe in front of the class. This would still help us with speaking skills while also making it easier to talk as a group because we wouldn't have to meet as much. We could make a google doc and share it to organize what we will be saying and also create a group chat instead of having to meet every time we have to record or edit something. Composing a new genre and a new audience was also kind of difficult because we had to make all of our essays match one message even though our essays were very different from each other. My process for this essay was a little different because it was more personal and I wrote in more of a story-telling voice. I liked writing this essay because it brought back good memories of my trip to Mexico. I got to write about one of the most eye-opening events that's happened to me which was really cool. When composing the podcast I chose to just tell my story as if I am talking to a friend. Our podcast was sort of talk show based. Jailan was like the host and Alexis and I were like the guests. I included almost every part of my story in the podcast. I didn't bring in any new elements from my essay to the podcast. The most difficult part was figuring out what we are going to say and how we are going to make all of out essays flow together into one podcast. It took us a while to think of the purpose and the message of the podcast since all of our essays had a different message. The most interesting part about the assignment was getting to learn how to use GarageBand and working with the tools in the sound booth because those skills may come in handy somewhere down the line.