Unit 5: Introduction to Storytelling

Title: Introduction to Storytelling Approach: Interactive/ Discussion,

Activities

Summary: Students get to learn about the significance of storytelling which has been used
as a medium to pass on knowledge, experience, and information since ages. It also builds
intercultural understanding and commonalities thereof. This session will also equip
students with a vital skill to tell back their stories with numbers or proof points by blending
the two worlds of hard data and human communication. Data visualisation is now a key to
interpret and tell an impactful story.

Objectives:

1. Students develop an understanding of benefits of powerful storytelling and its

need.
2. Students appreciate the importance of knowing the audience of their story.
3. Students learn to create and deliver effective stories blended with numbers to
engage the audience.
4. Students demonstrate ability to gain insights from data storytelling.

Learning Outcomes:

1. To get introduced to storytelling.

2. Building an impactful story using data for a set of audience.
Pre-requisites: Understanding of data and reasonable fluency in English language.

Key Concepts: Data visualisation and storytelling.

Purpose: Introduce the importance of storytelling and its effectiveness in passing on knowledge,
values, facts and events from one generation to another.

Say: “This unit intends to create value for storytelling. Although storytelling comes naturally to
everyone, keeping a few things in mind not only enriches the said art but also makes it more
impactful. This unit also dwells on the art of storytelling and how blending stories with numbers/
data can make storytelling forceful.”

After having briefed the students about storytelling, ask them to answer the questions that follow
and gauge their understanding of the subject. Engage the students in a discussion and ask them
about their expectations from this unit.

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1. Storytelling: Communication across the ages
Stories have been central to human cognition and it has proved to be the most effective way
of communication since time immemorial. There is a bio-chemical reason why people love
stories. It’s the mode of communication our brains biologically prefer. When a good story is told
the brain comes alive because storytelling literally has a chemical effect on the brain that
wakes it up in order to absorb, digest and store information. Stories have the power to inspire,
motivate, and change people’s opinions. In short stories are the best possible way to deliver
complex information (data).

Storytelling is defined as the art of narrating stories to engage an audience. It originated in the
ancient times with visual stories, such as cave drawings, and then shifted to oral traditions, in
which stories were passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Later, words
formed into narratives, that included written, printed and typed stories. Written language, as it
is seen now, was arguably the first technological innovation, that gave us as a species the power
to convey story in a physical format, and thus visualize, archive and share that data with
community members and future generations. It encourages people to make use of their
imagination and inventiveness (creativity) to express themselves (verbal skills) which makes it a
lot more than just a recitation of facts and events.

What do you understand by storytelling?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

What are the three forms of storytelling?

_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Expected Responses: Visual, Oral and Written.

What skills do storytelling help develop?

____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Expected Responses: Imagination, inventiveness, creativity and articulation.

Energiser: Ask the students to watch the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxcGVCEEdcU and change the end of the story using
their imaginativeness and creativity.

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1.1. Learn why storytelling is so powerful and cross-cultural, and what this means for
data storytelling
Stories create engaging experiences that transport the audience to another space and time.
They establish a sense of community belongingness and identity. For these reasons, storytelling
is considered a powerful element that enhances global networking by increasing the awareness
about the cultural differences and enhancing cross-cultural understanding. Storytelling is an
integral part of indigenous cultures.
Some of the factors that make storytelling powerful are its attribute to make information more
compelling, the ability to present a window in order to take a peek at the past, and finally to
draw lessons and to reimagine the future by affecting necessary changes. Storytelling also
shapes, empowers and connects people by doing away with judgement or critic and facilitates
openness for embracing differences.
A well-told story is an inspirational narrative that is crafted to engage the audience across
boundaries and cultures, as they have the impact that isn’t possible with data alone. Data can
be persuasive, but stories are much more. They change the way that we interact with data,
transforming it from a dry collection of “facts” to something that can be entertaining, engaging,
thought provoking, and inspiring change.
Each data point holds some information which maybe unclear and contextually deficient on its
own. The visualizations of such data are therefore, subject to interpretation (and
misinterpretation). However, stories are more likely to drive action than are statistics and
numbers. Therefore, when told in the form of a narrative, it reduces ambiguity, connects data
with context, and describes a specific interpretation – communicating the important messages
in most effective ways. The steps involved in telling an effective data story are given below:
Understanding the audience
Choosing the right data and visualisations
Drawing attention to key information
Developing a narrative
Engaging your audience

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Activity

A new teacher joined the ABC Higher Secondary School, Ambapalli to teach Science to the
students of Class XI. In his first class itself, he could make out that not everyone understood
what was being taught in class. So, he decided to take a poll to assess the level of students. The
following graph shows the level of interest of the students in the class.

PRE: How do you feel about Science?

11%
19% 5%

25%
40%

Bored Not great OK A bit interested Excited

Depending on the result obtained, he changed his method of teaching. After a month, he
repeated the same poll once again to ascertain if there was any change. The results of poll are
shown in the chart below.

POST: How do you feel about Science?

12%
6%
38%
14%

30%

Bored Not great OK A bit interested Excited

With the help of the information provided create a good data story setting a strong narrative
around the data, making it is easier to understand the pre and post data, existing problem,
action taken by the teacher, and the resolution of the problem. Distribute A4 sheets and pens
to the students for this activity.

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2. The Need for Storytelling
The need for storytelling is gaining importance like never before, as more and more people are
becoming aware of its potential to achieve multipurpose objectives.

Purpose: To familiarize students with the need for storytelling and how it proves
beneficial.
Say: “Now that you have learnt about storytelling and its power, we will introduce you to
the need of storytelling.”

Guide the students to think of the many needs that storytelling satisfies and enter in the blank
circles in the figure below:

Storytelling

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Expected Responses:

 Storytelling acts as an emotional glue to connect a diverse audience – It is an important

way to tap into the heart of the audience also conveying a deeper message based on
emotion.
 Information presented in a structured manner – Organising information into a definite
format with a beginning (setting the stage), middle (the challenge), and ending (solution
to the problem and a new beginning) works for many topics.
 Storytelling reshapes knowledge and helps communicate something meaningful – Stories
have been used to pass on knowledge. When the knowledge gets embedded in the
context of a story, it is transferred or communicated to the listener in a unique way.
 Storytelling is persuasive and influential – It can persuade people to execute plans
towards a certain future or objective.
 Helps transcend one’s current environment – Good storytelling can transport people into
another world.
 Storytelling achieves adding meaning to data - Many people perceive data as
meaningless numbers when data is disconnected to anything important. But when the
data is placed in the context of a story, it comes alive.
 Storytelling can be motivating for the audience – Inspire people to buy into a mission or
cause.

3. Storytelling with Data

Session Preparation
Logistics: For a class of ____ students. [Group Activity]
Materials Required

Purpose: To provide insight into data storytelling and how it can bring a story to life.

Say: “Now that you have understood what storytelling is and why it is needed, let us learn about
a storytelling of a different kind - the art of data storytelling and in the form of a narrative or
story.”

ITEM QUANTITY

A4 Xx
sheets

Pens Xx

Data storytelling is a structured approach for communicating insights drawn from data, and
invariably involves a combination of three key elements: data, visuals, and narrative. When the
narrative is accompanied with data, it helps to explain the audience what’s happening in the
data and why a particular insight has been generated. When visuals are applied to data, they

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can enlighten the audience to the insights that they wouldn’t perceive without the charts or
graphs.
Finally, when narrative and visuals are merged together, they can engage or even entertain an
audience. When you combine the right visuals and narrative with the right data, you have a data
story that can influence and drive change.

3.1. By the numbers: How to tell a great story with your data?
Presenting the data as a series of disjointed charts and graphs could result in the audience
struggling to understand it – or worse, come to the wrong conclusions entirely. Thus, the
importance of a narrative comes from the fact that it explains what is going on within the data
set. It offers a context and meaning, relevance and clarity. A narrative shows the audience where
to look and what not to miss and also keeps the audience engaged.
Good stories don’t just emerge from data itself; they need to be unravelled from data
relationships. Closer scrutiny helps uncover how each data point relates with other. Some easy
steps that can assist in finding compelling stories in the data sets are as follows:
Step 1: Get the data and organise it.
Step 2: Visualize the data.
Step 3: Examine data relationships.
Step 4: Create a simple narrative embedded with conflict.
Activity: Try creating a data story with the information given below and use your imagination to
reason as to why some cases have spiked while others have seen a fall.

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 Mosquito borne diseases in Delhi
600
530
500
435
400
311
300
238
200 165 146
208 131
100 78
56 20 75
0 0 21
44
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Dengue Malaria Chikungunya

Data storytelling has acquired a place of importance because:

 It is an effective tool to transmit human experience. Narrative is the way we simplify and
make sense of a complex world. It supplies context, insight, interpretation—all the things
that make data meaningful, more relevant and interesting.
 No matter how impressive an analysis, or how high-quality the data, it is not going to
compel change unless the people involved understand what is explained through a story.
 Stories that incorporate data and analytics are more convincing than those based
entirely on anecdotes or personal experience.
 It helps to standardize communications and spread results.
 It makes information memorable and easier to retain in the long run.
Data Story elements challenge –
Identify the elements that make a compelling data story and name them

_____________________

______________________

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 _____________________

Activity:
First present the statistics as shown below. Ask the students to read it and say if they have
understood information presented well.

1. 7.6% of men believe mobiles are a distraction as compared to 4.2% of the women.
2. Kids in the car cause 9.8% of the men to be distracted as compared to 26.3% of the
women.

Another way to recreate the same statistics is the visual shown below:

Ask the students which one tells a better story and list out why?

(Expected Response: The former way of presenting story is far more detailed and easier to
comprehend.)

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4.Conflict and Resolution

Conflict is the most exciting and engaging drive in any story. Every story or plot is centred on its
conflict and the ways in which the characters of the story attempt to resolve the problem. Conflict in
a story is a struggle between two or more opposing forces. Conflict in a story drives the plot forward
towards a resolution.

What is Data storytelling, conflict and resolution?

In a business or our daily life, the users or audience are trying to resolve a conflict always. All
decisions have to be made after resolving the conflict. Every question answered in data storytelling
is by the means of finding evidence to a conflict.

SKILLS THAT RESOLVE CONFLICT IN A DATA STORYTELLING:

1. Communication

2. Teamwork

3. Problem Solving

4. Stress management

5. Emotional agility

Activity

A school has planned its annual meet for the for the year. 15 students can participate in a drama for which 28
students showed interest to participate. The teacher co-ordinator decides to leave the decision on the 28
students to unanimously select 15 students who will participate in the drama.

Recognise the conflict and way to resolve it.

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5.Storytelling for Audience

Here we have seven pointers to become an engaging storyteller

1. Engross the audience in your story

2. Link up with your personal story

3. Create suspense till end

4. Bring characters to life

5. Show, don’t tell

6. Build up a peek moment

7. Climax should have a positive takeaway

Data storytelling has few elements without which storytelling is impossible. Let us have a look at them:

1. Character-who populates the story

2. Plot-what takes place in the story

3. Setting-where the story takes place

4. Point of view-participation of narrator and audience

5. Style-skills attained for storytelling

6. Literacy devices-knowledge of technology

Let’s do an activity

Create a data story to highlight changes you see in yourself after the outbreak of COVID 19 followed by
lockdown in the country.

Extra Resources for further Reference:

Link for storytelling: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/hass-storytelling/storytelling-

pixar-in-a-box/ah-piab-we-are-all-storytellers/v/storytelling-introb

Link for storytelling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAG8c-sapUE

Link for storytelling: http://storywards.com/en/what-is-storytelling/

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