Listening Beyond: How People You Don't Know Can Transform You

What’s Happening in This Picture?


WHAT:
Inspired by Storycorps, and as part of a partnership with the acclaimed Baltimore podcast Out of the Blocks, Inspire Citizens’ learners explore and converse with senior women in the local community to capture publishable stories via their subject’s world views on culture, personal histories, happiness, family, and words of wisdom for younger generations. This transformative learning experience now exists in numerous interdisciplinary units at Inspire Citizens’ partner schools, as part of the Future Now Leadership Toolkit, as well as being a feature mentor example for an Inspire Citizens podcast: Out of the Blocks: Global Youth Media

WHY: To amplify global competence and transformative learning goals such as empathy, critical thinking, communication, and civic participation directly to modern literacies (e.g., interviewing, humane technology) and the meta-language of sustainable development and social justice:

SDG 5B: Promote the empowerment of women through technology
Social Justice Standard 8: Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way

 


HOW:
Similar to a readers and writers’ workshop approach, learners deconstruct both Out of the Blocks (OOTB) and Storycorps to explore and then demonstrate relationship building, interviewing, compassionate storytelling, and media design found in these mentor publications. These deeper understandings and skills are then demonstrated and transferred to original pieces.

Through interviews with experienced podcasters and journalists such as Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York and Aaron Henkin of OOTB, students also practice the art of the interview and follow-up question using Inspire Citizens’ Listening Beyond skillset as well as theThinking Like a Historian framework. These experiences help elicit deeper responses and stories from diverse interviewees.

 


Lastly, in a design thinking, media makers, or writers’ workshop approach, students explore and experiment with challenges found in post-production — the integration of interview footage, B-roll, sounds, and narration into a cohesive and poignant community-focused story.

 
 
Steven Sostak