DEEL

Disaster Education through Experiential Learning

PART 1 : Introduction: Storytelling is Story Sharing

1. Checking in.

The group forms a circle. The facilitator introduces the idea of check-in process : the
participants introduce their name and share to the group their immediate thoughts and
immediate feelings. Everyone is encouraged to listen and not make any comments.
Through check-in, we acknowledge the context of each other and practice sharing and
listening.

2. Sharing Unforgettable Stories. (Discussion on value of storytelling.)

“Why are stories important? Why do we love making and sharing stories?”
The facilitator asks participants about their unforgettable stories (it can be during disaster,
a day in a life, a discovery, etc. ). Each participant in the circle will share their unforgettable
stories.

*By this time, the facilitator is now shifting the idea of Storytelling to Story Sharing.
Emphasising the capacity of anyone to share, the facilitator should create a safe space
where anyone can share almost anything.

3. Discussion: On Experiential Learning.

I Hear, I Forget.
I See, I Remember.
I Do, I Understand.
-Confucius.

Facilitator shows this text by Confucius to the participants and starts the discussion on
what they think is the importance of play and story-sharing. After the discussion, the facil
leads everyone to moving the idea of doing.

4. H.O.P.E

Briefly discuss the idea of H.O.P.E or Highlighting Our Positive Experience.

One should look at or watch out for the positive experience in every activity specially in the
works conducted by fellow participants.

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning

PART 2 : Warm Up

A. MIND-SETTING

1. Rules of Spontaneity (From Keith Johnstone’s Impro for Storytellers)

Facilitator can discuss meaning of spontaneity or in Filipino ___________.
(please insert def. of spontaneity here).

a. RULE 1 : Always Say Yes!

ACTIVITY: The Yes Game. Sige nang Sige!

This is a very active game. The participants stand up, form a circle. Facilitator gives a
simple instruction by saying, “Lahat tayo ay mag—“ or All of us will _______”; and then
add an action verb (e.g. Lahat tayo ay tatalon! All of us will jump! .
Everyone will shout SIGE! or Yes! after every instruction and then proceed to do the
action.

The facilitator can make everybody sing, dance, laugh as long as everybody says Yes!

Level up: After the facilitator is done giving instructions, anyone from the group can
suggest any action.!

Lahat tayo ay kekembot!

SIGE!

(Everybody kembots)

*Wrap-up: Ask participants how they feel about Saying Yes to almost anything in the
activity?

b. RULE 2: Believe in Your Imagination

ACTIVITY: Space Walk and the Magic If

The facilitator introduces the idea of Magic If. He/ she asks participants to imagine using
What if: What if we are walking under the sun? What if we are inside a fridge?.

The activity starts.Participants walk around the space. Facil starts telling participants to
listen to their inner thoughts (what is going on inside their mind). They can close their eyes
if they like.Then he/she begins giving “what if” prompts/ situationers. The participants
start to imagine take time to move their “what if’s”.

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning

What if we are all babies? What if we are old men/ women? (Imagining Age)
What if we are prince/ princesses? Beggars? (Imagining Social Status)
What if we are inside an oven? What if we are playing with snow? (Temperature)
What if we are walking on the moon? (Out-of-this-world Situations).

*Wrap-up: Ask participants who among them really felt like the characters they were
imagining? Who had a difficult time and enjoyable time? Realizations?

B. TOOLS OF A STORYTELLER

1. WARMING UP THE BODY

Points for discussion: Our body is an important instrument in sharing a story. It is through
the body that we express our internal thoughts, transform and present characters or
objects.

ACTIVITY: Expansion - Contraction

Expansion.

Count from 1-10 and imagine your face expanding like a balloon and almost ready to
explode.
Begin from a neutral (relaxed) face position.
Now, gradually, at the count of 10, slowly expand your face. Stop at 5 and establish it as
halfway to the most expanded face.

Contraction.

Count from 1-10 and imagine your face contracting and wanting to get inside a softdrink
bottle. Begin from a neutral (relaxed) face position.
Now, gradually, at the count of 10, slowly contract your face. Stop at 5 and establish it
as halfway to the most expanded face. Smallest possible clenched chorva. Then count
backwards and do the reverse

ACTIVITY: Isolation

1. Stand tall in a relaxed position. The facilitator will explain the idea of isolation or
isolating body parts. The facilitator will name a body part and only this body part
will move - in isolation. The participants will maximise and explore what movements
this body part can do.

Sample prompt: Let’s isolate the Eyes. What can you do with your eyes? You can open,
close, wink, blink, smize your eyes. Just your eyes. What else can you do with your eyes?
Explore.

2. Move from Eyes -> Head -> Chest -> Shoulders -> Fingers -> Hands -> Waist ->
Feet

3. Combine 2 or more body parts moving together in isolation.

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning
Part 2

ACTIVITY: PUPPET ISOLATION

1. Choose a partner. Decide who is A and B. A is the puppeteer. B is the puppet.

2. Puppeteer A will get imaginary strings from the floor and pretend to tie it on Puppet B’s
body parts: top of head, right and left elbow, right and left feet, chest and waist.

3. Puppeteer A moves first string on top of the head and Puppet B follow and moves the
body part following the movement of A’s imaginary string. Same follows to other body
parts.

4. After moving all body parts, Puppeteer A can choose 2 strings/ body parts to move
together. One can also make a dance step.

5. Change roles. B becomes the puppeteer. A takes turn as puppet.

2. WARMING UP THE VOICE

Points for discussion: Our voice is an important tool in story sharing. It is through the voice
that we express our internal thoughts through words, create characters chorva. Start the
discussion by asking what are the things that we can change in our voice. Talk about the
voice as important tool in character making.

ACTIVITY: PROPER BREATHING

1. Participants form a circle. Breathe together. Teach proper way of breathing through the
diaphragm muscles and not through the chest. Widen chest by doing a scoop: arms open
from chest and scoop (ANO DAW). Demonstrate proper stance (legs parallel to shoulders,
no tensed body parts) and proper way of breathing (tummy expands when inhaling and
contracts upon exhaling; shoulders should not rise up and down while breathing). Assign
pairs to check on each other’s breathing.

2. Do slow inhalations and exhalations. Breathe in, hold for 10 seconds and exhale with an
S sound (like a snake) for 10 seconds. Gradually increase the number of seconds holding
and exhaling breath.

ACTIVITY : PITCH

Points for discussion: Pitch is the highness and lowness of sound/ voice. Change in pitch
can change the character being played. Ask what kind of characters use high and low
pitch. Ask in what situations does our voice go up or down. Sample pitch exercises.

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning

1. LOWEST HA to HIGHEST HA!

In sudden jerky sound, say HA in the lowest pitch you can create and gradually in staccato
(jerky sound) throw the HA sound up to the highest pitch.

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning
Part 2

ACTIVITY : VOLUME

Points for discussion: Volume is the LOUDNESS and SOFTNESS of sound/ voice. Ask what
kind of characters have loud and soft volume. Ask in what situations does our voice go
soft or loud. PERFORMANCE WHISPER is a soft sound created with a lot of air giving the
illusion that one is whispering.

Sample volume exercises:

THROWING NUMBER BALL

1. Feel the vibration of your voice as you shout ha with the palm of your hands
covering your mouth. Do it again as you move your hand/ palm farther. Make
sure as you say Ha, you can feel the vibration travelling to your hand.

2. Imagine your voice as a heavy ball. Hold it up like a bowling ball and literally
throw your voice away as you count 1 then repeat until you complete 5.

OURS! Soft to Loud Voice Exercise.

Start speaking soft with performance whisper saying the lines gradually getting louder.
DO the reverse from LOUD to soft performance whisper.

Ang mundo ay sa atin!

Atin!
ATIN!
ATINNN!!!

ANG MUNDO AY ATINNN!!!

ATIN!!!
Atin!
atin!

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PART 3 : Improvisation

A. IMAGE-STUDY

Points for discussion: Define what is improvisation : creating something out of available
material. Story improvisation is creating stories out of available objects, materials.

ACTIVITY 1: BODY SCULPTURE

1. Define what a sculpture is; what famous sculptures they know of and what they
symbolise (e.g. Rizal Statue, the Thinker, Statue of Liberty).
2. Find a partner. Work in pairs. Decide who is A and who is B. A plays the role of
sculptor while B plays the role of a clay.
3. A think of an image that has a “meaning” or a “feeling” for him/ her. It can also be
something that represents an idea. 1 minute. A starts moving B and “mold” his
partner clay into his “sculpture”.
4. All A-sculptors step out of the “museum” and they go around each others work.
Each sculptor can tell us something about his / her sculpture and what they
mean or represent.
5. After the sharing, B becomes the sculptor and A becomes the clay.

*Facilitator can also ask other sculptors to interpret a body sculpture before asking the
maker about his or her work. It can also turn into a guessing game. One can also give
prompts about specific topics or themes (e.g. heroes, emotions, future, etc.).

ACTIVITY 2: GIANT’S HOUSE

From one-on-one sculptures, participants create bigger sculptures. On working together.

1. Discuss about what one can see inside a giant’s house.

2. Group the team into minimum of 5 participants per group.
3. Everybody will shout “Higante! Higante! Anong nakita mo!”.
4. The facilitator playing the role of higante will shout an object. “Nakakita ako ng
higanteng *upuan!!!
5. Each team will form the giant object using all their bodies.
6. Facilitator counts slowly from 1 - 10.
7. Team with most awesome Giant Object wins. (Can be based on height or
grandness of design).

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning
Part 3

ACTIVITY 3: Object Study : THE FAN EXERCISE.

This is a sit-down exercise for imagination.

Material: One sheet of bond paper or newspaper or cartolina per participant.

1. Form a circle sitting down.

2. Fold the paper like an accordion. Fold in the center.
3. Ask participants to name what image they see. Definitely, a fan. But it is not just
a fan.
4. Ask participants to imagine and turn the folded paper into 3 objects. It can be
based on function or appearance (e.g. fan as eyelashes, ribbon, stairs, etc.).
5. Do three rounds, They can also enact how to use the object they are
presenting.

ACTIVITY 4: Object Study : HISTORY, HISTORY.

Material: Random objects with funny shapes and textures.

1. Present object to the group. Let the participants imagine what it is and create
the object’s imagined history.
2. First volunteer holds the object then begins the story sharing. He can go on and
on until the facilitator cuts the sharing.
3. The person on the right gets the object and continues the story where it was
cut. The challenge is to connect to the new story and transform the object to
something else until the last person in the circle ends the story in the present.

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PART 4 : Creating Narratives

Points for discussion: Define what makes a good story. Discuss about the idea of
BEGINNING. PEAK. END

ACTIVITY 1: Picture Exercise.

Points for discussion: What do you see in a picture? Discuss about the given circumstances
of a story: Who, Where, When, What, Why, How?

1. Form groups of 5 people.

2. The facilitator will give some given circumstances for the picture (why, what,
how).
3. One at a time, the members will strike a pose or go to a position that contributes
to the story of the picture.
4. After completing the picture or tableaux, the facilitator calls this Picture 1.

Example: Create a picture of a school. (When) During earthquake. Lunch Time.

(Where) Inside the classroom. Go.

5. After all groups created Picture 1, facilitator asks all groups to create a picture of
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE PICTURE 1. This Before Scene will be Picture ZERO
6. The members create Picture ZERO one at a time.
7. Review Picture Zero. Then review Picture 1. Then encourage all groups to think
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER PICTURE 1. This After Scene will be our Picture 3.
8. After completing Picture Zero, 1 and 3, tell the group to create a short mini-skit
(3 minutes minimum) or story that connects all three pictures.

Note: In disaster education, the facilitator can choose themes such as typhoon, earthquake,
brownout, etc. The Picture Exercise serves as an exercise on how to deal before, during
and after a disaster. this can also be used as a tool to reimagine “ideal situations” for
preparedness (Picture 0: before), response (Picture 1: during) and recovery (Picture 2:
after)

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Disaster Education through Experiential Learning
Part 4

ACTIVITY 2: Basic Story Writing

Present a slide of the following:

ONCE UPON A TIME (NOONG UNANG PANAHON) __________________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

AND EVERYDAY (ARAW-ARAW) __________________________________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

UNTIL ONE DAY, (HANGGANG ISANG ARAW/ NANG BIGLANG)________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

UNTIL ONE DAY, (HANGGANG ISANG ARAW/ NANG BIGLANG)________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

AND BECAUSE OF THAT (AT DAHIL DYAN) ________________________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

AND BECAUSE OF THAT (AT DAHIL DYAN) ________________________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

KAYA MULA NOON (FROM THEN ON) _____________________________________.

_____________________________________________________________________.
_____________________________________________________________________.

Points for discussion: Story caqn be related to disaster or a local myth about disaster.
Discuss the characters and development of study. Is there a clear Beginning, Peak and
End?

A. Learning Curves
1. Feeling - Thinking - Willing
2. Release - Reflect - Redirect
3. Wish - Wonder - Surprise

B. Learning Tools
1. Multi-media Learning (Integrating Technology and Stories)
2. Integrating Songs and Dances
3. Participatory Design and Interactivity.

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