Turning Points™ Personal Narrative Model
What is Turning Points™?
Jenifer developed the Turning Points™ Personal Narrative Model to help teachers, students, organizations, and businesses identify, communicate, write, and use personal stories to better achieve their goals.
The Turning Points™ Model can be shared in a workshop format or as a long-term Residency (one week or more).
The Model is an interactive process that consists of a series of overlapping and self-exploring activities that build upon each other, to help participants identify impacting life events or Turning Points that have caused learning, growth and change.
The process asks participants to eventually target a personal narrative with a universal truth that can be told, written and used in many different applications.
The Turning Points™ Model is effective with, but not limited to:
- Students required to meet state writing standards for Personal Narrative or Memoir.
- Organizations (community, non-profit, educational, religious and more) who wish to identify goals and/or create a positive and productive community within the organization.
- Businesses seeking an effective tool for marketing and sales, and a way to improve internal staff relations.
- Health care or counseling facilities serving patients with memory loss or individuals recovering from mental illness, trauma, and grief.
- Families interested in recording their stories in a meaningful and lasting way.
- Schools and organizations who want to encourage deep listening to promote acceptance of others, and the power of story to break down barriers to diversity and individuality.
- Individuals wishing to understand the “story” of their own lives better.
 |
 View Turning Points™ Video |
How Was Turning Points™ Developed?
I started to develop the Turning Points™ Personal Narrative model when I was teaching sixth grade. The last year that I taught was a monumental year. I had many students who were struggling with the writing process. They told me that writing was too hard for them. They didn’t know where to begin, how to organize their stories, what to leave in, what to take out, or how to bring a story to a solid end. When I asked them to write a story from their own lives, they would complain. You see…they didn’t think that anything had happened in their lives worth writing about.
I was already using storytelling in my classroom. I knew that using narrative to teach our curriculum was working, but I didn’t know why. Current brain research has taught us that humans think, learn and retain information in narrative or “story”. We talk before we write. Our first language is oral narrative, and we tell stories to explain our world.
One day, I met the class with a new writing assignment. They had to write about one turning point in their lives. But…I told them that they were not going to write a rough draft for a week. All they had to do was talk to me and to each other. They liked those instructions. I knew well, how much they loved, and needed to talk.
If they were going to write about something that was a turning point in their life, they had to first, understand what was most important to them, and view their lives as a continuum of experiences or stories.
It was in that classroom, with the help from a very courageous group of sixth graders, that the Turning Points Personal Narrative Model was created.
How Does Turning Points™ Help with Personal Narrative Writing Goals?
Using a series of activities that all build upon each other, I start by asking students to tell a one word story that describes the kind of person they think they are, and then I lead them through a series of self-explorative activities to help them identify what they valued the most in their lives. With just a few simple notes, they shared with partners, groups and the whole class, until finally I have them narrow it down to one impacting event that caused them to change, grow and learn something new. I ask them…”What is the story that you need to tell right now?”
The model uses a Double Venn Diagram with space to plan four overlapping story elements. In one circle, they record the Turning Point, or big event that caused the change, in another overlapping circle, they describe the place of memory where this event happened. Next…they list the impacting people involved, and finally, in the last overlapping circle, they identify an object of symbolism from the experience, that adds emotion and meaning to the story.
After students fill out their model, they worked with a partner who asks them leading questions to encourage them to “tell their story”. They do this, not once, or twice but four times…and as they do…they start to orally edit the story, adding details that are important, and talking about the impact of the event on their lives.
The final step is important. Before writing a rough draft, I ask them to write one statement of meaning called the Universal Truth of the story. This is a general statement about what they learned or discovered that others can relate to. The Universal Truth is the bridge that connects their individual story, to everyone else.
Statements like. “When you lose someone you love, they are never really gone”, or, “Sometimes when things go up…they don’t come back down.”
The Model allows for five different leads, or places to “enter” the story; with the people, the place, the object of symbolism, the Turning Point itself, or with the Universal Truth, giving students more permission to begin their story in the place with the best impact.
Listen to a few testimonial stories
Where Else Has Turning Points™ Been Used Effectively?
For over 15 years, I have successfully used the Turning Points™ model to help students write, but it does more than that.
Because of the storytelling and deep listening that must occur, this model is a way for people to build connections. And so I have found that Turning Points™ has many other applications.
I have used the model with businesses who want to market their products or services better by “telling their story” or relating the story that their customer’s tell.
I have used the model to improve internal staff relationships in businesses, schools and organizations, therefore improving working relationships and increasing productivity.
But…I have also used Turning Points™ at family reunions, helping people capture their family stories, with youth at risk, trying to understand the path of their lives better, and with people recovering from mental illness, memory loss, trauma and grief.