See Digitales for a complete list
 
o Character Story. Students find an elder who has unique cultural knowledge and
their story shares this knowledge and the elder’s point of view on contemporary
culture.  
 
o Personal Story.  One student documents the tamale making process that she does
with her grandmother each weekend and shares the larger life lessons that she has
learned through this process.
 
o A Discovery Story.  Students want to learn something about their culture and
community that they know is part of their identity but they never have had the
chance to learn.  One example is maybe some second-generation Mexican
students in the production group have never learned Spanish from their families –
they may seek out parents and grandparents to help them learn culturally
significant words, document this process, and also document how they feel as
they experience their discovery process.

• Character. This type of story can be about anyone – an imagined conversation
with a character from history, a profile of a student producer’s grandmother,
documentation of a day spent with a local storyteller.  These stories should use
visual and narrative details and rich conversational interviews to create a
relationship between the viewer and the character in the story.  Encourage
students to try and communicate the ideas, experiences, and values of their
character in a way that captures what is most interesting, provocative, and
poignant about the person.

• Personal Stories about….some students may want to develop a story that raises a
specific issue (racial segregation in public schools), explores cultural norms
(expectations of women in a specific subculture), or documents a tradition from
their culture (a religious festival). One way to develop a story from these topics is
to ask students to think of specific stories from their own lives that would help the
viewer understand the different conflicts, tensions, traditions, and experiences that
document and communicate their topic. Student groups may choose to tell just one student’s
story that represents their collective experience or exemplifies their
topic. Some personal stories could be described as:
o A place in my life
o A time in my life
o A significant event
o A  tradition or value that is important to your identity
o A person in my life

• Place.  Our sense of place defines who we are and how we interact with one
another and world. What we see in our everyday landscape is an important part of
how we understand ourselves and our relationship to other people, the
environment and resources, and cultures beyond our borders. Stories about place
could document a specific place in the community or use a specific place to start a
story about a historic event or explore community identity.  

• Change.  We see change all around us everyday because of globalization,
demographic shifts in cities and rural places, development – urbanization and
suburbanization, and economic trends that affect how and where people live.
When students identity and investigate a specific change they see around them
they will have a chance to raise interesting questions about the relationships of
their communities to other places and cultures across the country and around the
world
• Traditions or Cultural Customs.  So much of our identity is informed by the
rituals we participate in and the way we connect to our communities and different
cultural backgrounds. When students explore specific traditions and cultures they
will get the chance to discuss their own relationship to their community, ethnic,
religious, cultural and global identities and raise interesting questions about who
they are and why they are that way.

• Discovery.  Students that are curious about different cultures, religions, traditions,
or histories can use the process of learning about what they are interested in as the
story structure – the plot begins with their own questions and ends with the
lessons they learn themselves.