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Step 1 – Create a story

Using what you know about beaches and cliffs and how they are used, create a story about how the ocean changes the coastline (Ocean Literacy Principle 2).

Discuss with students what they will produce:

  1. A story – it could be read and also acted out while the soundscape is played.
  2. Methods for making sounds that mimic those along the coast
  3. A sequence of sounds that supports the story
  4. A recording that supports the story
  5. A performance for an audience.  

Prior knowledge:

  • Discuss list and what landforms we can find along the edge of the sea.
  • Do the things that people do make changes along the sea edge?
  • What happens when a storm comes?
  • Does anything on the beach, cliffs etc change after a storm?
  • What does a storm sound like?

Here are some basic elements of storytelling to help you build your story keeping in mind that it needs to be only a few minutes long.

  1. Consider who your audience will be and what things are interesting to them. (Will you share at school or on the radio? What form of presentation will you give?)
  2. Set the scene for your soundscape. (Where is it, what kind of sounds tell you that you are in that particular place?)
  3. What is your story going to be about, eg party ruined by a storm, rescue of a small boat, cliff collapsing in a storm, kids trapped below a cliff.
  4. Build tension through different sounds. (Can you hear things people do ie. ship horns, builders, people walking pets?) 
  5. Tension build to a high level through sound to the climax or highest point. (What does a storm sound like as it builds up? How can you create a similar sound?)
  6. Release the tension by changing your sounds. (Can you change your sounds to ease the tension?)
  7. Bring your story to an ending, (When all the excitement is over what does the new place sound like?)

You might try mixing up the order of your story a little showing the ending first and then how you got there. For example, if you want to show how nature affects the coast you might show a lighthouse broken on the beach then move backwards in time to show the storm that ruptured the cliff to explain through sounds how the light house came to fall onto the shore.

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