Every audience is different. The practiced storyteller understands how this affects the event. One must assess many aspects of the audience and attempt to adjust their performance and constantly "listen" to the responses of the "listeners".

This caveat goes for teachers too.

This semester's students in my Art of Storytelling course were quite different from previous ones. As a teacher, I must approach each class as a separate entity, with students from diverse backgrounds, of different ages, with different life experiences. I must assess their levels and styles of learning; what style of learning best suits them both individually and as a whole? With all of this in mind, I must also deliver the content of the course according to the syllabus. Sometimes, the task seems daunting, and I struggle to answer the same questions a hundred times or hopefully rely on them to find the answer themselves.

While discussing all of this with storyteller and colleague Layne Gneiting, he had a suggestion. Much like storytelling coaching, it's good to get a different perspective. Layne suggested that, perhaps some students are auditory learners vs. visual learners and literally get lost when reading the information. He wondered if making recordings would help those who fit into that category. 

So if my students (audience) are not "visual" readers/learners, but instead are "auditory" listeners, then I need to adjust, or find a way to augment my written syllabus. (I think I've got the "kinesthetic" down, with lots of "active" exercises in class to stimulate that side of their learning. )

That means I have one month before the next semester to make recordings of myself "talking about" the parts of the syllabus. Perhaps "short" videos explaining each assignment would work to help the students understand in a different way. 

Who knows, the phrase, "It's in the syllabus!" might just turn into, "Did you watch the video?" We'll see...

Listen to your audience listening to you!