What they don't understand is I have a secret weapon. I don't just teach middle schoolers, I teach middle schoolers language arts. Some could call this a handicap but they don't understand the power of stories. When students sit in math or history or science they don't get a chance to share their stories. In my room, though, we are story tellers. We share and connect as a class, and that my friends, is what makes my job wonderful.
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| Writing by jeffry james acres on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres/3293117576/ |
I recently came across a new way of telling stories and that is digital story telling. I've been thinking of ways to make this work in my classroom. I think it would be interesting to have students use Prezi as a story telling tool, or voice threads, or even just using narrated slides on PowerPoint or SlideShare. What I'm struggling with now, is what type of assignment I could use this for. Right now our standards have become very cumbersome and not oriented towards narrative writing. I, like every other 8th grade language arts teacher, am drowning in FSA (text based essay writing). Every spare moment I get, I spend on poetry and book clubs.
My students are just wrapping up their first book club in class, and one pretty easy way to use digital story telling would be for my student stop make digital book reviews. I think I might offer this as a culminating activity opportunity. Check out the amazing book review one student did on Insurgent by Veronica Roth (do not watch if you have seen Divergent!)
We are also beginning to work on spoken word poetry. This type of poetry has a performance element and it might be interesting to have students work on reading their poems via voice thread. Using pictures paired with audio to create their poetry story.
All of these are still in development stage and I would love to hear how YOU use digital story telling in your classroom or even personal life!
Marissa,
ReplyDeleteI think that you have come across a great way to start utilizing digital storytelling in your classroom. You are right, you have a pretty great job when you are working with a classroom full of storytellers!
If you are going to share book reviews, I would recommend using a digital organizer such as the storyboard. This way, the students will be able to plan out their presentation before creating it.
It sounds like you are moving towards the right idea in trying out a few of the programs with your students and with different activities.
Good luck and have fun!
Kelly
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you would like to use digital storytelling in your classroom, but are having trouble finding the time to implement it during writing based on the standards. I can definitely relate to your frustration as there is not a whole lot of time to focus on narrative writing vs. expository writing. My idea for using digital storytelling in the classroom would be to use it during our 30 minute whole group reading instruction. My students would create a digital retelling of one of our curriculum texts. This would align to our story structure and sequence of events standards in Reading. Even though I teach first grade and our standards may be different, I thought this idea may be helpful.
Also, I agree with Kelly that using a storyboard template is a great way for students to organize their ideas. First grader require a lot of modeling, so I would also use other graphic organizers for story structure and sequence of events before even touching the storyboard template. I have embedded links to images of these graphic organizers on my blog site at http://alexishuether.weebly.com/blog/october-22nd-2014. Again, I understand that middle school and elementary school are completely different worlds when it comes to education, but I thought this idea may align more with your Reading standards. As a language arts teacher, I am sure that you could use a story that the reading teacher is using and have students create a digital storytelling based on those standards as it relates to writing as well.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteWhat grade do you teach ? I teach 6th grade language arts and our first four weeks was dedicated to narrative writing. I used powerpoint as a tool for the students to introduce themselves to me and to each other using their personal narrative essay as a base. It turned out to be a great project, and they really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading your comments and blog posting! I had no idea you taught the same thing as me.. we should definitely trade ideas!
Belle
I am in much the same position you are with FSA standards. I feel that a lot of my ability to be creative has been taken away. The even more difficult fact is that I teach math. It seems harder to connect the digital story telling element with the curriculum. Sure, I could do a project about some mathematician. It would certainly enrich their learning but it does not tie to the curriculum as well as I would like. It seems that spoken word would be a great opportunity to bring in digital storytelling. I really like the idea of students being able to tell their own stories. I have listened to a series on NPR called "This I Believe" and I always thought it would be interesting to get kids to delve into what they believe to be true. I know this may be difficult at the middle school level but I believe that they could produce some excellent products. I'm not sure how to connect that to spoken word but I would love to see you post your ideas in the future on your blog.
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