Ok, new book! Here we go!
This one's called Make Me a Story: Teaching Writing Through Digital Storytelling by Lisa C. Miller. It's a total 180 from my first book: this one is designed to be more a help manual or a how-to on teaching digital storytelling. Another big difference: it's designed for teachers of K-5.
Dun dun dun...
Joking. As the daughter of a 4th grade teacher, I have only love and respect for elementary school teachers. It's definitely a job I could not do, and I'm pretty content in Secondary Ed.
I digress.
One of Miller's main points in these first two chapters is emphasizing that really, the digital stuff (Clip-Art pictures, voice overs, etc) is all icing on the cake that is the writing of whatever assignment you're doing with your students. In fact, she says that "limiting the number of images students use makes them concentrate on the story, and the story becomes the deciding factor in what images to use, not the other way around" (Miller 25).
She gives some examples of digital storytelling that she helped some 3rd grade students create. While I love the ideas, they seem, well...elementary. One story was about how an apple feels about being boiled up in to applesauce (not very, as you might imagine).
Any thoughts on how to incorporate digital storytelling in high school/secondary level? Bonus points if it is about Romeo and Juliet :)
Hi Catie,
ReplyDeleteYour book sounds very interesting and one that I would like to read as well. I think it would be a great resource for my elementary students. Digital storytelling sounds like a great implementation with Common Core being so overwhelming. I love teaching writing and this sounds like a great text to learn more about it. I look forward to your upcoming posts.
Hi Catie,
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting book, thank you for sharing it with us.
I would recommend that using such websites as http://www.storylineonline.net/ to incorporate digital storytelling in high school. Students would love this idea because it gets their hands dirty with doing such these stories easily online. Of course, you could google for similar websites. Also, when students watch stories in this website, they will become excited to design their own stories. You could make a competition as a group work asking your students to design Romeo & Juliet story based on a rubric to evaluate the best design.
Good Luck,