| Overview | In this unit, students will learn about the age-old practice of storytelling and use 21st century tools to create their own digital story. Students will explore digital storytelling as a way to tell a story, promote cross-cultural understanding and build meaningful connections with others. Students will participate in an email exchange to discuss the process. They will 1) develop a story topic 2) write their story 3) create or find appropriate images to support their story and 4) share their story and reflect on their work. |
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| Objectives | - Students will understand that digital storytelling is an effective way to have their voices heard and make a meaningful connection with others.
- Students will identify a topic, brainstorm ideas around that topic and write a personal narrative.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the role images play in a story and will create or find appropriate images to support their story.
- Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of digital storytelling. They will translate their words and images into a digital story in such a way that others will understand or appreciate their point of view.
- Students will communicate and work collaboratively with peers, teachers and ePals.
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| Essential Questions | - What is digital storytelling?
- What are the elements of a good story?
- Why do people tell stories?
- How is my personal story the same or different from others?
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| Supporting Questions | How is digital storytelling the same as traditional storytelling? How is it different?
When/why would you use digital media to tell a story?
What is point-of-view?
What role do images and sounds play in storytelling?
What is editing? Why is it important? |
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| Academic Vocabulary | details, digital media, digital story, draft, edit, footage, image, narrate/narration, production, record, storyboard, video |
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| Culminating Activity | The culminating activity is for students to create their own 2-3 minute digital stories and share them with their peers. |
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| Materials/Handouts | Student-made digital stories from: http://cybersmart.org/africa/storytelling/gallery/ Digital Storytelling Journal with:
1. Quick-Write and Response sheet
2. What Makes A Good Story?
3. Story Ideas (list)
4. Story Organizer (graphic organizer)
5. Storyboard (graphic organizer)
6. Peer Edit Checklist
7. End of Project Reflection sheet |
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| Reflections/Assessments | - Student reflections on the project
- Monitoring of email exchanges for key concepts and insights
- Evaluation of digital story for effective use of personal narrative and images
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| Related Resources | Cybersmart! Africa, Digital Storytelling Initiative Center for Digital Storytelling Digital Storytelling Cookbook Tech and Learning: (Teaching) Tips for Digital Story Telling 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling Examples of Student &Teacher Digital Stories, Scott County Schools Sounds, music, and images can be downloaded for your students' digital stories from the following public domain sites:
Freeplay Music
Free Music for Children
FindSounds
Sounddogs.com
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Pics4Learning
FreeFoto.com |
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| Extended Learning | - Create posters advertising the digital story projects. Write a one sentence tag-line for each video. Make them exciting so people will want to see the videos.
- Create a class website documenting the experience of creating a digital story and post the projects for viewing.
- Create a manual for other classes that might like to try this project explaining the production steps.
- Invite a filmmaker to speak to the class.
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