Thursday, October 23, 2014

Digital Storytelling in the 4th Grade Classroom

"Performing Arts Center, San Luis Obispo" by Malcolm Carlaw  on Flickr CC BY 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/



Recently, in my educational technology class, I have been introduced to the world of Digital Storytelling. Right away, I knew I had discovered a learning jewel for my students and they would love this idea because my students love to tell stories! They are constantly making connections (shh..don’t tell them) with stories and sharing their own personal experiences. Most of the time, I have a hard time getting them to listen instead of speak! Another reason why I know my students would really enjoy this activity is because they already have shown a fondness of technology. Our class is extremely fortunate to have one-to-one iPads, so the students are utilizing them quite often. They create Pic Collages, participate in online discussions and use the internet to access online curriculum.

Digital Storytelling projects can be created using a variety of programs consisting of, but not limited to, Prezi, VoiceThread, Slideshare, iMovie and many more. Within the project, students can integrate text, images, and video in order to express their thoughts and ideas.

I need to plan a Digital Storytelling project for my 4th grade students. I can relate it to any curriculum subject that I am teaching and choose the program of my choice. For my students’ first storytelling project, I would choose Prezi. It is easy to use and has high variety of visual presentations.

It will be necessary for me to model how to create a Prezi by walking through a few steps. We will discuss many items including: how to add text, how to add an image, how to add a video, how to change text color, how to change the path, etc. Utilizing “Up and Running with Prezi” will be a great tutorial on Lynda.com to show my students some of the skills previously listed. I will also show the students an example Prezi so that they can see how it works.

As for the curriculum the project will be correlated with, I will choose our language arts program. We are currently reading a novel called The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. The students could summarize the main ideas of the story through a Prezi using text, images, and video. Prior to creating the Prezi, it is recommended that students plan, or sketch out, the story they would like to tell. My students will use the Flow Map from Thinking Maps to plan out the important events in order. They can also plan what kinds of media they would like to be incorporated into their Prezi.

I am grateful to have learned such a valuable learning tool to use in my classroom.
Posted by at

10 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 23, 2014 at 8:42 PM

    Hi Kelly,

    This looks like a great use for digital storytelling, and a project that I'm sure your students will enjoy since you mention that they already have an interest in technology. The students could utilize so many skills with a project like this, not just thinking critically about the novel that you are reading but having many other learning experiences such as technology integration and use and story creation.

    You mention the students sketching out the digital story plan which is a great way to organize their ideas. There are a lot of great storyboard templates out there to use. I looked at the Thinking Maps site that you link to and that looks like a great resource. Since I currently don't teach students, my teaching comes in the form of a lot of trainings for UCF faculty and staff, so many of the teaching resources are new to me and I am always eager to learn more about them.

    Thank you for sharing your digital storytelling project idea. I think that the students would have a lot of fun with this project and learn a lot as well!

    Kelly Grieneisen Tillotson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. KOctober 24, 2014 at 6:31 PM

      Hi Kelly,

      Thank you for the comment. When you begin your teaching career, you will continue to collect handfuls of resources. Thinking Maps is a program that our school dove into a couple years back. We use them from PreK3 through 12th grade and all teachers are trained in using them. They are like a modern day, new and improved graphic organizer.

      Thanks again!
      Kelly

      Delete
  2. Claudia ZequeiraOctober 24, 2014 at 1:59 PM

    Hi, Kelly,

    I liked the description of your students as little people who are so eager to talk. I think that’s an excellent place of departure for you and your digital storytelling project.

    I am curious to know why you selected Prezi as your medium for the digital storytelling project. I am not suggesting, by the way, that there are better ones. I suppose you know better than anyone what your class would benefit from. In any case, I am not a teacher yet so I am kind of at a disadvantage in this regard.

    In terms of tying a digital storytelling project to a book you are reading, I think that’s a wonderful idea because, as we have learned throughout the course, the key principle behind storytelling is to have a strong story behind it and clear parameters set for students. Tying the digital storytelling project to something done in class is also a very good way of ensuring knowledge is cemented and internalized.

    Thank you for a good post.

    Claudia Zequeira

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. KOctober 24, 2014 at 6:35 PM

      Hi Claudia,

      Thank you for the post. I chose Prezi because it is an easy to use program to start with. Also, they offer both a website and an app for creation. Lastly, I have experience using this app versus iMovie. I know that this is a program my 4th graders can successfully incorporate into their creation choices.

      Thank you for a great question that allowed me to reflect on my choices.

      Kelly

      Delete
  3. UnknownOctober 24, 2014 at 4:01 PM

    Hello again Kelly!

    I'm not sure if my last comment made it through, so I will try posting it again!

    I love seeing how active your students are in the online community. It is so cool that they are participating in online discussions at such a young age.

    I completely agree with you on the relevancy of digital story telling in the K12 classroom. My students also make connections with content and their life outside of school (aka prior knowledge, the foundations of new knowledge). Digital story telling is a great way to show it!

    You say you would like your students to incorporate video into their Prezis. Have you looked at http://www.primaryaccess.org? It looks like teachers can post or link resources for their students to use in their stories, as well as put them into storyboards online. It may be helpful if you are having them use outside video clips to select them prior to your students viewing them. I am most likely going to use something like that too.

    I look forward to reading more about the project as it develops!

    -Hope

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. KOctober 24, 2014 at 7:20 PM

      Hi Hope,

      Thank you for the suggestion of using www.primaryaccess.org. I have never heard of this resource. I will definitely try it out with my students. I do like to have my students search for videos as well. They are learning how to choose if videos are useful for their project or not.

      Thanks again, Hope! I am glad we are able to share ideas!

      Kelly

      Delete
  4. UnknownOctober 24, 2014 at 5:16 PM

    Hey Kelly!

    My I suggest a way to brand the project other than "summarizing the main ideas"? To you and I that sounds awesome, but I hope you can agree it may sound kinda boring to a kid even though they get to use a neat tool. How about instead you call it, "Build a Movie Trailer". Tell the kids they are going to turn this book into a movie and they need to make a movie trailer all about it. Really what does a movie trailer do? It, well, summarizes the main ideas of the story. The kids can do it in Prezi, or iMovie, or whatever; actually iMovie even has a movie trailer template.

    I just think it might be even more fun and approachable for kids if they felt connected to a product that they made rather than just fulfilling an assignment. I hope that helps!

    Blaine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. KOctober 24, 2014 at 7:33 PM

      Hi Blaine,

      Thank you for your comment! Yes, that is a great idea for a movie trailer. I was actually going to move into using iMovie later on this year after we tackled Prezi. I am introducing one program/app to them at a time so that over time they will be able to choose their program of choice.

      I am going to explain to the students that they are digitally storytelling when creating the Prezi. Also, it is important that they understand that they are achieving the skill of summarizing.

      Thank you for the suggestion, Blaine. I will keep your recommendations in mind when assigning this project!

      Kelly

      Delete
  5. AnonymousOctober 24, 2014 at 6:14 PM

    Kelly,

    I love the ideas that you suggest in this post. The way you talk about your students, shows how much you care! :) I did some searching on digital storytelling ideas (mine were specific to kindergarten), and I found a lot of them used Pixie. It seems really easy to use, and you might be interested in it. I also love Prezi. It's very user friendly, and I think students would love it too. I feel the hyperlinks you placed were also very useful to anyone reading your blog.

    Thanks for sharing your ideas!
    Danielle C

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mrs. KOctober 24, 2014 at 7:40 PM

      Hi Danielle,

      Thank you so much for the recommendation of Pixie. That app sounds really familiar; I wonder where I have seen it before. I will definitely look into it as it sounds like it will appeal to my age group.

      I am glad that you found the hyperlinks useful. Please let me know if you need any further information.

      Kelly

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)