The more I read about digital story telling, the more that I want to incorportate it into my class as a way to bring their writing to life. At the beginning of chapter 4, Ohler summarized the different feelings I (and I'm sure others) have experienced when learning about digital story telling: "It has gone from fear of the unknown to being overhwhelmed by the sort-of-know to being somewhat enamored of the somewhat unknown, to being grudgingly accepting of what won't go away, and to where we are now: resigned to the fact that the kids speak new media, while being honestly confused about how to assess what they create with it" (63). I feel like in these short weeks I've been reading, I've thought all of those things. I think I'm still enamored and scared, but also aware that many of my students are already familiar with a lot of the technology needed to incorporate it with the writing they already do.
I liked that Ohler suggested not getting carried away when assessing digital stories, and to not focus assessment purely on their mastery of the technological skill. I like that he said rubrics should be limited to 4-6 categories that focus on the skill or content and the process students went through to get to the new media, rather than just the finished product. I try to do this with my students writing as well, including outlines and rough drafts in their final scores. I also liked that he suggested that the rubrics should always evolve based on the skills and content being produced into a digital story.
I really enjoyed the discussion about the story core, particularly the diagram on page 73 showing the "new you" pushing against the "old you." I think this is something I could use to help my students further develop the emotional side of their narrative writing. I also appreciate the difference between storyboarding and story mapping; while storyboarding focuses on "what happens" in the story, story mapping asks students to focus on the process of why something is happening and how it contributes to the story as a whole.
In chapter 6, I thought the William Tell story was great, and I think that using a story with missing parts is a great way to show the parts of a story. I think I could use this with my students when they are writing narratives to help them see when parts of their story are missing or could be developed more to show the characters struggle.
April,
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if I should tell you this; people tell me the same thing--but you sound just like you to me. So you should be worried. Now don't overthink that like I do when they tell me. Know what I mean?
Now something of substance--I thought your video was well done, and clear, and well timed. You provide the screen shot and tell and show folks exactly what to do in order to set everything up correctly. I would be very appreciative if I were your student.
About the reading: I too thought what he did with William Tell would be effective with students. Having them be critics about bad stories and offer what to do to fix them, can assist them in learning more about the components of a good story.
Deb
April,
ReplyDeleteI agree, before we started this class I was a little afraid of DST, but after going through creating videos and reading Ohler's book my fears are becoming less and less. I am discovering that DST can be quite simple and easy to incorporate into existing curriculum.
Anika
You should defiantly use the William Tell story with your students. Only change the character to a popular girl freezing in front of the class during a presentation and a nerd comes up to the front and helps her through it! hah!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how you are seeing that adaption of DST may fit well with your class; particularly to understand the "struggle" of characters. I would have liked to have learned more about your take on story core, board and maps.
ReplyDelete