Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Need Examples to Pump Your Juices for Your Digital Story

Here's some help. I am posting for your convenience some digital stories completed by former EDUC 584 students. Please leave comments, and let us know what you think of the videos and if any give you ideas for your own digital story.

Here is one on using podcasting in the classroom:



Here is another one based on poetry. Here is what the students said about it: "Our group put together a digital narrative of the poem "Nappy-Headed" by Latasha A. Willis. The musical accompaniment is the song "I Am Not My Hair" by India Arie."






These examples were saved in Google as .wmv files. Use the links to access them.

A Teacher's Story You will really like this. It is all about the struggles and joys of teaching.

Shapes focuses on teaching young children about shapes, a geometry lesson for elementary school students. It is interactive and engaging, and asks students to think about shapes that surround them in their everyday world.

Tigers is a photo story about tigers and their life habits, which works well for a science lesson in a study of animals for the elementary school classroom.

Life Cycle of the Painted Butterfly This one, like the one above, works well for a science lesson on animals for the elementary school classroom.

States of Matter is a common unit of study in 3rd and 4th grade classes. Check this video if you do a unit of study on three states of matter or are looking for examples of digital stories for the science area.

13 Colonies is a social studies lesson for the upper-elementary classroom for a unit of study on the early colonies.

A Special Place, can be used in almost any grade level. It shows photographs of places that are special to the storytelling. You can then ask students to write a script for a similar story. Starting this project with the photos will help students to write their scripts.

Holocaust Memories, is for higher-level social studies class; as expected, this one is a serious review of an important event in world history. The photo story would also work well  in a unit of study of Elie Wiesel's book, Night.

What ideas about using digital storytelling across the curriculum did you get from viewing these stories?

10 comments:

  1. I loved the shape digital story! What a fun way for students to understand what a shape is and that they exist in the real world all around us!

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  2. These are great examples, but there were a few I couldn't access. When I clicked on the links for "A Teacher's Story," "States of Matter," "A Special Place," and "Holocaust Memories," I got an error message that said I didn't have permission to view the document, but that I could either request permission from the original owner or sign in under a different account. This is the first time I've encountered any issues with my log in account. The ones I was able to watch were pretty amazing.

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  3. Great examples! I agree with Christina the shape story was very cute and would work great in preschool. I like how she added expression and voice to the piece as it made the story more interesting to younger children.

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  4. Thanks for the ideas! If I taught in the upper grades I would definitely use the poetry digital narrative. It looks like a fun way for the students to respond to a poem and illustrate its meaning. As a current Kindergarten teacher, the shapes digital story spoke to me the most. It inspired me to think of an area in my curriculum that the students struggle with that a digital story might enhance - Coin recognition. This is one of the most difficult areas of our Kindergarten Exit Criteria. Many of the resources already published about coins goes far beyond the kindergarten level of recognition. I wonder if I could create a digital story to help my students remember penny, nickel, dime, quarter.

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  5. I loved the Lifecycle of the Painted Butterfly. The narration, photos, and video clips within the digital story was amazing. I can't wait to explore using digital stories more to learn all that I can! Thanks to all for the wonderful ideas!!!

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  6. These are great ideas. I am really beginning to see the versatility there is in using digital stories. It was great to see them used with poetry, beginning math concepts, and upper level social studies/science topics. I currently work with K-2 students and am beginning to develop better ideas of what I might be able to create in order to better engage and support my students learning.

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  7. I never used POD casts and kids in the same sentence before. The first video about POD casts was intriguing. I really liked the idea about students listening and creating their own casts. My students would love this! I allow them to play "teacher" sometimes so I can see if they understand current concepts. Having them create a cast is def a great way of using the higher order thinking skills that these kids need!

    The next video was awesome! What a great way to have poetry come alive! My students also love poetry is class. This maybe a project I try out with them, creating a digital story using poetry!!

    I like the idea of having the students create stories in science and social studies. I really would like to do a sotry about the plant cycle, but I'm just concerned about the time restraint with the length of this course and week off from spring break with the students.

    I'm going to keep brainstorming...but I can't wait to start my project with my students!

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  8. These stories have given me the feeling that I am on the right track with the ideas I have for my project. Like Rachel I teach very young students so the shape story and the butterfly story really are in my realm of ideas. What I really like about these digital stories are that they are good information in short snippets. With my students ranging from three to five years old their attention spans are not too long. The digital story can be a good introduction to a study, a quick hook to a new study or a great culminating ending.
    On a personal note, I will definitely be showing Nappy Headed to my daughter. It's a great poem with integrated song and beautiful pictures of all natural beautiful ethnic women that I would like her to use as role models!

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  9. I have never used podcasts and I don't think anyone in my school is using them either. But we sure should be. I got some great ideas and know that this would be a great motivating force for middle schoolers. The States of Matter and 13 colonies would have been so helpful to me earlier in the year but I will remember to add them to my resources for next year. The Holocaust memories are going to be an asset to the unit my students are doing on Anne Frank. Very encouraging!

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  10. Thought provoking examples. Goes to show that any subject matter and content can be used with this technology. What a great way to get kids involved and interested!

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