Marian Faulkner

Digital Storytelling

Digital Stories in Spanish

In Session 10 on Tools for Student Production, I found the Kajder article entitled Constructing Digital Stories interesting and feasible for my classroom.  The strategy involves using pictures along with a narration to tell a story using computer software for making movies.  Kajder offers a seven step process based on research for using digital storytelling in the classroom.  The seven steps include writing a script, planning a storyboard, discussing and revising the script, ordering the images with a program such as iMovie or Movie Maker, adding the narration, adding special effects and adding music (Kajder, 2005). 

In the article, Kajder suggests a story of only one page in length.  She states that this length makes the task seem less overwhelming to most students.  This would be helpful for my students at different stages of language learning to write a story without having to write so much.  The step where discussion and revision take place would allow my students time for help with grammar and spelling in the target language as well as a chance to talk with peers in Spanish about opinions and suggestions for improvements.  Kajder repeatedly mentions how these strategies have been suggested because of limited computer time for most classes.  As this
is true in my case, I can see based on the steps when we will need to be in the lab, what work we can do in the classroom, and how to best have my students pace themselves. 

I believe I could use digital storytelling with students in Spanish 2 to review material from Spanish 1 and introduce themselves to their classmates.  We spend time reviewing who you are, where you are from, using adjectives to describe yourself, present tense and basic past tense.  As we review, students could start
collecting picures from their childhood and present day to use as the pictures for their digital story.  After the review, students would write the one page biography of themselves in Spanish and then plan the storyboard with their own pictures.  This would help students avoid breaking copyright laws, which Kajder notes as a concern.  Writing about themselves would also keep the story the most important part of the assignment, which Kajder notes as important.  She states, "Do not let the technology get in the way of the story (Kajder, 2005)."

The North Carolina Standard Course of Study for second languages has seven goals which include interpersonal, interpretive and presentational communication as well as culture,comparisons, connections and community.  This project would allow students to meet objectives in interpersonal and presentation communication, make connections to technology and community through their digital story presentations. 

I also think I could use this with levels 3 and 4 to present different cultures within the Spanish-speaking world to each other.  Students would be able to meet objectives in all seven goals as they researched and read about cultures, made comparisions with their own culture and made connections to history and technology.  They would be able to work on all three types of communication through research, writing, and presenting in Spanish.

I like the way Kajder describes digital storytelling as a connection to students' talents in other areas.  This will give my students the opportunity to showcase what they do well and enjoy, such as writing, using technology, drawing or designing, and music.  This project will allow for using technology while having the students
communicate more in the target language.  I look forward to trying digital storytelling this fall.   

Posted at 11:37AM Jun 14, 2006 by mrfaulkn in General  |  Comments[0]