Digital Storytelling

Here is the link to my narration script for this video.

Reflection
This assignment was particularly meaningful for me. To begin the school year I walk my students through several “This I Believe” essays written and recorded on the NPR http://thisibelieve.org website. We discuss the importance of knowing what we believe in and clinging to our core values, while being open-minded to new ideas throughout the school year. It is a great way to allow students to see the change they experience in their freshman year of high school. Students write their own TIB essay at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year they read it again and write a reflection to see how their views on life and the world have changed through the literature, discussions, projects, and experiences of their 9th grade school year. To model for students, I wrote my own TIB essay (to which I update each year) and read it to the class. It is powerful moment and a means of allowing students to see that their teacher is human!

In addition, part way through the school year I teach tone and mood. One of the culminating projects in this unit is the development of a book trailer for one of student’s favorite books. We use the WeVideo app in Google Drive to create the trailers. However, to introduce students to WeVideo they begin by creating a trailer for their favorite fairy tale story. When they have mastered the use of WeVideo we then read a book as a book report and create individual trailers. While I have used this project and found great success, I’ve never spent a lot of time using it myself. Thus, I decided for my digital story to combine the TIB essay assignment and the introduction of how to use WeVideo. I loved the final product!

There was something powerful about attaching images and telling my story of why I believe what I believe. I found the assignment fully embraces the personalized principle because it allows for student creativity and voice, while simultaneously maintains guidelines and expectations for assessment purposes. For example, a student could be more formal and academic in the language they choose to use for their story, or they might be more relaxed to show more of their personality. This also supports Clark and Mayer’s idea that for successful learning to occur the educator is to facilitate the learning, but students are to be their own teachers taking ownership of their learning. It isn’t about the instructor giving instruction and students just soaking it in. It is a collaborative learning effort. 

I learned a ton about WeVideo completing this assignment including the different levels available for use. I also found myself really enjoying the power of storytelling. I intend to incorporate this lesson into my class this upcoming year which makes this assignment ben more worth while!