Creating a Digital Story

I just finished my digital story project on iMovie. I had my story that I wanted to tell which involved my struggle with losing my dad to lung cancer when I was in high school, and then moving on without him. I loved that we could incorporate pictures and music in addition to narration. I definitely feel that I've gotten to experience being a student again and not knowing exactly how to do what I needed to do. I know that this feeling only came from one source, and that was just from the anxious feeling that many of us get when we have to use something that we've never used before (especially on a major assignment). I know that this is a sentiment my students will also feel, and therefore, I'm grateful for how Dr. Hofer responded to me about it. He explained the new concept in class, gave us time in class to work on, and set up open lab times when we could get help from him. To sum it up: reassurance. It made me feel a lot better, and I know that if I ever do this project it will make my students feel better as well. The anxiety could be even more heightened for students without very much computer experience, and for people who don't do change well.

I loved the flexibility for students that the concept of this project provides. The requirements allowed us to make it literary or personal - I chose personal when I saw the slice-of-life memoir option. In retrospect, maybe too personal. I was nervous about presenting it in class because I thought I'd get choked up, but Dr. Hofer was there with the reassurance once again to help me keep chuggin' away. I also really liked the peer-review that we did. This project would appeal to so many different types of students not just the linguistic ones that so often teachers who fall into ruts only help. I loved that. Also, for once, the story itself mattered --- instead of so much good grammar and punctuation. Another problem that students could run into could be transitions; I liked the way I did the title screens, but I realize how much trouble transitions are in writing for students anyway.

If I do this project in my classroom, I would slow down the explanations of it in class and increase the time in classroom the first week. Then, I would scaffold it away into the second week during open lab time and just be there for as-needed help. I would increase the peer-review to extend from just written script, to the narration and visuals, and finally the movie as a whole. I think collaboration among students is very important. I would be quick to encourage and resassure my students. I really feel that I've learned a lot and I hope my students do as well.

Creating a Digitial Story

Creating this digital story was truly an experience for me. As soon as the initial assigment was posted, I began to think about what story could I tell. I think that one of the most valuable lessons that I learned coming through school and now in my education classes is that to make something meaningful, it helps if it is personal. The slice-of-life memoir called my name, and I was led to write about my experience with losing my dad to lung cancer when I was in high school. At that point, I realized I have a subject and plenty of visuals; I knew that I had a story, but I didn't know the best way to tell it. I think that is a problem that my students will experience. Whenever I wrote words on the page, they didn't seem good enough. I worked on about three different versions (ways of telling the story as well) until I settled on the one I thought would be most appropriate for the project. Then, I forged ahead with the technology part of the assignment.

iMovie opened my eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about a story -- actually having a student-created movie. Now, I realize that this is probably common knowledge to the rest of the world, but to me it was earth-shattering. For once, I could think about the story I wanted to tell and its effect on my audience instead of just relying on the having sentences with good grammar to get a good grade. I think that my students will really like this as well. This project is one that (once given an overview of the program), students can do on their own with moderate help (as-needed) from the teacher. It provides benefits with regard to oral competencies -- because of the required auditory section. It allows artistic people (especially yearning-to-be-photographers) to flourish and really feel that they own this project. The peer review was another awesome part of this project.

I think that students who are not familiar with iMovie will be a little scared at first -- at least I was, but after they get used to it, it'll go easier. It would have been nice if I could have worked on this in my room (like the PowerPoint presentation), but coming to the lab worked fine. Again, students who are not familiar with computers would definitely be put off by this project, and they would need extra reassurance and help.

I would spend more time on the inital discussion of the project to develop that reassurance in the less-computer-apt student, which I think would minimize what I saw to be the biggest challenge of getting used to a new piece of software. I would probably have more in-class lab time for the first week before setting students out to finish the project. I would encourage peer-review for each stage -- even include auditory (feedback on the actual narration) and the visuals. I really felt like I experienced what my students will feel after learning they have an assignment using something they've never worked with. I learned a lot, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment because of it.

Going Beyond Word Processing

I really enjoyed reading chapter six. I discovered a lot of new ideas as well as found reinforcement for some ideas that I'd already considered. Kajder begins this chapter with a quotation that I see as a central part of my teaching philosophy for English: "Writing is the heart of the English class. In one form or another, it is constant: we are reading it, doing it, or preparing to do it" (Jim Burke).

Resonating ideas:
1. Prewriting and Reflection: Five minutes of monitors off free-write to help students jumpstart their writing as well as in conjunction with post-writing reflection in a writer's journal.
2. Revision and Editing: Locating topic sentences in paragraphs by highlighting them in green, as well as supporting details in red, and transitions in blue (with standard colors for assignments and collecting these color-coded drafts) as well as using conclusions for introductions.

During the past year, I've helped my mom teach her students about writing. I feel that the ideas presented with solutions in the resonating ideas make up the majority of students' writing mistakes. For many, getting started is a problem as well as feeling too satisfied with a first draft. Most students have editing/revising mistakes on varying levels, and I feel that the other suggestions will make these mistakes more visible to them.

Lingering questions:
1. Calkins (1994) idea that students discuss positive rather than negative aspects of their writings. In the classes I've helped, I encouage for each positive a negative and vice versa. I think that one problem in our schools today is that we as teachers are too concerned with being politically correct and not hurting our students' feelings. While I don't think that teachers should intentionally be mean to their students, I think that we cripple them by allowing them to think that everything that they do is perfect. For instance, if I take my child to the doctor. I want the doctor to do everything he can to cure him, not just pat him on his head and call him a good boy. Therefore, I think it is stronger to discuss both positives and negatives.

2. I am also a little wary of the roaming to different stations technique of pre-writing. I believe in collaboration, but I would want to makes sure that each students writes on what he/she is comfortable with, and not just have Johnnie writing on the topic that Susie suggested because he really has a crush on her and wants her to notice him. I would want to experiment with this task in my actual classroom before implementing it on an important topic.