Digital Story Textual Analysis

Common Core Standards:

WHST.6-8.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas clearly and research to build and present knowledge.

WHST.6-8.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

CCS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.3a: Use verbs in the active and passive voice and in the conditional and subjunctive mood to achieve particular effects (e.g. emphasizing the actor or the action: expressing uncertainty or describing a state contrary to fact).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.5: Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

 

Objective:

Students will create a digital story in order to present their current vegetable. In doing so, students will show improvement in research skills with technology. They would also enhance their public speaking skills in front of their peers.

Why?

Incorporating the digital story into the curriculum would be quite vital actually. I feel after doing my example that it would be beneficial for students to improve not only their writing and research skills but also their presentation/public speaking skills. Through the use of this project they are doing multiple tasks that require knowledge of their vegetable (or any topic), looking for appropriate photos, organizing their thoughts and words to speak in the story, and working the courage to begin speaking to the computer first. In the best sense, I find that doing the public speaking may be the most difficult thing for students at this age. By doing this project they are already recording their information as everyone else is doing, and it can be watched with interesting videos and photos. This may ease the anticipation/nervousness for many students. 

As a teacher I feel that this technology would be a great advantage for the reasons stated above. I never used this technology until now and in the short period, I enjoyed it greatly. I would hope that students would also enjoy the difference in technology to create a story (not a power point), and add their own voice and music to such a thing. It creates anticipation, excitement and even interest for those that need something different from the traditional writing. Having this technology also offers options to students. I would allow them to choose personally, either writing traditionally, posters, or digital stories. Giving them an option lets them do what interests them and will in the long run provide better learning opportunities for them to show what they are capable of doing.