Digital Storytelling
Katie Meyer
Smithland Elementary
Language Arts, Kindergarten
Overview: We used this lesson plan during a unit on Jan Brett. After reading "The Mitten" by Jan Brett, students created their own retelling of this classic story using any winter clothing they wanted. After writing and illustrating the book, students read their book into the Photo Story software and presented it to theirclassmates and parents at an "Author's Party."
SOL: K.9, K.11 a,b, K.12
Time Required: About 3 hours student time plus extra ITRT/teacher time to edit PhotoStory.
Technology Used: Photo Story software, microphones, scanner, projector for presentation.
Procedure:
- Begin by reading "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and other versions of that tale.
- Review the sequence of the story and the irony that in the end it was a little mouse that made the mitten explode.
- Allow students to choose their own type of winter clothing to retell this story with and encourage them to title the book appropriately.
- Allow students to choose their own animals to climb into their chosen piece of winter clothing.
- Students will write their story on little paper handmade books. They should have a sentence and pictures on each page.
- Monitor students' progress by conferencing with them through the writing process.
- Scan their paper books into PhotoStory and pull students individually to record their writing into the program on the appropriate page.
- Share students' work at an author's party.
Assessment: While conferencing with students, evaluate their use of kindergarten writing skills that have been taught so far during the year. For some this will be detailed drawings and pictures labeled with beginning sounds, while others will be writing sentences with high frequency words, finger spaces, and punctuation at the end.
Describe how the use of technology affected student learning: Students fell in love with the story of "The Mitten" during our Jan Brett unit. They were eager to recreate this classic story on their own during writer's workshop. Knowing that their work would be presented to the class and their parents in a little "author's party" really motivated kids to do their best work and pay attention to details. The greatest benefit to using technology for this activity, though, was in the sharing of our work with parents and others. No longer did parents have to sit through the nervous "um's" and "I forgot what this says" that typically accompany kindergarten presentations. Because students recorded their work in advance, those issues had already been sorted through--and we could adjust the volume so that even the most timid child could be heard. Plus, because their work was projected, their illustrations shined and their writing--the real star of the show--was on display so that everyone could see!