Digital Storytelling for Students With Learning Disabilities
This article adds to my information on some specific kids that digital storytelling really helps and will add LD students to my post. The ideas in this post also reflect a lot of those from my previous articles so it helps hold those ideas solid for my post.
They can choose how to develop their story so it can convey the right meaning.
With digital storytelling, students are able view their own stories as an audience member as many times as they want to be able to see how their story is being portrayed and if it is not being portrayed as the author would have hoped, it is accessible so that they can go in and fix it.
students are able to gain confidence
Confidence is a big factor, especially with LD students. If they believe that they can't create good writing then they won't and vise versa. We must employ strategies and activities to allow all students to feel confident and know that they can create amazing pieces of work.
Digital storytelling opens up opportunities to scaffold traditional literacy for students with learning disabilities in order to help them learn and master new skills by applying them in a creative way.
Digital storytelling provides these students with a stepping stool and provides them with support for creating pieces of writing.
Many students with learning disabilities have difficulty putting their thoughts to writing and/or lose focus while writing down their thoughts, due to the physical act of writing.
when you take out the physical act of writing, the students are able to express themselves in ways that they are more comfortable with and enjoy
It provides students with the ability to do research, explore innovative technology, and collaborate with peers to tell a story.
with technology in their hands, they are able to do so much that helps them get into their own story
Digital Storytelling: Extending the Potential for Struggling Writers
This article is so full of information on how digital storytelling helps struggling writers and goes in to detail about some specific types of kids and how digital storytelling helps them directly with the part of writing that they struggle with. This article will be great for the details and direct example of how digital storytelling helps many types of students who are struggling in different areas as well as all students.
This text provides the general information and benefits of storytelling that I will be able to use to help back up digital storytelling in which my project will be about.
In pursuit of lifelong literacy, we must remember as Eisner (1985) stated that, “The enduring outcomes of education are found in...the joy of the ride, not merely arriving at the destination.” (p. 35).
LOVE
Using storytelling to discuss many different types of stories, students can make decisions about what type of story they want to tell and what details they should include by participating in oral discussions with a partner or the class (Black, 2008)
Social side
many younger students give up and merely stop writing when they cannot think of anything to say.
especially students who are easily frustrated or consider themselves "bad" writers.
There are two key areas that storytelling positively impacts to improve student writing: use of language and identification of audience.
Both of which are important for young writers to develop
nstead of passively receiving directions on how and what to write about, students make key decisions about their writing with the teacher as model, coach, and facilitator.
Students are able to self regulate their learning and be in control which is something all people desire to do. When they do this, they are more motivated because they are able to do what they want to do and in turn do it better.
Nicolini (1994) states that, “We are by nature storytellers; therefore, it only makes sense to allow students a chance to first do something at which they are already good.” (p. 58).
Giving students a mode that they are unafraid of they are more likely to take risks and not hold back from telling the story that they want to tell, and not changing it in fear that they wont be able to spell all the words or make the sentences.
Through active engagement, storytelling as a pedagogical strategy can strengthen reading comprehension by helping students develop of a sense of story (Aiex, 1988; Craig, Hull, Haggart, & Crowder, 2001; Phillips, 1999)
You always learn better through doing
In storytelling, the interaction is personal, engaging, and immediate (Aiex, 1988)
All important for children's learning and understanding
In a study conducted by Cliatt and Shaw (1988), the researchers reported that storytelling not only helped participants enhance the language and logic skills of the children but also resulted in the development of positive attitudes towards instruction
storytelling=better attitudes=better reading and writing
Wallace (2000) noted that, “The phenomenon of storytelling actually becomes a common language that facilitates meaningful communication; we can hear and understand each other’s stories because we can usually recognize ourselves in the stories of others- no matter how varied our cultural backgrounds” (p. 436).
Building off of each other and creating a community of strong writers. Building this kind of relationship can go a long way with their confidence which can in turn lead to better writing and the cycle will just keep going.
Researchers have found that literacy instruction is most effective when developed through social interaction and collaboration with others (Dugan, 1997). This pedagogical strategy capitalizes on students’ desire to talk and interact with others.
Children are very social beings and love to share about all kinds of things with you, we should extend this excitement to writing.
Storytelling is defined as, “relating a tale to one or more listeners through voice and gesture” (National Council of Teachers of English, 1992, p. 1). Because storytelling relies on both the listener and the teller, this strategy utilizes the social element of language.
I guess I never really viewed storytelling through writing as social but even in writing it allows the writer to have their voice and share their voice with others.
Others have carried this connection further and believe that, “reading like a writer allows one to actually become a writer” (Langer & Flihan, 2000, p. 126)
Reading and writing have a close tie and because reading progresses faster than writing we should use it to help progress our writing as well. A lot of what children read in their early grades are stories and so by writing stories they can match what they are reading, we can help them achieve greater success in writing.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) reported that, “one out of every five of our nation’s school-age children suffer from reading failures” (ASHA, n.d., Facts on Literacy Section)
While this number can't completely disappear but we should be working toward finding ways to make this number smaller and smaller.
Allowing students who struggle with forming letters in a fluent manner-like Colleen-to compose on the computer removes the handwriting obstacle and also eliminates for the reader the difficulty of reading visually challenging handwritten text. By sharing their stories through narrated movies, the handwriting obstacle is removed and replaced by the pitch and expression of students' own voices.
By taking out the writing, we are able to see how students can create stories and see how they can compose a story. When you take out the worry of the writing, the students feel free to be as creative as they want to and can because they feel like they can be successful at that creative level.
he process of creating a storyboard after drafting their stories helps the writers visualize the story as it unfolds and more concretely reveals to them any gaps or omissions of details that are important to plot development. Once the omissions are visualized, students add details to make their stories more fluid and comprehensible.
Another example of how digital storytelling can help students who struggle with adding the details to create flow in a story, visualizing seeing it through pictures in the storyboard.
Giving students an environment in which interaction and collaboration are encouraged help them write more productively.
Students can learn a lot from each other and can grow their own ideas just from talking to others and the computer screen is an easy way for others to view others work to get ideas of what they're doing.
The interactive nature of composing a digital stor y reduces nonproduction resulting from disengagement or distractions. Undoubtedly the countless graphics and music clips available on the Internet may also be a distraction, but limiting the websites that students may access and setting a time frame to select graphics and music may reduce the distractibility. On the other hand, the multimedia used to create a digital story promotes active learning and collaboration: two approaches to learning that help distracted students stay engaged with the assignment.
With structure, digital storytelling keeps easily distracted and disengaged kids on task an engaged with the tasks and active learning and collaboration.
Not only did the assistant principal affirm the student as a writer by commenting about the content of his story but also verified him as a storyteller by making specific comments about his articulate narration. As a result, when this Kyle type returned home, he voluntarily created a digital story
When the students have others compliment them, especially their insecurities, they become more sure of themselves and confident and then when they are confident they enjoy the tasks more because they believe that the product will be great so they are more likely to want to create things on their own for fun which in turn gives them more practice so that they can become even better and this can just form a cycle of improvement.
By encouraging this Kyle type to draw his own illustrations to depict scenes for his digital story, the project became more meaningful to him.
When the student is able to create exactly what they want, they are more connected to the piece and able to take more ownership of it. When given only a certain set of things to choose from they are less excited about it, especially if there isn't an option that directly elicits what they are trying to portray and that leads to frustration and they settle with less.
fter she recorded and listened to her narration, she realized it was too fast and expressionless, and she willingly chose to rerecord the narration until the recording satisfied her.
Allows them self correct to make sure it sounds to others how they want it to sound.
Although they promptly begin an assigned writing task and complete it, they are reluctant to make any type of revision. Creating a movie gives them a reason for writing and makes them more conscious of their audience, one that reaches beyond themselves and their teacher, and motivates them to write more clearly and with more detail. They employ their artistic ability by drawing pictures to illustrate their stories, scan and save the illustrations, and then import them into a video-editing program.
One good example of how digital storytelling helps one group of struggling students.The idea that this can be viewed by may makes them want to write so that everyone can read and understand and make meaning and then they get to add the illustrations as well.
Digital storytelling has the capacity to not only motivate struggling writers as they experience the enjoyment of creating stories enhanced by multimedia, but also to reposition themselves from struggling writers to competent writers.
Allows them to view themselves differently so that when they are traditionally writing, their new attitudes about writing will show in their work. Believing that they are good writers will allow them to be more confident in their writing and their writing will improve.
The process of storyboarding facilitates the introduction of events in a logical and orderly sequence thereby illuminating gaps or omissions overlooked in a traditionally composed draft. When these breaks in the flow of the story are realized, the writer can make necessary revisions in the draft before recording the narration.
They are able to visually see the story to watch it flow. With the composition simply in words, they are less likely to be able to picture it in their head and watch the flow to see if it has any gaps. When they are able to put it into a storyboard they can see it and it also gives them a way to solve the issue before they do the final product, and with writing it always feels more final especially for kids and they are less inclined to fix the problem if there is one because it is more intimidating because it all seems like one piece. In a storyboard it is all broken up so its easier to fix the small pieces of the whole.
Students' narrations of their stories reduce overt weaknesses in conventions such as spelling, capitalization, and handwriting.
Gives them more confidence
Teachers report an increase in student motivation to write when they know their writing will be published on the Internet (Karchmer, 2001)
I feel like this is true throughout all ages. Even now, knowing that something has the possibility of being seen by any, I pay really close attention making sure everything I do makes me sound smart. I am more likely to read over it multiple times to make sure everything is right.
Once movies are created, showing them to the class is the publishing step in the writing process and should not be omitted because students generally enjoy showing their movies.
Children are proud of their creations, there is sometimes a fear of sharing writing, especially those seen as not great writers. I never viewed myself as a good writer and I still don't like letting others read my work.
personal photographs
Create a greater tie to the piece
seven elements
Much like written composition, point of view, dramatic question, emotions, even economy and pacing, all fall into written compositions. Digital story telling adds the gift of voice and a soundtrack. These ideas allow the student to get creative and feel more connected to piece of work that they are creating. Young student sometimes struggle with the idea that you have a voice in writing because to them, its just words on a page, but through digital storytelling they feel like they really are telling their story and they are doing it out loud.
they confidently explore new software, devices, or other technological tools.
Students more likely to take risks and try new things with technology then on paper?
may struggle with traditional literacy, tapping into other literacies may boost their motivation and scaffold their understanding of traditional literacies.
using literacy to build upon literacy. By allowing them to use a mode that they are more interested in or are seen as higher achievement in, they will be more motivated in the terms of traditional literacy.
limit students' writing opportunities to experiences that prepare them for testing
"Teaching to the test" this is something that has has become a huge thing in the class but is it the best way to truly prepare them? Can we use methods besides directly what is on the test to get the same ideas across and maybe even move farther for a better understanding?
assigning everyone the same topic
As stated earlier in the article, it talks about how lack of interest influences the quantity and quality of the work. By giving all students the same prompt, some may have a bigger interest or connection to whatever the prompt may be so it may, before the writing has even started, already separated into two groups of students. How else could we check for kids writing level? how can we address the idea of giving all kids an assessment that is more up their alley.
Furthermore, incomplete knowledge or lack of interest in an assigned topic may influence the quantity and quality of a composition (Graham & Harris, 1997).
"lack of interest" how can we help peak their interest and give them something that they are excited about while still having this idea of a composition? can digital storytelling combat this lack of interest to help improve the quality of a composition for these learners?
Although their compositions are replete with spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and handwriting errors, they are less likely to revise spelling, punctuation, grammar, or the text to increase the clarity of their communication (Englert, 1990; MacArthur & Graham, 1987)
Why is this? Misconception about good writers? Expectations of themselves?
Using this multimedia approach in the classroom helps students discover voice, confidence, and structure in their writing
Helpful for all students
Creating digital stories acts as a motivator for students, thus they remain engaged throughout the project (Burn & Reed, 1999). Additionally, digital stories provide an alternative conduit of expression for those students who struggle with writing traditional text (Reid, Parker, & Burn, 2002).
Students who don't learn best through traditional means, and therefore are at a high risk of falling behind, can benefit from creating these digital stories to help them become more engaged in the content.