Digital Storytelling

I was over on Amanda's blog One Extra Degree & was inspired to post about my own adventures into the land of Digital Storytelling.

My districts ELL program really pushed Digital Storytelling this year. So much so that we had a Professional Development dedicated to it. Actually it makes perfect sense because it is a perfect way for out ELL students to share some wonderful stories. So at the end of the 1st quarter, at the end of October, I jumped feet first and into the film industry. Ha, ha!

At the time my students were working on "3 page stories", which means stories with a beginning, middle & end. This helped me a great deal because I could then have them illustrate a picture for each page. Yes, the stories are not terribly long. Really, they are pretty short, but it was the start of 1st grade. I want to do it again at the end of the year, to show the growth my students have made.

After my students wrote, edited & illustrated their stories it was my turn to get to work. I had each student come to me one at a time & we took pictures of them & their illustrations in Photo booth. This was a tip I got at the Professional Development. This way I didn't have to upload the pictures onto my computer, they were already loaded & I could delete them easily when it came to the next student.

Once the pictures/ illustrations were finished I moved to iMovie. Here we recorded the audio to go with the pictures. I recommend tinkering around with it a few times. It took me about 3 stories/ films to really get the hang of it. After a few stories I realized I could use the "Project Themes" to embellish each movie.

When they were all finished we celebrated by watching all the movies & eating some popcorn. Lots of fun. The students loved watching their creations on the "big" screen, my projector. :) I have to admit, they are not riveting stories, & the editing is not perfect, but for a 1st attempt I think they turned out pretty well.

Our Technology Liaison then put them up on our school website. Our students were then able to share with their classmates & families. I struggled with posting these because my students faces & names are shown, but I decided that they were already posted online & the families do know about it. SO if you are interested in watching a few you can find them here.

One last note, I do want to mention that Amanda has created some great templates for both the teachers & students to use while creating these wonderful stories. Head on over to One Extra Degree to check them out. You can also purchase them on her TPT store.

 I realize I did not get very technical with steps on how to operate iMovie but I am not very good at that. I do believe that there are some tutorials online on how to do it. However, I do hope you all try some digital story telling. It was fun & the kiddos LOVED it.