RILS_Publication_StoryJumper

Here is my Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario video.  My lesson plan is titled:

Can Digital Storytelling Conquer Skeptical Administrators’ Negative Views of Technology?

Or

Will Digital Storytelling Enhance Motivation and Engagement With Classified Students?

Brief Overview

Students will design and create a digital story online in the form of a book to share locally and/or globally and have the choice to pay for a physical hardcover book that would be sent to the home. I am monitoring and observing the students to see if there is an improvement in motivation and engagement because of the interactive nature of the web 2.0 tool, StoryJumper. Students are expected to be critical and responsible for their learning process.

 Results

Results were magnificent! StoryJumper really improved motivation. The students kept asking to go back to the computers to work on their book on StoryJumper.com. Their engagement also improved by hours. They spent two hours one day, I had to limit them later. They also used it at home! I can't get them away from it. Total success.

Debra Patsel

Full Sail University

EMDT-ETC

November 11, 2011

Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario

Can Digital Storytelling Conquer Skeptical Administrators’ Negative Views of Technology?

Or

Will Digital Storytelling Enhance Motivation and Engagement With Classified Students?

Debra Patsel

BRIEF OVERVIEW:

Students will design and create a digital story online in the form of a book to share locally and/or globally and have the choice to pay for a physical hardcover book that would be sent to the home. I am monitoring and observing the students to see if there is an improvement in motivation and engagement because of the interactive nature of the web 2.0 tool, StoryJumper. Students are expected to be critical and responsible for their learning process.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

My target audience is my students in my current placement. My current placement is as a self-contained special education teacher. At this point in time my students grade levels are fifth to eighth. Their ages are from ten to fourteen. Their academic levels range from second grade to sixth grade in language arts.

MATERIALS:

·      Preprinted Instructions for Parents from StoryJumper

·      Preprinted Instructions for Teacher from StoryJumper

·      Preprinted Instructions for Students from StoryJumper

·      Blackboard/Chalk

·      Projector/Speakers

·      Laptop Mac Computer/Connector

·      Computers; 6 desktops/2 Very Small Laptops

·      Scratch Paper for Students in case they want to storyboard or draw with Pencil

·      Printer

OBJECTIVE FOR STUDENTS:

By the end of the Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario students will exhibit a demonstration of learning by creating their own digital story in the form of an online book at StoryJumper.com. Students will have analyzed their final product critically and will record their process and progress in their writing journals and by having group meetings daily.

OBJECTIVE FOR TEACHER:

To observe and analyze the motivation and engagement of the student’s as they create and design their digital story online using StoryJumper.com.

PROCEDURE:

·      Teacher reviews how to write a complete sentence, and then reviews what a short story is

·      Teacher explains how the website StoryJumper.com works

·      Teacher passes out hand-outs to the student with their unique password

·      Students go to the computers and login at StoryJumper.com

·      Students work daily on stories in class and at home.

·      Students break into groups daily to discuss success’ and problems

·      Teacher makes sure students get login information on handout for home usage

·      Teacher monitors progress, motivation and engagement by observation and conversations with students

·      Students continue work at home and school until successfully creating an online book with texts, and pictures

·      Students create a storyboard to clarify their ideas and pacing

·      Students write in their journal daily expressing their process and progress critically

·      Teacher evaluates final product using rubric created by teacher

·      Teacher and student have a reflective conversation about the process of creating their online book with student expression of self-evaluation and final consensus for final grade

·      Students will then share their books with the class using the projector to view the online books

·      Parents will be given the opportunity to view their child’s book online and purchase it a physical hardcover book

EMERGING TECNOLOGY:

·      http://www.storyjumper.com

·      StoryJumper is a site where children create an online and hardcover book. (Digital Storytelling)

SOCIAL PARTICIPATION/SOCIAL LEARNING:

Students will break into groups of two or three after the first online session daily. They will discuss what they have been doing. They will be provided a sheet that lists the questions to ask in the group. What did you like about StoryJumper? What surprised you? What frustrated you? How did you fix as problem or find a solution? What are you writing about?  Those are the questions for the first group session. The second group discussion would follow the second online session. Questions for the group: Are you still writing about the same topic? Why did you change it? What are your character traits? How many characters do you have? Where does the story take place? Who’s telling the story? What time period is this? What is the main problem? This pattern will continue on a daily basis. Other questions. Are you happy with how things are going? Any more changes from your original path? What have you found to be frustrating? Do you like doing this? How much time have you spent at home doing this? Have your parents seen you work on this? What do your parents think about this?

MAKING CONNECTIONS:

·      The learner will make connections with a previous experience they have had to convey voice as an author/digital storyteller in their online story

·      The learner will target a specific feeling to be able to connect to their story to give it depth

·      The learner will develop pride as they share their story to family, friends, and a global audience by their story’s presence on the site for public viewing and understand what connecting globally means

CREATE/PRODUCE:

The learner will have developed and created an online book at StoryJumper.com. This book may be publically displayed and/or printed out as a hard copy, hard cover book as a purchase.

ASSESSMENT:

StoryJumper.com

Assessment Rubric

Follow this to get the best grade you can!

Outstanding	Great Job	Okay	Needed Improvement
Stayed focused 90% of the time	Stayed focused 70% of the time	Stayed focused 50% of the time	Lost focus most of the time
Created an interesting plot	Plot was somewhat interesting	Plot was barely interesting	Plot wasn’t clear
Created characters that had feelings and depth	Created characters that had some feelings and depth	Created characters that had feelings, no depth	Characters weren’t clearly thought out
Wrote in complete sentences	Wrote a partial sentence	Wrote a very short or incomplete sentence	That’s not a sentence
Used proper punctuation every time	Used proper punctuation most of the time	Used proper punctuation some of the time	Didn’t use punctuation properly
Pictures connected with story	Pictures helped understanding of story	Pictures weren’t used most of the time	Pictures weren’t used or didn’t connect to words
Story made sense	Story was good, but a little unclear in parts	Story didn’t make sense in a lot of places	Story jumped around and didn’t make sense
Participated in group and shared good and bad	Sat in the group and let others talk and shared a lot	Sat in the group, but didn’t listen some of the time or didn’t talk enough	Didn’t listen most of time, or got up and left the group
Controlled emotions, took responsibility for your actions	Most of the time controlled emotions and took responsibility for learning	Some of the time controlled emotions or didn’t take responsibility for learning	Didn’t control emotions and/or didn’t get involved in learning
During student/teacher conversation was very critical of the process and progress made	During student/teacher conversation was critical and could explain the process and progress they made	During student/teacher conversation was having a hard time connecting to process and progress made	During student/teacher conversation was not able to make connections and explain what they learned

NOTES:

REFLECTION FOR STUDENT:

Students are reflecting throughout the assignment when writing in journals, meeting in groups and having the reflective conversation with the teacher to come to a consensus of the finalized self-assessment grade.

REFLECTION FOR TEACHER:

Teacher is reflecting during the assignment as students react to activity and by observation of motivation and engagement in the creation of the online books. During reflective conversation with student, teacher will take notes on how the student felt and evaluated the assignment. After total completion teacher will make notes on this lesson plan as to what went well and what needed adjustment.

Teacher will then have a great big, genuine, and heavy, sigh of relief.

That was the end of the first draft, then I implemented my relevant and innovative learning scenario and this is what I learned.

The point to this assignment was to tie it into my action plan and to see if digital storytelling helped with motivation and engagement for special education students. I found it did both. They were very highly motivated to continue to go to the StoryJumper site and also did it at home. They kept asking to go to the computer so that they could work on their books. They were very engaged and shared their adventure with their peers. One student would discover something and tell the others, learning happened like a wild fire. I didn’t show them much about the site; I feel the students can discover just about everything that the site has by discovery. That is exactly what happened and it was a joy to watch.

After completing the assignment, I discovered that the students were indeed far more engaged with this project than I had ever seen them. They were happy to work for two straight hours. I had to stop them or they would have worked on it all day. They discovered very quickly that they could download their own images and some of the stories changed after they found out they could truly customize their book. In fact, I had to limit the time they spent searching for other pictures, they were losing sight that the point of the project was to write a story, not create a scrap book, as one student said.

I also added making a storyboard because they were off task with downloading the images and they were not being consistent their stories. StoryJumper displays two pages at a time and some of my special education students had a hard time being consistent from display page to display page. Not everyone liked doing a storyboard or had no idea what a storyboard was. I would start with diagramming a story first before introducing StoryJumper.com. next time and developing storyboards.

I also discovered their literary skills better than the assessments we do. I saw them in action and I now know what a particular student needs to develop skills in punctuation, character development, capitalization, and the other general mechanics of writing skills. I think I learned more than they did. I certainly learned about them as individuals and that helped me make many different connections for further lessons and skills, and who they really are.

I am also able to view their books at any time to check on their progress and to help parents decide if they want to purchase the hard copy. I love this Web 2.0 tool!

We all had a great time doing this and I am excited about finding other sites for other subjects that will be this engaging for them. I think the interactivity is the key to holding their interest and that they aren’t constrained by the classroom. They can define their own boundaries and leave the real world’s frustrations behind them. I thought they would race through this and we would finish at the end of the week. They are taking their time and they are not ready to stop. Their stories are just beginning and I will use this during language arts periods to help them remember punctuation and mechanics. I learned this is limitless.

This was a big success!

Name:____________________________Date:______________

StoryJumpers.com

Discussion Sheet #1

In your group discuss these questions.  Write your answers down.

What did you like about StoryJumper?

What surprised you?

What frustrated you?

How did you fix as problem or find a solution?

What are you writing about?

Name:____________________________Date:_________

StoryJumpers.com

Discussion Sheet #2

In your group discuss these questions.  Write your answers down.

Are you still writing about the same topic?

Why did you change it?

What are your character traits?

How many characters do you have?

Where does the story take place?

Who’s telling the story?

What time period is this?

What is the main problem?

Name:____________________________Date:__________

StoryJumpers.com

Discussion Sheet: Final

In your group discuss these questions.  Write your answers down.

Are you happy with how things went?

Any more changes from your original path?

What did you find to be frustrating?

Did you like doing this?

How much time have you spent at home doing this?

Have your parents seen you work on this?

What do your parents think about this?

Did your parents order the hardcover book?