The continuing adventures of an individual's quest to find their way in a world that is rapidly changing. I am a work in progress, evolving, growing, and wondering.
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 added making a storyboard
because the students were off task and downloading the images from the internet and they were not being
consistent with 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 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.
Sorry about the quality, the lighting is authentic to the 1880's and it is nighttime.
Thomas Edison's Library
I finally had to find the time to learn iMovie. I had to upgrade to "11, thank you. "11 has so many more options it was really fun playing with all of the features. I had wanted to do a lot of things that I keep putting off because of time issues. Nothing like a deadline to find time.
I think the biggest impact for me is having to do the Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario and finding StoryJumper.com. I think that this one site is going to open me up to many more possibilities for lesson plans. I have used the Internet for lesson plans and many other things, but I never took myself out of the norm. It's a lesson plan, just like any lesson plan, but it's on the Internet, so I thought that made it special. Nope, Web 2.0 is the way to go!
My new goal is to get out of the old way of doing things and let the students create with the Web 2.0 tools. StoryJumper.com changes everything! Their motivation and engagement was tremendously different. The kind of different that means, I can never go back to the old way because it would be depriving the students of authentic and valuable learning tools.
I belong to the New Jersey Technology Teachers Association (NJTEA). Once you belong, your membership entitles you to free workshops, field-trips and professional development. Thursday night we went to Thomas Edison's Laboratory, which is now a national park. It was a private tour with a small group of 15.
Because Full Sail has encouraged me to get "out-there", I am now doing so, not only in Cyberspace, but in my state on a real, physical, and tangible way. I am experiencing live people with like interests and expanding my life. I didn't think I would be so excited about learning new things and sharing that with people. I haven't been a real people-after-school-person. My group in EMDT, has been so nice and encouraging, I went and found people near me to experience our New Jersey World together with. They even climbed to the top of the George Washington Bridge! They showed me pictures that were incredibly high on the towers. I don't know if I would have had the courage to go that far up, not everyone in the group that day did get all the way to the top, but they all had the opportunity to do so.
They are living a challenging, exciting, and learning-filled life for their students. I am glad I did something finally with the group. I had belonged for a year, but didn't get involved. Now, that has all changed because of Full Sail. After having all of these differing experiences, we all come back to the classroom with our lives having been enriched, and we can pass that on to our students.
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
·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.
The end of teacher convention has come upon me. I am energized and
renewed. I hope to go back to class with the view that I can make a solid
connection with every student in my room and allow them to be themselves. I
will make the effort to teach the way I always have always taught, despite what
the administration says. I took a three-hour professional learning workshop
today on how to use Cuisenaine Rods to teach fractions. I bought some this
summer when I thought I was teaching kindergarteners basic math facts. I
thought that was a waste of a good manipulative. Nope, now I am equipped with a
great manipulative and a new knowledge of how to apply them in the class. I
need to get back to more hands on learning stations, we work, we take a quick break, we go do whatever tech stuff that day, and
revisit my normal routine. Yup, I am good to go.
Storyjumper is going to be great. I plan on jumping right in
and taking however much time we need to be able to master this Web 2.0 Tool. This is the continuation of my Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario.
I am starting my story, looking for my pictures. I like what
I see and I start adding them to my page. As I do this, I am wondering, “Are
there pictures of people of color, or is this going to be another let down and
not include my student population?” I go through some more images and I do find
three whole choices of “shades”. When
will this change? Why is the default white? There is enough variation to
continue, but it would be a great addition if more ethnicities were included.
INCLUDED. Please don’t discount my son and all of the world’s children.
Programmers, take note, inclusion is very important.
I move on, and type in the text. This was easy, my students
will have no problem doing this. Their spelling will be invented and phonetic
but that’s the cue for me to add a quick lesson on spelling rules. I am able to
resize the text box and the text grows and shrinks accordingly. The same
happens for the art clips.
Now I need to move my dragon and I am hoping that I can turn
the dragon. I can. I can also flip him to face the correct direction so that my
characters can face each other, or not. I find different facial features to
express emotions. I am doing good. I see there are different backgrounds to choose from. I can insert my own art or pictures too. This is great!
I am ready to go to the next two pages. I hit save for the
current two pages. I notice I didn’t do a cover page. It creates one from my
page one. I then notice I can pick any of the pages I create for my story as
the cover page. I can change the color of the text, size, and the font. I can
also change the color of the background. This is fun and looking good.
I continue through the process and I know everything will be exciting when we start our process next week. Yup, storyjumper, the class, and me; we will be just fine and we will be creating, imagining, and dare I say it, having fun!
I have chosen Storyjumper for my Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario (RILS). I want to thank Karen
Sigmon for finding this program and using it in her blog assignment. I blogged
and looked at other programs, but I think my expectations were too high.
Storyjumper seems to be a better choice for taking my challenging steps into
the classroom technology instruction realm with this administration. My special education students will benefit from the fun and ease of the tool.
Storyjumper is a place to create and discover stories for kids. You can use your own art and photos, or use the sites art choices. Students are able to share their stories online for free or they can purchase a hardcover book of their own creation. I am hoping that my students will become more engaged in the writing process and be more motivated to do their work. Digital storytelling is a part of my action research project. So, here I begin.
Creating My Account
I have created a My Class in Storyjumper. It was very easy
and the students are not allowed to use their real names. You can choose to
have the site generate user names or you can give the students user names. I
choose colors to make it easy for my students.
Creating My Class
Getting Started From
School & Getting Started From Home
After I typed in the students names and their usernames, the program generated a page to print for each student to take home, listing their user names and unique passwords making it very easy for me and the parents to have prompts and instructions
I learned that I need to be at school to do certain things.
It's easy to get started.
Let's get started!
This week is the teacher’s convention. It is held in
Atlantic City and all public schools close down for two days to allow the
teachers to go and soak-in vendors, workshops, freebees, textbook companies and
professional learning. I am in professional development heaven. It is the
largest teacher convention in the world. About 60,000 teachers go to Atlantic
City’s Convention Center for one or two days. Today’s plenary speaker was Diane
Ravitch. She is a wonderfully articulate woman who is championing teachers and
trying to strike down NCLB.
I have noticed that since I started this program, EMDT, that
my views on reality are changing. It gets more difficult to face my classroom
reality. My mind has shifted to cyberspace and all of the possibilities that
may give us. While here at convention, I listen to people that teach in normal
districts. My district is not normal. We have been under state control for 20
years. We are in worse shape than when they took us over. Every school operates
differently according to how the principal wants it to be.
For years I have ignored how much this district drains the teachers of their spirits, it was the only was to survive. When I go to convention it's frustrating to see how few problems other teachers encounter, or much they are supported. It's energizing to get new ideas and to want to race back to class to try them all out. Then the reality smacks me back in my face and I have to take a really deep breath and go back to that classroom and try to be the teacher I was while at convention.
In my current placement, the administration doesn’t
appreciate technology. I don’t feel comfortable placing the students at the
computer. I am going to push and do what I feel is right. I want to be able to
teach the way some of the people in this class are. They don’t have a thought
or hesitation about what they do with technology. All I have are computers in
the room. No interactive white boards or anything else. I will start to do what
I know will increase my students engagement in their lessons.
I begin with Storyjumpers. I will be committed to not worrying about the reaction from administration. If I get really brave, I will be able to explain and justify why I will be using some of the new tools that I have found to be useful because of the EMDT program.
Here is my one minute movie for One True Media, a Web 2.0 tool. This a way to create slideshows with your own photos and videos. I am using Digital Storytelling for my Action Research
Project.
I want to encourage motivation for writing by making it more exciting
and interactive. Hopefully the students will become more engaged when using an
interactive medium to tell their stories.
