Reading Reflection - Digital Storytelling and Poetry Genre
What do you think of when you hear the word digital storytelling? According to Dogan (2023), digital storytelling is when people use computer based tools to tell a story of some type. There are many different digital storytelling formats. Digital storytelling uses many different techniques together such as animation, video, photos. Digital storytelling can be used to teach concepts as well as to show mastery of concepts. It is a creative tool that can be used by teachers as well as students. Digital storytelling can also be a very powerful tool to use in the classroom. As storytellers, digital storytelling is a great, creative tool to use when telling stories. With digital storytelling, stories can be taken to a new level.
What is digital storytelling?
One resource from this week's Module I would like to highlight is the StoryCenter website. This site has a ton of interesting examples of digital storytelling. I found myself spending hours watching several of the stories. Each one spoke to me in a different way. Many of the stories evoke different feelings especially when they used original photos to retell the stories. The mission of the StoryCenter (2023), is to help others by providing a place for people to tell their story. Retelling stories can be a helpful therapy for some people. This site interests me because I am going to be studying trauma therapy next semester and I can see how these two could be used together. If you get a chance check this site out and let me know what you think.
When reading the article written by Lucy Santos Green (July, 2013), I was startled to learn that in 2009 more than 58% of librarians said their collections had very few non-English materials. I work at a school that is located near a military base so we have students that speak different languages. I spoke with our district EOL teacher and expressed the need to have books in other languages available to our students. A goal of mine, as a first year librarian, is to expand my collections to include different languages. If we are operating as a true library we should represent the population we serve. This means materials need to be provided in other languages if they are a part of the library community. One way to do this is by using digital storytelling. By introducing the students to free digital storytelling sites we can provide them with a community to learn about stories from their community about their community.
Stories can be difficult for students with cognitive problems and disabilities to understand (Greene, E. & Negro, J. ,2010). It is also important that storytellers understand their audience. Telling stories to special needs students can be a little different. Special needs students require a little extra warmth and extra sensitivity (Greene, E. & Negro, J, 2010). Storytelling to these students requires a little more effort but it can be very rewarding. Digital storytelling could be a good tool to use with students with disabilities. Students learn in different ways, some students learn better visually and some audibility. By using digital storytelling you can put both of these together. It is also convenient for the students in that it can be accessed easily and it can be recorded for future viewings.
One creative way to share poems is through digital storytelling. Poems can be hard to understand with rhyme schemes, alliteration, and the use of other different poetic devices. By using digital storytelling, the author can get across the important parts of the poem to the reader. They can do this by creating a digital storytelling of the poem. By using an inflection in their voice along with pictures and moving animation it will hold the reader's attention. Students are used to watching Tik Tok and other social media apps so it’s hard to compete with those in the classroom. It is important that teachers use resources that will get and keep students' attention. By using digital storytelling you can take a genre such as poetry, that may not be the easiest to understand and make it fun and not boring.
POETRY SLAM!
As a reader and storyteller I enjoy the genre of poetry. When I taught fifth grade I would use current songs to teach poetry. I found that many students can really express themselves creatively through writing, speaking and/or performing poetry than any other way. Poetry Slams are a creative way for students to perform their poetry pieces. Poetry is a genre that compliments storytelling well. When you add digital storytelling with poetry it allows people to connect in a deeper way. It is interactive and sparks interest and it is not just a bunch of boring words on a piece of paper. Poetry comes alive through digital storytelling.
10 Poem Books that I enjoyed reading this week are:
Dogan, B. (2023). What is digital storytelling? Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27
StoryCenter. (2023). What we do. Retrieved from https://www.storycenter.org/about
Greene, E. & Del Negro, J. (2010). Storytelling: Art and technique. Libraries Unlimited.
Theresa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog this week. You made some similar points to my own as well as gave me a few more things to consider. I had a similar goal this year in my library. It is my first year and I was talking to our ESOL teacher about materials in native languages. There were very few titles in our collection and the previous librarian had not had the opportunity to allocate some funds to these books. The few books that were in the collection were not shelved together and thus hard to find. I am working on changing this and ordering titles in Spanish and Russian. I am also cataloging these in the 400 section of the library. I debated between spine labels or a 400 location and decided on the latter as a single poster would help students find the materials. Having books that mirror students is important, but it is also important that if possible, finding ways to mirror many aspects of the culture is also beneficial. So far, the new books have been well received and I want to purchase new books each year and develop that section of my catalog even more.
I also liked your idea about digital storytelling and poetry. Poetry is always a unit that many students seem to dread and as you stated, adding the digital aspect to the unit would really make the lesson fun and memorable. There are limitless possibilities and there are so many different forms of poetry that there is bound to be a form for everyone. Thank you for a wonderful post. When I begin to plan my own poetry unit this year, I am going to take some of your suggestions into consideration.
Christine Donaldson