Digital Storytelling

1) Students will begin going through the writing and editing process by choosing a story topic. Once they have chosen a story topic they will begin working through the writing process. The first step will be for students to complete a storyboard, including important details and brief illustrations, to help them organize their ideas.

2)Next students will create a rough draft of their story. They will edit their stories using an editing checklist. After students have created an edited version of their story, they will have two of their peers edit their stories. Students will gain writing skills through, writing, editing, and peer editing.

3)Once students have completed their final copy, they will begin illustrating them. They will create at least four illustrations to represent important parts of the story. Students will have artistic freedom in creating their illustrations using paints, markers, crayons, colored pencils, clay, objects in the classroom, or pencils.

4)Now students will begin photographing their illustrations. Students will use digital cameras to take quality photographs of their illustrations. Next they will download their photographs to their folder, which I will have previously created. Only small groups of students will be permitted to photograph at a time so that they can be properly monitored.

5)Students will begin importing the photographs from their folders into Photostory.

6)Once students have rehearsed several times and all photos have been imported, students will begin recording. They will have previously separated their stories sections that go with each illustration. Then they will read their stories with lots of expression into recording microphones. The recordings will also be done using Photostory.

7) Next students will choose background music to add to the reading of their stories, as well as photo and transition effects to their stories.

8) They will create copies of their final projects on compact discs.

9) After all students are finished their projects we will have a “Red Carpet Movie Release” party, where all students will get to share their final copies with the class. They will also share their projects with their families at parent conferences. They will keep the disc at the end of the project as a keepsake.