by Shari Meyer, HS English Teacher
As
a second year teacher, I admit that the prospect of the 9th grade 1-1
program made me a bit nervous. But I soon came to view it as an
incredible opportunity. Technology certainly isn’t going to go away, and
the sooner we can adjust to the “new normal” of computers in the
classroom, the better prepared we will be to educate students who are
truly earning the moniker of “digital natives.” Even more important, I
knew the 1-1 laptop program would allow me to model the habits and
behaviors of a lifelong learner: trying new things, assessing and then
taking risks, and learning from mistakes. I knew it would be a wild
ride, but I was ready to jump on board.
In addition to using Blogger, administering quizzes online via Google Forms and Socrative,
and having students collaborate on presentations, I set out to create a
digital project that would serve as the culmination of the first major
unit of the year. As my students and I journeyed through The Odyssey,
we discussed what it means to be a hero (was Odysseus heroic or were
his flaws too great?) and explored the hero’s journey, a story pattern
that can be identified in movies as wide-ranging as The Matrix and The Wizard of Oz.
I challenged my students to create a digital storybook from an original
story they would write using the hero’s journey as a framework. My
goals were two-fold: to have students make use of the hero’s journey
pattern and to allow students to demonstrate their master of the MA Common Core Standards for narrative writing in a creative, meaningful way.
I
sought assistance from Colleen Worrell, HHS’ Technology Integration
Coordinator, to find just the right platform for this project. We
considered several, including Voicethread, Animoto, and Mixbook.
We weighed the pros and cons of each, and ultimately chose Mixbook
because it was easy to learn and we liked the design, which allows
viewers to “turn” digital pages. Colleen and I worked together very
closely throughout the process to not only ensure that the learning
goals were being met, but also to support the seamless blend of
technology into the project. We both worked with students to help them
master various aspects of the project, from finding “open” images and
considering elements of design to cutting and refining their stories to
meet project expectations.
At
the outset of this project, students completed a brief pre-writing
activity to generate ideas, then drafted their stories. They
storyboarded their completed drafts and brainstormed images that could
accompany and enhance the text on each “page” of the digital story book
they knew they would eventually create. They searched for
copyright-friendly images and worked diligently on documentation.
Finally, they used Mixbook to bring their stories alive!
Based
on a survey conducted upon completion of the project, a majority of
students really enjoyed this assignment. Several indicated that the
biggest challenge they faced was finding images that they were allowed
to reuse in their stories without violating copyright. One typical
comment read, "I
liked the idea of coming up with a story and having all the elements of
a hero's journey. I also liked that we created online books instead of
having to print them out. The one thing that I really didn't like about
this project was finding good pictures to use and where its credit
information was."
In class, Colleen and I openly acknowledged the challenge of finding
images, but felt that this was a great opportunity to teach students
about fair use and how to find appropriate materials online.
At
the "share fair" that marked the culmination of the project, it became
clear that some students used this opportunity to write serious stories,
and others to write silly ones; several drew all of their own pictures
and scanned them in because they wanted their images to be just right.
Each student produced an original story that can be shared with friends
and family, and the majority were able to clearly articulate how they
had used various aspects of the hero's journey in an original tale, an
important goal of the project. This project allowed students to be
creative and showcase their personalities while demonstrating
understanding of a concept they had learned, which is, to me, at the
heart of the 1-1 initiative.
