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milobo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:06:13 CDT

All too often, we teach students how to write and record digital stories without first teaching them how to create a story worth telling. It's important to not only teach students how to use digital tools to record, film and photograph a story but to also make sure that the story they're telling is ready for an audience.

So, how do you help students tell stories that are interesting? Stories that are well organized, creative, interesting, and vivid? This site and the resources you'll find here are a collection of ideas and projects to help you do just that.

The activities, tools and resources on these pages are ones I've either used with students in my own classroom or facilitated in a classroom with a partner teacher. They've been good story starters for me as I hope they will be for you.

This wiki is divided into 4 areas which are described below. Use the links to the left to navigate through each section. Join the site to add your ideas and resources or contribute to the discussions.

For more ideas and activities, check out the series "A Guide to Digital Storytelling" on Scholastic.com

Michelle Bourgeois

Here is a link to the Slide Deck from the presentation.

Here's a link to the Drop.io site for sharing your stories.

Improv activities and web tools to help students create a story framework and brainstorm for story starters.

Games and activities to help students learn to use descriptive language.

Projects and lesson ideas for storytelling.

Web tools, hardware, and software used to create digital stories.

Photo by Benson Kua, Flickr Creative Commons

Your Project Ideas

milobo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:52:39 CDT

Got an idea to share? Have a great activity or resource? Post it here and let us learn from you!

Story Ideas from our workshop time.

• Step Up Day. What is it like in the third grade?

• What makes you unique?

• A "Rock" Video. The story of kinds of rocks put to rock music

• Face in Hole. (Website) Students pick a scene to put their face in and tell the story of how they got there.

• Doors of the World. Each door leads to somewhere unexpected.

• My perfect day.

• Claymation. First grade ball unit. Clay rolls across table with music.

• How technology has made your life better.

• 17 year old girl is psychic and solves crimes with a crusty NY detective.

Links and Resources

milobo — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:18:03 CDT

Scholastic's Writing with Writers: Storytelling Workshop
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/storyteller/index.htm

The Improv Storyteller Blog by Kat Koppett
http://improvstoryteller.blogspot.com/

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling from the University of Houston
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/

Center for Digital Storytelling
http://www.storycenter.org/

StoryCorps
http://www.storycorps.net/

Bernajean Porter's site DigiTales
http://www.digitales.us/

KQED's Digital Storytelling Initiative and Contest
http://www.dsi.kqed.org/

Jason Ohler's Storytelling and the New Media Narrative
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/

University of Minnesota Elements of Digital Storytelling
http://www.inms.umn.edu/elements/

Jonathan Harris Collect Stories TED Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jonathan_harris_collects_stories.html

The Web's Secret Stories by Jonathan Harris TED Talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_harris_tells_the_web_s_secret_stories.html

"We Feel Fine" by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar
http://www.wefeelfine.org/

Ali: Through the Lens of Howard Bingham
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/ali/index.html

Rebecca Stockley, The Improv Lady
http://www.improvlady.com/

Vincent Laforet, Photographer
http://www.vincentlaforet.com/

Want to show students how powerful the role of the storyteller is? Here are three videos that make that point well:

Mary Poppins

The Sound of Music

The Shining

Sharing the Story

milobo — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:49:54 CDT

When it comes to publishing and sharing student-created stories, there are more hardware, software and web tool options that one person can ever plan on learning. Here are a few of my thoughts and favorites. Use the link to the left to add your own favorite tools to the list.

Quicktime Pro is an inexpensive and easy to use recording solution for Mac and Windows. I've found many times where the no-fuss interface of QT Pro made it easier for students to focus on the story rather than the bells and whistles of sound effects and audio enhancers.

A solution I still use for many audio projects is an iPod with an attached Microphone. Three options for iPod mics are the Belkin TuneTalk, the Griffin iTalk and the new Mikey from Blue Microphones.

Garageband comes installed on every new Mac and can be used to create audio recordings, podcasts and to add audio to a movie file.

USB Mics are a good addition if you plan on recording regularly. A few to consider are the Logitech USB Mic (inexpensive) , Blue Microphone Snowball (good for individual and group recordings) and Snowflake (small and portable), Samson Q1U or C01U (excellent sound quality) and Rode Podcaster (professional mic with ability to monitor audio)

A big part of many digital storytelling projects are the images and visuals that help paint the picture. Attached at the bottom of this page are handouts that give basic instruction in camera use and tips on taking good photos.

Tools to use in telling stories with pictures include:
iPhoto Storybooks
ComicLife illustrated comics
iMovie videos (see the attachments below for a handout on the digital video process)
Keynote slideshows
Pages short stories
Finding pictures to use online is another option. Some good resources for copyright friendly images include:
Pics4Learning
Creative Commons Image Search on Flickr

Building stories together with others online is a new twist on group writing. A few projects and tools to consider include:
Using Twitter to write collaborative stories such as this one created by middle school students and featured on NPR. You can also follow and contribute to an ongoing Story Spine on Twitter. Visit the Storyspine website to learn more.
Writing stories in Google Docs. This works well for collaborative writing teams formed from students in different classes. One way to do this is to assign students roles in the writing assignment. Have one student work as the copywriter (responsible for writing the basic frame of the story), one as the editor (responsible for correcting grammar, spelling and punctuation errors), and one as the color commentator (responsible for adding details and descriptive passages). Rotate jobs often so students get a chance to work in all three roles.
Creating online storybooks or video collections using VoiceThread. Students can create individual or group stories with images, text, video, and audio .and leave comments or feedback for one another.

To share stories online, think about:
Podcasting. PCHS students host a student podcast channel to share their work.
Wikis. Science teacher Ann Floyd used elements of storytelling to help students relay characteristics of living creatures on her CHS Animal Wiki.
Blogs. A great way to have students write receive feedback on their work from their peers. An example of a student writing blog is the Students 2.0 blog with contributions from students across the world.

Story Projects

milobo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:46:15 CDT

A great way to have students understand how subject area content applies to the real world. Applied Skill stories have students identify, interview, and tell the story of people in the community who use Math, Science, and Language Arts skills as part of their job. The students took photographs and created application problems that illustrated each skill as it is used in the real world.

An example of this is the Cafeteria Math book created by Mrs. Noonan's class (click the image below to view the pdf version of the book).

Begun by the Victoria and Albert museum in 2006, the Every Object project was designed to help people tell the stories surrounding a favorite item. While the website for the project is no longer active, the idea behind the project is a powerful one. The stories were usually short (less than one minute) but gave great examples of how extraordinary stories can come out of the everyday. An example of one story entitled "My Iron" can still be found on the Channel 4 website. The video below gives an overview of the project's vision and goals.

A storytelling project that had students create a family tree and map out the year in which their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were their age. Students then researched historical events that occured when their family members were their age, selected one that interested them and created digital stories to tell about the event through the eyes of someone their age.

A similar project was documented on the Apple Learning Interchange here.

Middle school students were given a digital camera to use overnight and asked to take photographs that shared something about a day in their life. You can read more about the project, "The Barn" on the Scholastic website and view a project example

How do the events of your local community impact others globally? In this project, students were challenged to find a local story to tell and then examine the global context for the information shared. From local farmers whose crops are shipped across the country to local political issues that impact national policy, each story is used to connect students to a wider vision. This project was designed and co-created with a team of Apple Distinguished Educators and is published in the Apple Learning Interchange.

In the Take2Video project, documentary film maker Karin Muller provides high school teams with raw footage from her travels and challenges them to create their own documentaries. As part of the project, students are able to communicate with other participating schools and receive feedback and input on their projects from their peers and professional film makers. To culminate the project, students are required to participate in one advocacy event showcasing their work. Take2 is a powerful way to build student awareness of social justice issues and provide them with the means to tell important stories in their own voice.

An interview with Karin Muller can be heard on episode #112 of EdTechTalk: Women of Web 2.0 and student samples can be viewed on the group's Ning site.

Story Frame Ideas

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:30:36 CDT

The Story Spine, created by Ken Adams as a warm up activity for Improv Theater, builds a classic story. You'll find the structure of the story spine is use in many popular movies and media. To use the story spine, have groups or individuals fill in the details in the following structure:

Once upon a time....
Everyday....
But one day....
Because of that....
Because of that....
Because of that....
Until finally....
Ever since then....
The moral of the story....

The story spine structure builds in:
A Base for the story (Once upon a time and Everyday),
Change: the reason for the story (But one day)
The narrative (Because of that)
The climax (Until finally)
A conclusion (Ever since then)
A wrapup and summary (The moral)
In the classroom, the story spine works well with creative writing assignments. In this article on planning digital stories from Scholastic, teacher Brian Miller shares a student created story spine comic in ComicLife entitled "Lunchy the Lunchbox"

See if you can visualize the Story Spine structure as used in this commercial:

Story Strings are a good way to have students brainstorm topics and ideas for creative writing. Distribute colored index cards (scaps of colored paper work well too) and have students use each color for a different part of speech. For example:
Write nouns on the green cards.
Write verbs on the blue cards.
Write adjectives and adverbs on the yellow cards.
Have each student fill out 4-6 cards each and then trade cards with other students. Use the cards remaining in your hand as a starter for a story idea.

Story Starters for writing prompts,such as the ones found on the site Writing Fix website for left and right brained writers, are a good way to spur writing ideas.

Period is another improv activity that can help students create writing prompts. Select a group of students to create a sentence together one word at a time. Each student adds one word to the sentence until they feel the sentence is complete. The sentence ends when one student says "period."

Invent-a-Character is played with a group of students. Start by giving students the name of a fictional person. Going around the group, each participant adds one bit of detail about the person. As details are added, others respond with "I can see that" if the detail builds on the previous contributions or "I can't see that" if a detail contradicts with something already contributed.

Pass-Toss Stories use a soft ball or small object that can be tossed from participant to participant. Assign someone to serve as story starter and as they begin to build, they can either choose to pass the story or be asked by other participants to toss the story to another student. The ball is used to designate the current storyteller and to pass or toss the story.

Expanding the Story

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:53:38 CDT

The best stories use vivid descriptions and imagery to draw the audience into the tale. By using words that explain the characters and setting, the story experience moves beyond a 1-2-3 format to one that is compelling. A good story starts with the frame, but it's only when the story is expanded that it becomes a work of art.

In general, expanding the story can mean doing all or some of the following:

Using a emotions and feelings to describe a story's personal aspects.
Giving specific names and titles to places and characters.
Adding noun-adjective and verb-adverb combinations that are unique and varied.
Using metaphors to help the reader relate to the imagery.

To help students create interesting elements that are part of a well-written story, try the ideas in the list to the left or add your own ideas and strategies.

Photo by Tyler Howarth, Flickr Creative Commons

Stories Worth Telling

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:14:48 CDT

It's all storytelling, you know. That's what journalism is all about. - Tom Brokaw

Most of the techniques we've explored so far relate to telling fictional stories, though many of them can also apply to the non-fiction narrative. Nothing gets students engaged more than telling stories that relate to the world they live in. Providing the skills and the framework to tell meaningful stories is something that can take student writing and storytelling to the next level.

Storytelling is at the core of our collective history and culture. In society, we pass on our beliefs and norms through the stories we tell and re-tell. Families are defined by the common stories that bind each person to memories that are shared.

In a sense, storytelling is at the heart of teaching. From the earliest examples of elders sharing knowledge through stories, we are innately programmed to learn by creating internal narratives from the discrete bits of data that flow in from our senses. Margaret Parkin, in the book "Tales for Trainers" mentions two studies that found when lecturers used stories to convey information, students make fewer conceptual and technical errors, applied concepts to more varied situations, and had a better grasp of content than those who were given lectures without a sense of narrative.

Story projects that incorporate either curriculum based information, historical events, or personal memories are powerful in their ability to convey information, emotion, and depth of meaning.

Good examples of stories as learning can be found online. Some of my favorites are:
This American Life by Ira Glass. His story of the financial crisis, called Bad Banks, gave one of the best descriptions I've yet heard.
NPR's Robert Crulwich on Science covers science topics in an entertaining way. A good example is the episode "Lucy's Laugh Enlivens the Solar System"

Use the links to the left to see story project ideas or share your own.

Photo by Joseph Gilbert, Flickr Creative Commons

Your Storytelling Tools

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:59:27 CDT

Got an idea to share? Have a great activity or resource? Post it here and let us learn from you!

Expanding Ideas

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:56:44 CDT

This activity asks students to improvise a story. During the telling, the audience can demand the student either add color (descriptive language), change a component of the story, or advance. A version of this activity, called Change was part of the show "Whose Line is it Anyway?"

Have students create a story from images that you collect and share with them. Begin your own collection of interesting photos by taking your own or finding them online in collections like the Flickr Creative Commons Pool. A starter collection of photos from my own collection can be found in the gallery on this wiki.

An online version of this game can be found in the Five Card Flickr activity created by Alan Levine.

Word Aid descriptive word lists. (http://www.msgarrettonline.com/descripwords.html)

For Stories that come from the personal narratives of others, check out the StoryCorps Question Generator to help formulate questions to expand the story.

Don't forget to use the Mac OS X built in Dictionary and Thesaurus to discover new descriptive words.

Improv and Storytelling

milobo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:55:32 CDT

One of my favorite shows of all time has to be “Whose Line is it Anyway?” The show ran from 1998 - 2006 on ABC and can still be found in reruns every now and then. If you haven’t seen it, the premise was to pull in several guest actors along with a regular cast and have them “improv” scenes either pulled from a hat or suggested by the audience on the spot. I would watch every episode and wonder, “How are they able to be so creative, funny, and interesting without knowing what will come next?”

It's no surprise that the skills that make improv so entertaining are some of the same skills that make for good writing.

In the book, Training to Imagine, improv artist Kat Koppett discusses the six principles of improvisation and how they relate to creativity and teamwork. These same skills are good confidence builders for student storytellers:

Trust - In improvisation, you have to trust in your fellow actors to go along with whatever tale you spin. In storytelling, trust allows the storyteller to take risks in their writing and know that the audience will allow them the freedom to explore new ways of expression.
Spontaneity - In improvisation, there is no time to censor and filter thoughts that might not be "right.". In the same vein, every story needs a little bit of surprise and suspense to make the listener wonder what comes next.
Accepting Offers - There's a way of thinking called "Yes, and..." that requires improvisational artists to accept an idea and build on it. It's also a great way to build stories collaboratively.
Listening and Awareness - To work as a team, improvisational groups must actively listen to others in order to build a story. Recognizing the audience as an active participant in the story is important to students too as they keep in mind how the audience will react.
Storytelling - It's the power of the narrative to engage the listener that helps make information stick. Improv artists know that a series of quips or stunts won't entertain for long - the narrative has to build a compelling story.
Non-Verbal Communication - Some of the most powerful stories can fall flat if the non-verbal part isn't attended to. Student storytellers need to make sure that every element they incorporate, from background music, to photos and illustrations, to voice emotion and inflection help tell the story.

Pixar's Randy Nelson relates the art of improv to team building and shares that the skills of improv are ones students must have in order to succeeed in a collaborative work environment.

Creative writing has many elements in common with improvisation and the games and activities that improv artists use are also great tools to help students build creative stories. In the sections that follow, we'll explore improv games to help students frame and expand stories.

Portions of this page are adapted from my writing on Collaboration that can be found here on my blog.

Framing the Story

milobo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:45:49 CDT

Framing the story is the process of developing a structure to support the information being shared. The simplest story frame is the "First..., Next..., Then..., Finally.... frame that students learn early in elementary narrative writing activities.

Ira Glass of "This American Life" talks about two building blocks of a story: the Anecdote, and the Moment of Reflection.

"The two interwoven...will make something larger than the sum of its parts."

Improv artists practice the art of storytelling through collaboration. In order to create a successful story, they must accept and build on the story segments created by their fellow artists. Using improv activities to help students build story frames gives them practice in creative thinking. Because improv activities are fast paced, they keep students engaged in the creation process while teaching them the art of brainstorming and free association to add surprising elements to the story.

Use the links to the left to find story frame ideas and add your own ideas for others to use.

Your Ideas

milobo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:53:46 CDT

Got an idea to share? Have a great activity or resource? Post it here and let us learn from you!

Your Story Frames

milobo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:35:52 CDT

Got an idea to share? Have a great story starting activity? Post it here and let us learn from you!