The Elements of a Story
For my multimedia assignment, I decided to reconstruct a website that I developed last summer. The website is aimed at teaching grade 4 students about the elements of a story (characters, setting, plot, theme, and conflict). My goal in creating this website was to provide students with an interactive and practical learning opportunity where they could reflect on, discuss, and create stories with one another.
I have not yet used my website with my students. Bridging the gap between traditional literacy and multiliteracy has been a stumbling block for me. This course has helped to provide me with some guidance on how I can effectively approach teaching students 21st Century literacy skills.
My newly revised website Elements of a Story is an attempt to provide my students with both formal and informal opportunities to learn about the elements of a story. I have found the ideas from the New London Group (1996) especially during the revision process. In this reflection, I will try to highlight how the four factors of Situated practice, Overt Instruction, Critical Framing, and Transformed Practice have helped me to create what I think is a more engaging learning opportunity for students.
The New London Group (1996) identified that people learn best when they are motivated and when they believe that what they are learning is in their best interest. They also suggest that the evaluation of learning should be used to guide the learner as opposed to judging them. In recreating my website I have tried to provide students with situated practice where they can discuss what books they like, share ideas and learning, and create collaboratively. This is accomplished through discussion forums, blog pages, and the use of the online story writing website called Storybird. Having multiple sources of input from students allows for opportunities for me to guide them in their learning journey.
Situated practice needs to be augmented with other strategies in order to have a well-rounded learning experience. Overt instruction provides opportunities for explicit instruction and necessary scaffolding to take place (New London Group 1996). In piecing together the pages in the website, I made a conscious effort to provide explicit explanations so that students could develop a foundational understanding of the ingredients that go together to make up a story. The website provides opportunities for students to learn by reading, listening, taking quizzes, and reflecting. Each step in the process builds on the one before so that students have the opportunity to develop a concrete understanding.
Critical Framing allows students to develop their own meaning (New London Group 1996). On the website, students have an opportunity to practice dissecting a story. This learning opportunity allows students to apply what they have learned by reading, analyzing the components of a story and breaking it down into its elemental parts.
In Transformed practice, students can apply their understanding in a new context (New London Group 1996). The summative evaluation for this learning unit involves students creating their own interpretation of a story. Storybird allows the creator to use a combination of text and graphics to create compositions. The pictures found on the website can help to jumpstart the creative process and helps draw them into the writing process. The site also allows for social feedback. Students can browse and read books and poetry created by others and likewise publish and share their own creations with the rest of the world.
Although I could have drawn from many of the reading in this course I have found that New London Group’s framework on multiliteracies has been an effective instrument for completing this project. Although I have used this body of work as a reference for changing my website, I have also realized that there is more work to be done. I would like to explore some alternative multimodal design elements. For example, I would like to find a way for students to add audio as a way of sharing ideas. I would also like to explore how I could incorporate a green screen video app where students could create their own visual effects and media as a means of sharing their learning. My plan is to continue to work on finalizing the website and putting it to use in the new year.
References
The New London Group (1996) “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures.” Harvard Educational Review 66(1), pp. 60-92
Hi Moreen,
What a great tool to have for your classroom as well as sharing it with other teachers. Some really great elements and all presented in a clear format.
The New London Group article definitely had some useful perspectives for approaching education from a more holistic angle. The Critical Framing element you mentioned and applied within your website activities is an effective application of moving learning to student-directed/led practices, where students are guided, but figure out the process and practice skills on their own.
Tools like the website you created are a necessary step as we move towards more interactive learning within technology applications in the classroom. Having tools which both teachers and students can use again and again to practice their skills and share their work and experience is supportive to the process of increasing practical applications of technology. Even more so, these interactive and communicative approaches and methods allow learning and education to align with current modes of interaction and communication outside the classroom. This method also relates to student motivation and interest shifts between informal and formal settings. Creating environments which allow students to direct their own learning and create, supports the shift to less formal educational approaches, and therefore offers opportunity to increase motivation and interest.
This motivational element also relates to how we construct our own learning (including language formation), and therefore find ways to connect with our understanding of communication, especially within a story making/creating environment. To take this back to Ong:
“To say writing is artificial is not to condemn it but to praise it. Like other artificial creations and indeed more than any other, it is utterly invaluable and indeed essential for the realization of fuller, interior, human potentials. Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness, and never more than when they affect the word.” (2005, 81).
Any examination of how we construct language and connect words to create representations of thought are useful for our individual understanding and formations of knowledge. A tool such as yours which induces reflection and understanding of writing as well as creating a story, offers opportunities to expand our knowledge of communication, both internally and as we connect and engage with the world around us.
Ong, W. (1st of this edition 2002, this edition 2005). Orality to Literacy. Tailor and Francis e-library. Chapter 4, pp.77-112. Retrieved from:
http://dss-edit.com/prof-anon/sound/library/Ong_orality_and_literacy.pdf
A few links to tools I found for your project concerning the add ons you mentioned, especially audio recording:
https://www.chirbit.com (maybe most useful for your application)
http://www.showme.com (cool, but not sure if the audio capabilities are what you are looking for)
http://vocaroo.com (very new, and the site claims adding audio to websites isn’t available yet, but will be, so something to check in with again maybe)