Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

2 responses so far ↓

• TMD // Jul 23rd 2013 at 8:45 am

  Dear Fatima, Lisa and Sarra,

  Thanks for presenting and submitting this important work on digital storytelling. You note that the brainstorming process was more difficult with Media Project II because you all had different inclinations as to where you might go with your creative explorations. I think your solution — to take three parallel routes and merge them on the blog you created — was an excellent and very helpful for the class in terms of providing a brief glimpse of various possibilities.

  I agree with your assessment: the biggest challenge with some of the social media applications is the limitation in selection of media. Ideally one would want to have the option of uploading one’s own images and other media rather than working with a bank of preselected materials; however, it is not difficult to work around some of the limitations by taking the idea presented by an application like Story Bird and using different social media services to achieve the same end (e.g., the tool Lisa presents — Pixlr — could be used to make media collages rather like those on Story Bird).

  I appreciated your careful effort with the rubrics, which are very helpful and robust. Overall, you’ve done some great exploration and thinking around the topic of Digital Storytelling, and the resources you’ve posted are excellent. Thank you!

  Best regards,

  Teresa

• notaka // Jul 25th 2013 at 3:21 pm

  Thank you for sharing the various story-telling platforms with us. I truly believe that there should be a greater emphasis placed on story telling and the use of multiliteracies within our curriculum, as stories are invaluable to human experience. In addition, so many of our students are tech savvy and are talented in many artistic areas including animation, art, photography, etc. that they may use these skill sets to create various renditions of stories. Chuck Larkin, a bluegrass storyteller, once expressed the power of storytelling quite succinctly by saying that, “storytelling links the inner outer me to the inner outer thee with the world that was, is, and will be.” Now, I would like to put forth some ideas with regard to incorporating storytelling and using story-telling platforms in ELA and ELL classrooms.

  Journalism 11/12

  I liked Lisa’s idea of concentrating on the six-word story and the general category of brief fiction in that through its simplistic expression, there is much to be said about language use. Richard Kallan (2000) notes that the 55-word short story is an excellent medium to teach students about journalistic cogency insofar that, “the form is so brief its successful completion mandates the writer’s scrutiny of every word used, as well as one’s questioning and analysis of sentence function (82).” Once students write a 55-word story, they can use a story-telling platform to present their story to the class.

  ELA

  In ELA classrooms, I think that storytelling would be easily incorporated within the study of Indigenous literature as storytelling is not only considered to be customary to Indigenous nations, but a gift that is utilized to teach, entertain, and remember. If students were divided into lit circles and each was assigned a different novel, then one possible assignment could include using a story-telling platform of their choice to retell key parts of the novel. This would be a collaborative project in which students would be responsible for a particular number of parts to represent through text and imagery. However, this kind of project would be difficult to implement in most schools due to the limited resources on this area of literature. Another idea would be to digitalize a set number of key elements found within the five acts of a Shakespearean play.

  ELL

  Digitize an oral cultural story culture (fable, myth, parable, legend) or to create a digital biography of a national hero (ensuring there are no duplicates through a sign up sheet) using a story telling platform. Students would then present their projects to the rest of the class. While creating these projects, students would learn about different cultures, practice their language skills as well as allow their creativity and originality shine through their presentation.

  Kallan, R. A. (2000). Teaching Journalistic Cogency With 55-Word Short Stories. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 55(3), 81-88.

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