Article 2: Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
What are the two specific elements essential for good storytelling that the author focused on in The Art of Digital Storytelling? What is good storytelling?
In the article, Bernajean Porter focused on two essential elements for good storytelling. The first essential is living in the story. Storytellers don't need to be a character in their story, but should be able to connect with your emotions as you you tell the story. In his book, "A Whole New Mind," Daniel Pink defines story grammar as "the ability to encapsulate, contextualize, and emotionalize information." When the audience can connect emotionally with a story it gives important "sticking power" in our brains and for our audience.
The second key element is unfolding a lesson learned. A good story has a clear message, objective or moral. As Porter states, "Good storytelling needs a 'spine' to hold the audiences attention and deliver a timely, memorable ending." Having a clear message or intent in a story requires the author to go beyond the facts of a story: the timeline, events, and ideas. For a story to have depth and meaning, the audience needs to be able to connect with the storyteller and the meaning they are trying to share through their story.
The examples given in the article crystallized the essence of good storytelling for me. In the first example, the story told about the factual elements of the story and omitted much of the emotion felt by the persons in the story. In the second example, there was a narrative/dialogue between the main characters, helping to better draw in the reader. It also shared the emotions of the key character, allowing the audience to build a personal connection to the story. Good storytelling connects the author and the audience through shared emotions, experiences and/or ideas.
After reading Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum, please list and explain three ideas of how you could use digital storytelling in your grade specific curriculum areas with your students.
First, I have a goal to share the idea of digital storytelling as a learning tool for all content areas. I want to help teachers to understand how a student's research required for a given topic is solidified as students create an original work based on that research. There are also different types of stories that can be created to best match a content area teacher's objectives (myths, legends, dramas, documentaries, PSA's, etc.)
Specifically I am interested in working with the social studies teachers in my schools to help them with the personal history story projects they are already assigning. Many students are already opting to create these assignments using digital tools and I would like to offer after school lab sessions to give them ideas on how to build their story digitally.
I would also like to work with the language arts teachers (specifically the integrated studies teachers) on improving the writing and storytelling skills of teachers and students throughout the school.