Zoë Randall Teacher Leadership Digital Portfolio
Implications: Creating a Supportive Story Telling Community in Schools
In setting up the culture for storytelling it’s important to understand that your students come to you with varying degrees of comfort in sharing. Letting kids know that they will be given a chance to express themselves takes trust in everyone. The most important aspect of setting up this culture was providing many opportunities to share, by starting small and ending up with the story they most want to share.
In thinking about your own students, mine tended to be in one of three categories:
Students who wanted to share a personal story
Students who were pushed to tell a personal story
Students who didn’t want to share a personal story
Storytelling activities should get more complex as sharing becomes a routine in your classroom. I began with activities that centered around getting to know students names, having them introduce themselves to me and each other, setting expectations, sharing computers, working with buddies, and sitting in a circle so they could feel connected as a class. If I was to start again, I would definitely take time to do all of these and remember to build slowly.
I feel the same slow build should happen in the storytelling process as well. As students become more comfortable sharing themselves with each other, they need to start thinking about the stories they feel comfortable sharing. Partnering up for interviews helped students learn more about each other. Teachers could build on these interviews to help students identify story ideas. Reflecting through the life road map activity (Appendix D) also helped students internalize life events over time and can highlight moments that defined their path. Sharing these ideas in the early stages can help students open up and find that story they might want to tell. For some students, they will have clear ideas and be ready to go, but for others it may take time.
One aspect of the process that I did not share with students at this point but wish I had was to think about how to tell the story visually. Many students developed stories that were difficult to show. Some had to reenact moments from the past and some had trouble finding images to relate to their writing. Students adapted and found creative storytelling methods, but many struggled to find pictures to match their words. If I had started the process earlier in having them think about the visuals to accompany their stories, I think they might have had an easier time in that part of the process.
Once students have their story, the movie making process begins and the critique along the way helps it evolve into the digital story they will share at exhibition. As students develop what story they want to tell, its important to give them moments to reflect on why they want to tell the story and with whom they would like to share the story. Thinking about the reasons for sharing gave my students an opportunity to reflect on the heart of the story and the purpose for choosing that particular story. At this time, I nudged some students to go deeper with their story ideas, or gave them a chance to change their story after reflecting on other story possibilities.
In the end, the storytelling process will be slightly different for every student involved, but the steps to foster this development are helpful and can lead to beautiful stories! I feel digital storytelling has impacted my teaching and approach to community building, and I hope that through my project, other educators find the joy of creating and sharing digital stories with their students.
What you can do to get started now
Set your class up for sharing-
-Have a circle of chairs when reflecting as a whole class community.
-Create partnerships to help students have a sounding board for their story ideas, encourage teamwork, and help students be accountable to someone other than themselves or the teacher.
-Construct activities from sharing with one person, then a small group, then to the whole class, then to a public audience.
Encourage many brainstorm activities to identify and share stories
-Use life road maps for student reflection to help the story brainstorm process.
-Have students conduct partner interviews to encourage talking to each other and getting to know one another.
-Have a gallery walk for sharing their brainstorms and promoting learning about other classmates.
Collaborate with a Humanities teacher who has the time to help students find the heart of the story, add figurative language and descriptive details, and frequently workshop the final scripts
-By collaborating with another teachers on the story process, I found students were much more able to express what they wanted to share in a meaningful and vivid way.
Offer opportunities to revise and change the story idea
-Engage in conversation with students
-Push them to the edge of their comfort if they seem ready and willing
Let students know ahead of time that they will need photos to help tell their story or start being creative about the re-telling through images.
Celebrate each other’s stories
-Help students build empathy through sharing stories and encouraging kind, helpful, specific critique.
-Have a screening and invite families to join in!
-Most of all, have fun and honor everyone for sharing their voice!
In thinking about your own students, mine tended to be in one of three categories:
Students who wanted to share a personal story
Students who were pushed to tell a personal story
Students who didn’t want to share a personal story
Storytelling activities should get more complex as sharing becomes a routine in your classroom. I began with activities that centered around getting to know students names, having them introduce themselves to me and each other, setting expectations, sharing computers, working with buddies, and sitting in a circle so they could feel connected as a class. If I was to start again, I would definitely take time to do all of these and remember to build slowly.
I feel the same slow build should happen in the storytelling process as well. As students become more comfortable sharing themselves with each other, they need to start thinking about the stories they feel comfortable sharing. Partnering up for interviews helped students learn more about each other. Teachers could build on these interviews to help students identify story ideas. Reflecting through the life road map activity (Appendix D) also helped students internalize life events over time and can highlight moments that defined their path. Sharing these ideas in the early stages can help students open up and find that story they might want to tell. For some students, they will have clear ideas and be ready to go, but for others it may take time.
One aspect of the process that I did not share with students at this point but wish I had was to think about how to tell the story visually. Many students developed stories that were difficult to show. Some had to reenact moments from the past and some had trouble finding images to relate to their writing. Students adapted and found creative storytelling methods, but many struggled to find pictures to match their words. If I had started the process earlier in having them think about the visuals to accompany their stories, I think they might have had an easier time in that part of the process.
Once students have their story, the movie making process begins and the critique along the way helps it evolve into the digital story they will share at exhibition. As students develop what story they want to tell, its important to give them moments to reflect on why they want to tell the story and with whom they would like to share the story. Thinking about the reasons for sharing gave my students an opportunity to reflect on the heart of the story and the purpose for choosing that particular story. At this time, I nudged some students to go deeper with their story ideas, or gave them a chance to change their story after reflecting on other story possibilities.
In the end, the storytelling process will be slightly different for every student involved, but the steps to foster this development are helpful and can lead to beautiful stories! I feel digital storytelling has impacted my teaching and approach to community building, and I hope that through my project, other educators find the joy of creating and sharing digital stories with their students.
What you can do to get started now
Set your class up for sharing-
-Have a circle of chairs when reflecting as a whole class community.
-Create partnerships to help students have a sounding board for their story ideas, encourage teamwork, and help students be accountable to someone other than themselves or the teacher.
-Construct activities from sharing with one person, then a small group, then to the whole class, then to a public audience.
Encourage many brainstorm activities to identify and share stories
-Use life road maps for student reflection to help the story brainstorm process.
-Have students conduct partner interviews to encourage talking to each other and getting to know one another.
-Have a gallery walk for sharing their brainstorms and promoting learning about other classmates.
Collaborate with a Humanities teacher who has the time to help students find the heart of the story, add figurative language and descriptive details, and frequently workshop the final scripts
-By collaborating with another teachers on the story process, I found students were much more able to express what they wanted to share in a meaningful and vivid way.
Offer opportunities to revise and change the story idea
-Engage in conversation with students
-Push them to the edge of their comfort if they seem ready and willing
Let students know ahead of time that they will need photos to help tell their story or start being creative about the re-telling through images.
Celebrate each other’s stories
-Help students build empathy through sharing stories and encouraging kind, helpful, specific critique.
-Have a screening and invite families to join in!
-Most of all, have fun and honor everyone for sharing their voice!
