Wicked Project Part A

My educational need:
I teach 4th grade in a school where almost half of the students are at risk. Writing is our school’s largest struggle and is one of our school’s improvement goals. Our school’s MEAP writing scores are the lowest of the three elementary schools. Students struggle most with staying on topic with one idea, supporting the idea with enough details, and also with organization of the writing piece. Teachers have received extra professional development on writing, but this area continues to need more focus and support.

How do I plan to address this educational issue with technology:
I plan to address the need of more support in the writing process by using Digital Storytelling. Students are lacking in the ability to consistently work through the whole writing process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. During our fantasy unit, we will create a whole class writing piece using the whole writing process. When doing this shared writing, the writing process will be slowed down in order to better model and support my students. Children will share ideas as to the setting, plot, characters, problem, and solution for the writing as we collaborate on one writing piece. I will write down our brainstorming ideas, we will fill out a fantasy story map, and will type our rough draft. Then we will revise and edit to then create a final draft. Students will decide where to break the story up by using a storyboard. Students sit in groups and each group will then be given a section of the story to illustrate and record their voices to as it all comes together using iMovie.

I plan to use iMovie to address the issue of at risk writers in my classroom by using the Digital Storytelling to slow down the writing process so all five steps are done together as a class with explicit modeling and scaffolding. Since my final reading and writing unit of the year is fantasy this is the genre that will be used for the Digital Storytelling. Students will be doing a pre-assessment writing of a fantasy story before the unit starts and then one after we complete a whole class fantasy story using Digital Storytelling. I will then be able to compare if the use of technology to slow down the whole writing process supported the writers to have more focused ideas, on topic details, and clear organization. I am using iMovie since my laptop can be collected to my SMART Board at school. My Dell computer at school does not burn DVDs, so I would like to use my Mac so that DVDs can be burned to share with families. If my laptop was not available with iMovie, I could use Windows Movie Maker that is on our school computers or Photostory 3, which can be downloaded from the Internet for free.

Logistics of solution:
My plan for the Wicked project is as follows:
Week 1- Introduce the fantasy genre in reading using a whole class book and in books clubs. I will introduce fantasy in writing by doing a pre-assessment of their writing before the use of Digital Storytelling and also by use of picture book and video clip examples. I will begin to show students examples of Digital Storytelling so there is a scaffold as to the next steps as a whole class.

Week 2- The whole class will brainstorm ideas for the setting, characters, plot, problem, solution, unrealistic elements, and time era. We will then come to a consensus and will fill out a fantasy story map to plan our writing. A rough draft will be written, edited and revised with students taking responsibility to make sure ideas are on topic, there are supporting details and a clear beginning, middle and end for organization. A final draft will then be written.

Week 3- Students will decide where to divide the story by using a storyboard. Groups will get a section of the story to illustrate. I will scan these photos into my computer and will save them as jpegs. Pictures will be uploaded in order to the iMovie, and then students will record their voices using a microphone connected to iMovie reading our fantasy story in order to match up with the images. Groups will decide who draws the pictures and who will lend their voice to iMovie.

Week 4- Students will write their own fantasy stories using fantasy elements learned both in reading and writing workshop. I will then compare their pre-assessment to the post-assessment to see if using Digital Storytelling to move through the whole process of writing at a slower pace helpedto focus on ideas and organization in writing, since these are the areas my students have struggles with most.

Relevant research and resources:
https://sites.google.com/a/hollandchristian.org/conferences/digital-storytelling
This is the website I will be using as a resource as to how to use iMovie. There are example storyboards, character planning sheets, completed digital stories, and editing resources.

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html
This site shares the philosophy of digital storytelling and there is a video introduction too. There are reviews of the various software programs to use, digital storytelling tips, storyboard templates and more resources to begin the use of digital storytelling.

http://www.gearyschools.org/pages/uploaded_files/11.pdf
This is an article written by Ruth Sylvester and Wendy-lou Greenidge. It was published in 2010. It focused on how digital storytelling can help to support struggling writers. It sites that motivation is increased, students try to do their best work since the writing can be shared with more individuals, and also shows case studies of actual students that benefited from digital storytelling.

http://www.digitalstoryteller.org/docs/languagearts.htm
This online article written by Glen Bull & Sara Kajder sites that, “It can provide a voice to struggling readers and writers who might not otherwise find an authentic means of expression.” The website also shares the elements of storytelling and a sequence that a teacher can use to implement digital storytelling.

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes:
I plan to implement a whole class use of digital storytelling for a fantasy genre writing piece during the course. Next school year I would like to have each student create their own personal narrative digital story using Photostory 3. I plan on doing a pre-assessment with each student’s writing before the use of digital storytelling and then a post-assessment after the implementation to determine if the student stayed more on topic, gave more details, and were more organized, since these are the school improvement goals in writing for my school.

Indicators of a successful project
I will be using a pre and post assessment of writing to assess the success of implementing digital storytelling. Students will write a fantasy story before a whole class instruction of using iMovie and also write one after. I will be looking for growth of staying on topic, many supporting details, and clear organization. I will be looking for the whole class creation of a fantasy story by slowing down the writing process, and then publishing with iMovie will scaffold the writing instruction of fantasy elements, organization, and story development.