Lesson: Digital Storytelling
In this lesson, students learn about the digital story format. They watch a video that explains the elements of a digital story and how to make one that is compelling, then brainstorm their own short digital stories. They use a story table to plan the project in detail and then create a video using the MediaSmarts Digital Story Maker.
Grade range: 9
Time Frame
| One class period (75 minutes) | Two or three class periods (150-225 minutes) | ||
| Activities | Introduction
What is a Digital Story? Exploring Digital Stories |
Introduction
What is a Digital Story? Exploring Digital Stories Your Digital Story Story Table Digital Story Maker
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Note: This unit is designed to introduce students to the digital story format and give them a chance to use the Digital Story Maker tool. It can be delivered on its own, or integrated into other units in this textbook that have digital storytelling as a media making component.
Preparation:
Watch the Instant Expert video on teaching game design below:
The interactive video includes knowledge-check questions. If you would rather, you can watch the video without the questions.
Select this link to access a video description for people who are blind or low-vision.
- Make sure that you are able to show the embedded videos or that students are able to access the links.
- Ensure that students can access the Digital Story Maker tool.
- Provide students with the Story Table handout in print or PDF format
- After delivering the lesson, you may wish to have students use other tools to produce more ambitious digital stories that incorporate moving video and other elements. Familiarize yourself with storyboard apps and programs. Consult alternativeto.net for examples of video editing apps and programs they can explore.
A printable version of this lesson is available on the MediaSmarts website.
Learning Outcomes
Big ideas/key concepts: Students will understand that…
Each medium has a unique aesthetic form:
- Different media forms have different rules of notice that media creators use to communicate
Key questions:
- What makes a compelling digital story?
Essential knowledge: Students will know…
- Reading media: Elements of a digital story
- Making and remixing: Digital storytelling tools and techniques
- Key vocabulary: Digital story, render, segment
Performance tasks: Students will be able to…
- Recognize the elements of a digital story and analyze their effectiveness
- Create a story table that effectively uses what they have learned
- Use their story table as a rough draft towards creating a finished video
- Use the Digital Story Maker to create a finished video
Student-friendly outcomes:
- We will learn about the elements of digital stories, the tools and techniques used to make them, and important vocabulary like “digital story,” “render,” and “segment.”
- We will think about what makes a digital story compelling and how different media have their own rules and styles for communicating ideas.
- We will recognize and analyze the parts of a digital story, create a story table as a rough draft, and use the Digital Story Maker to produce a finished video.
Curriculum Connections
Strand A: Literacy Connections and Applications
A1. Transferable Skills
A1.1 Receptive and Expressive Communication
analyze and explain how transferable skills can be used to support communication in various cultural, social, linguistic, and domain-specific contexts, and apply them when reading, listening to, viewing, and creating texts of various forms
A2. Digital Media Literacy
A2.4 Forms, Conventions, and Techniques
evaluate the use of the various forms, conventions, and techniques of digital and media texts, consider the impact on the audience, and apply this understanding when analyzing and creating texts
A2.6 Innovation and Design
select and use appropriate digital and media tools to support the design process and address authentic, relevant, real-world problems by developing and proposing innovative solutions
Strand C: Comprehension (Understanding and Responding to Texts)
C1. Knowledge about Texts
C1.2 Text Forms and Genres
analyze and compare the characteristics of various text forms and genres, including cultural text forms, and provide evidence to explain how they help communicate meaning
C1.4 Visual Elements of Texts
evaluate how images, graphics, and visual design create, communicate, and contribute to meaning in a variety of texts
C1.6 Point of View
analyze the narrator’s point of view, including limited, omniscient, or unreliable, in a variety of texts, explain how it is communicated, and suggest alternative points of view, giving reasons
Strand D:Composition (Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts)
D1 Developing Ideas and Organizing Content
D1.1 Purpose and Audience
identify the topic, purpose, and audience for various texts they plan to create; choose a text form, genre, and medium to suit the purpose and audience, and justify their choices
D1.2 Developing Ideas
generate and develop ideas and details about challenging topics, such as topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to other subject areas, using a variety of strategies, and drawing on various resources, including their own lived experiences
D1.4 Organizing Content
classify and sequence ideas and collected information, selecting effective strategies and tools, and identify and organize relevant content, evaluating the choices of text form, genre, and medium, and considering alternatives
D2 Creating Texts
D2.1 Producing Drafts
draft complex texts of various forms and genres, including narrative, persuasive, expository, and informational texts, citing sources, and use a variety of appropriate media, tools, and strategies to transform information and communicate ideas
D2.3 Voice
establish an identifiable voice in their texts, modifying language and style to suit the text’s form, genre, audience, and purpose, and express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about the topic clearly
D2.5 Revision
make revisions to the content, elements of style, patterns, and features of draft texts, and add, delete, revise, and reorganize sentences to improve clarity, focus, and coherence, using various strategies and seeking and selectively using feedback
D3 Publishing, Presenting and Reflecting
D3.1 Producing Final Texts
produce final texts using appropriate techniques and tools, including digital design and production tools, to achieve the intended effect