Supporting Struggling Readers Through Digital Stories

source:

When I viewed my first digital story, I felt like a child again and felt as if I had a unique opportunity to listen to someone read to me.  In the article Digital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in the YouTube Generation, by Oliver Dreon, Richard Kerper & Jon Landis, the authors state that, “By integrating visual images with written text, digital stories can be used to enhance and accelerate student comprehension.”  Digital stories are an excellent way to help inspire students to engage in the lesson and to listen to information.  The creation of digital stories has been extremely powerful in supporting struggling readers. 

Let me start by stating that I have never created a digital story. However, last semester, I wanted to adapt my class to integrate more technology with the intent to eventually turn it into a “flipped” class.  I decided to start working on this goal because I saw it as a way to differentiate instruction for my diverse classroom of learners.  Some students are in the ESL program, while others are enrolled in AP courses.  It is difficult to differentiate the instruction, as I should for all of my unique learners, in a forty-two minute block of time. I recorded a few demonstrations and posted them on my Wiki page for students to view on their own time to prepare them for upcoming food labs.   

The “flipped classroom” is an excellent option to differentiate instruction because students can go through the content / lecture at their own pace.   If students do not understand something, they can pause the online lecture and look up a concept before moving on to new information.   When students do not understand vocabulary, they can pause and clarify the meaning by looking up a definition.  This cannot be done during an in-class lecture, where the information and speech continues to flow in spite of student misunderstanding.

This self-paced instruction also helps lower the "affective filter" or performance anxiety for ELL students, as they are not judged if they do not understand a section of the lesson and must re-watch the clip.  Without the fear that they may get called on regarding the new topic they do not comprehend, the student can more efficiently focus on the information.   Likewise, offering digital stories for one’s struggling ELLs enables them to experience the same advantage of a lowered anxiety level and increased attention on the story. Also, it provides them with the opportunity to spend more time experiencing a story and the new vocabulary than teachers are able to offer.  If ELL students do not completely comprehend a story the first time, they can view it as many times as they like, until they are comfortable.

I found an excellent web site, which stresses the importance of storytelling in supporting literacy.  It discusses the role of storytelling throughout history.  As I admitted before, I have never created a digital story, so the tutorial on the process of creating digital stories is quite helpful.  Therefore, I am including the link. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/using-technology-support-literacy Students enjoy hearing stories, but many have been conditioned to desire more sensory stimulation that corresponds with technology.  The authors, Dreon, Kerper and Landis, recognize that, “Growing up with unprecedented access to technology has changed the way young people, ‘digital natives,’ communicate, interact, process information, and learn” (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005; Prensky, 2001a, 2001b).  It is vital for teachers to stay up to date on popular electronic tools, which can help maintain their students’ attention and motivate them in developing their literacy skills.