Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Annotated Bibliography
Vanessa Lebrasseur
Introduction
How can we as teachers and leaders motivate our students to apply and practice their oral
language? In elementary schools, teachers work on vocabulary building with their students to
enhance their communication, writing, reading and comprehension skills. However, students
don't seem motivated to properly use the language. Many elements can create this dilemma. I
wanted to learn how to integrate the use of technology to amplify student voices authentically.
Searching for a method to take away the fear of speaking from our students and allowing them to
speak their thinking, express themselves, and practice their oral language. In addition to this
Keywords
They keywords used in this assignment were: oral language development, digital storytelling,
Resources
This research article investigated the effects of digital storytelling in improving the
writing skills of third-grade students in rural primary schools. The writing skills were measured
before and after the digital storytelling implementation. Ahmet and Mustafa explored through
observations, field notes, interviews, audio, video records, student diaries, documents and
student products. Ahmet and Mustafa (2016) stated, “The results indicated that digital
storytelling enhanced students’ ideas, organization, word choice, sentences fluency, and
conventions in terms of writing quality” (p. 59). The article also discussed the importance of
writing instruction and talked about what digital storytelling is and the purpose behind the tool.
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They compared digital storytelling to new literacy and writing. The article stated that digital
storytelling integrated both traditional and new literacy. According to Ahmet and Mustafa
(2016) “Digital storytelling develops not only the traditional literacy skills such as reading,
writing, speaking and communication but also new literacy skills that are highly required in
multimedia environments” (p. 61). They went into depth on the research design talking about
clarifying vision and targets, articulating theories, data collection method and process, analysis
This article talked about where digital storytelling came from, how it could be used to
support instruction and how students who created their own digital stories improved multiple
literacy skills. Bernard (2006) wrote, “Digital storytelling involves the art of telling stories with
a variety of digital multimedia, such as images, audio, and video” (p. 1). Bernard also wrote
about the Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling that was developed at the Center for Digital
1. Point of view
2. A Dramatic Question
3. Emotional Content
6. Economy
7. Pacing
The Seven Elements of Storytelling is a useful starting point when a student begins working with
digital stories. The article talked about the different types of digital stories such as personal
BRINGING VOICES TO THE FOREFRONT 4
narratives, historical narratives, and stories designed to inform or instruct the viewer. Bernard
talked about how digital storytelling is not only for students but could be utilized by teachers to
present material. I was not surprised by the following statement that was said, “Students who
participate in the creation of digital stories may develop enhanced communications skills by
learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, express opinions, and construct narratives”
(Robin, 2006, p. 4). He also mentioned that digital storytelling involved all the different
literacies such as digital, global, technology, visual and information literacy. When students
created their own digital stories, they participated in the multiple steps of designing, creating,
and presenting. Implementing these things increased their literacy skills and research, writing,
assessment skills. Bernard looked at the many benefits of digital storytelling, but he also
mentioned some challenges. A challenge he brought up was the respect for copyright and how
students may be tempted to find materials on the internet to add to the stories. Teachers will
have to go over digital citizenship and set firm expectations of what is appropriate and what is
not.
Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom by Glen Bull and Sara Kajder
This article talked about the seven elements of effective digital stories which were:
1. A point of view
2. A dramatic question
3. Emotional content
4. Economy
5. Pacing
7. An accompanying soundtrack
Gull and Kajder grouped the seven elements into two phases of writing (1-4) and construction
(5-7). Gull and Kajder (2005) stated “During the writing phase, students draft and revise scripts
and design their storyboard. They decide what their story will say and how the story will look”
(p. 48). Once finished the writing phase, they would go onto constructing. The article provided
information on the seven elements and explained the purpose behind them. They stressed the
importance of proper planning and sequencing the steps for the best outcome of digital
storytelling. Gull and Kajder (2205) offered sequence steps to support with this tool “Write an
initial script, plan an accompanying storyboard, discuss and revise the script, sequence the
images in the video editor, add the narrative track, add special effects and transitions and add a
soundtrack if time permits” (p. 49). Being prepared may enhance your experience with digital
storytelling in the class. Ensuring you are setting yourself, your students and the assignments up
for success is essential. Gull and Kajder (2005) stated “Using digital storytelling provides a
voice to struggling reads and writers who might not otherwise find an authentic means of
Terry A. Campbell
Terry A. Campbell based his research on the following question: How can digital
the motivation and ability to create higher quality writing? His research was conducted over two
years in a rural school where students had not been performing well in writing, based on
standardized and school-based assessments. His research was specifically based on digital
storytelling tools to enhance student engagement and writing skills. Campbell collected his data
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by observations, interviews, a writer self-perception scale, print and digital writing samples, and
writing evaluations. In his research, Campbell (2012) found “dramatic improvements involved
in the levels of engagement as indicated by the time spent on task and completion of project” (p.
389). Results started from 17/24 and after some time ended up increasing to 24/24. His further
observations indicated that students writing quality did improve and increased their scores by
producing longer and more sophisticated digital stories. Campbell (2012) also found that
“students and teachers succeeded in going beyond the novelty or entertainment effect by
maintaining the motivation to improve technological skills to produce more sophisticated digital
story-writing skills” (p. 393). In addition to digital storytelling Campbell mentioned that
student’s literacy skills. Although they did not specifically focus on oral language development,
they provided me with valuable information regarding student’s overall literacy development.
Two of the articles I read had similar approaches to properly utilizing digital storytelling tools.
Digital Storytelling in the Language Arts Classroom by Glen Bull and Sara Kajder and The
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling by Bernard R. Robin both referred to The Seven
Elements of Storytelling that was developed at the Center for Digital Storytelling. This resource
supported teachers when it came to sequencing projects for students. All the resources brought
up similar challenges when using digital storytelling which included the importance of digital
My resources were relevant to my research topic as they all had valuable information that
helped me build upon my current knowledge of digital storytelling. I wanted to find out what the
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benefits and challenges would be with integrating this tool into classrooms by looking at the
research based evidence. These resources have helped me, as a leader, build a better
References
Bull, G., & Kajder, S. (2005). Digital storytelling in the language arts classroom.
Yamaç, A., & Ulusoy, M. (2016). The effect of digital storytelling in improving the third
proxy.cityu.edu/docview/1967314443?accountid=1230