TechieTeach

I have had several people ask how I made the Paul Bunyan project with my class.  I’m sure there is no ‘right’ way to do this, but below are the steps I followed.

1. Choose or write a story. 

- For our first project, I chose a story that already existed.  In subsequent projects, I may have the class choose a topic and write a story with them.

2. Divide the story up into manageable sections. 

- Each of these sections will be one illustration.  Try to make each section about an equal length and not too long so the audience doesn’t get bored of looking at one picture.

3. Give each student a section of the story to illustrate.

- I had some students choose to make their images using Paint.

4. Scan in the images or take pictures with a digital camera.

- I have learned that scanned images look best, but a camera can be used when a scanner is not available.

5. Record story sections.

- I used Audacity (a free recording program) to have each student record their portion of the story.

6. Edit recordings.

- Audacity can also be used to edit all the voice recordings and turn them into one long sound file.

7. Use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to put it all together.

- I used Movie Maker (this program comes free on all Windows-based machines and can be found in the accessories menu. 

This is just a general overview of how I put these projects together.  I would be happy to go into more detail of any one portion of the process that may need more clarification.

I am so glad I decided to do the digital storytelling project with my students this week. It was a great way to keep them engaged while others in the class were wrapping up their reading projects! I decided to use the tall tale of Paul Bunyan. I retyped the story and read it, as a whole, to the class. I decided that if the students saw the pictures in the book I had, many of them would want to copy them and I wanted the students to use their imaginations for their drawings. About half of my students are finished drawing and a handful decided to make pictures on Microsoft Paint. I am hoping that by the end of the week, the rest of the students will finish their illustrations. Also, I am going to try to start voice recordings this week so I can have a final project one week from now. I am excited to see how the final product turns out!

Right now, my students are making alternative book reports in small groups based on a Roald Dahl title they have read.  The choices they have are making a PowerPoint, creating a claymation, making a video, or using Crazy Talk.  At another time, I plan to go into more detail about how I have these projects set up with my students.  My current dilemma is dealing with the students who have finished early. 

Some of the students are so technologically proficient, or just such quick workers that they finish as much as a week or two before the rest of the class.  Up until now, I told the kids that they could do anything related to language arts with their time (read, write, play a word game, etc.).  However, I am finding that the students are getting pretty off-task and need something more productive to do with their time.  So I’ve been pondering what to tell them to do for this short week before the projects are offically due. 

I think I’ve come up with a great solution (I hope).  I am going to choose a picture book from my library and have the students who are finished each create either a digital image, or hand-draw an image to represent a part of the book.  Then, I will scan all of the images in and have the students record themselves reading the section of the book that they illustrated.  I was thinking of having us, as a class, write a short story, but I’m pretty sure that would take much longer than this week to complete. 

If anyone out there has any suggestions for me to help make this a successful class project, I’m all ears.  Otherwise, hopefully in about a week or two, I’ll be able to share the final product with you!