Digital Storytelling in an ESL Class

Imagine you are in the fifth grade.  Your ELA teacher hands you a worksheet with lots of little text on it and you read it along with her.  First you discuss what the project is: you're creating a comic book about Hamlet.  Sounds pretty fun.  Then you continue to read about the guidelines.  It needs to be five pages long with... You wonder what's for lunch today... and there should be pictures of each character... It's snowing outside! You hope school will be cancelled tomorrow... something about using quotations... You're going to make an igloo when you get home!

Sound familiar? I'm twenty four years old and still find myself drifting off in class when I'm not extremely interested in something.

Now imagine you're that same student, only this time, the teacher turns down the lights and fires up the projector... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... All of a sudden there's two people swordfighting on screen with exciting music in the background and a text  image pops up on the screen that says: Mrs. Jones' Awesome Hamlet Comic Book Project. Now there are big, colorful instructions on the screen with examples of what it might look like. This is great! Already, you're thinking about what your character will look like...
According to the Educause Learning Initiative, "digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component." The Center for Digital Storytelling furhter limits the definition as "A short, first person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds." The example above wouldn't be what most would consider a story, but I believe that the forms and functions of digital storytellings are varied and can include micromovies like project instructions. A little bit more effort will go a long way in boosting student motivation and hopefully the quality of student work.

Here's a list I've come up with of ideas of digital storytelling implementation in an ESL classroom:

• Content/Language Projects: In CALLA / CLIL programs where language and content instruction are integrated, digital storytelling might be a great way to asses a student's content knowledge as well as written and spoken language skills.
• Grammar Presentations: Mini-lessons of specific and problematic grammar points might help students remember them easier, and would certainly make grammar a bit more enjoyable.
• Assignment Presentations: As the example used above, making a mini movie that details a project or assignment might go a long way in boosting the quality of the products.
• Language Models: Simply put, a digital story might enhance the input of a target langauge feature. Instead of simply reading a book, why not become interactive with the text?

This list is by no means comprehensive, but should give ESL teachers new to the idea of digital storytelling a starting point. Remember, when it comes to educational technologies, innovation pays!

Sir Ken Robinson supports creativity, probably digital storytelling.