Narrative Writing
Narrative writing comes naturally to some students. For others, a lot of them have a difficult time putting their thoughts into words. For some, they even struggle with picking an idea to focus their narrative on. This text provided us with multiple ways to incorporate technology with narrative writing. One quote that really stuck out to me in this reading was, "Without a doubt, we want students to both see themselves, literally and figuratively, in the narratives they write" (Hyler and Hicks, p.37). In today's generation of students, I think incorporating technology with narrative writing provides and even better opportunity to see student's personal voice and flair in their writing. The book discussed using writer's workshop for narrative (or really any type) of writing. Writer worskhop provides a great opportunity not only for students to experience the writing process with different genres of writing, but also for a teacher to get small group or even one-on-one time with their students and build rapport with each and every one of them. Additionally, by working one on one with students in their narratives, we are getting to know them through their writing as well. Some students come across as shy, but you get a sense of who they are through the things that they write about - especially with the narrative writing genre.
I loved reading about the opportunities digital storytelling creates for student writers. When reading, I couldn't help but feel it was targeting older students in upper elementary or even high school. As a UPK teacher, I tend to have the primary grades in mind when reading about incorporating technology in the classroom. As such, I did some exploring on the internet, and came across a great resources that discusses six different iPad apps that are elementary appropriate and great for digital storytelling! Consider this a "Find Six" from Educator's Technology :)
Hyler, J., & Hicks, T. (2014). Create, compose, connect!: Reading, writing and learning with digital tools.
Meghan, I love the Story Creator app. It looks fun and easy to use. Can't wait to play around with it.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteI also love the writers workshop strategy to teaching our students all about the writing process, and to become stronger writers. I was doing a little research online related to writing and technology and I found this really neat website called http://www.zooburst.com that helps students create a digital pop up book! I thought this would be a great site to incorporate technology into a writing workshop project. If you have some time its definitely worth playing around with to see if it's something you would ever use in your classroom. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help you out with it.