ACTFL 2018

ACTFL 2018 in New Orleans was amazing! I loved attending presentations by so many great teachers! My colleague Rebecca Landor and I had a great time presenting our session Digital Storytelling Toolbox. Our presentation focused on how to incorporate technology into storytelling through the use of digital platforms such as Storybird, Flipgrid, Adobe Spark, and Storyboard That. Below is a pdf of our session in case you missed it!

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Here are some ideas of how to use each of these platforms to enhance storytelling in your room...

Flipgrid
Interactive video platform --I love Flipgrid because it lowers the affective filter and gives more reserved students an opportunity to share their ideas orally. Once you have a teacher account you can create a 'Grid' for each section of your class and post topics for students to create videos on. You can control how long the video must be and who can see/comment on each post. 

• Have students record themselves giving a summary of a story/book chapter that you read in class. Students can then listen to their classmates' videos and leave a comment with an additional detail from the text that is missing. 
• Students can record their ideas for a detail that they want incorporated into a story. Then, they can listen to their classmates' videos and as a class decide which details should be added. 

Storybird
Online book creator

• Pull structures from a story/novel that you are going to use in class and create a Storybird story to pre-teach the vocabulary. Here is a link to the story 'El cerebro' which Rebecca and I wrote to pre-teach vocabulary for Las aventuras de Isabela. 
• Print stories that you create in class and put the books in your classroom library for FVR. 
• Give students a list of structures that you have been working on and have them create their own stories in Storybrid (this would work better with older students.)

Adobe Spark
Online platform used to create videos

• Import visuals from a story that you created in class and have the students record themselves narrating important events. The images you upload could be student drawn or from Google.

Storyboard That
Online storyboard/comic creator

• Students choose images/characters to create or re-tell a story. 
• Create deleted scenes or a dialogue of what two characters would say to each other behind closed doors. 

What are your favorite digital storytelling apps? What are your favorite ways to use digital storytelling?