These past two weeks have been a blur, and I now find myself homeschooling a first grader and a fourth grader while shifting to a new form of education making sure I don’t do anything that I don’t overstep the technological boundaries set forth by my district.  So, I had a vision for this assignment that I will still try to accomplish in the coming days.

To begin, in the first few weeks of my English 12 course, I have my students create a photo essay.  This photo essay is essentially a story of his/her/their life set to music.  I’m assuming based on the readings for this module that I was assigning a sort of digital narrative.  The pictures must weave together to create a story and the soundtrack must evoke a mood.  Based on Darren Chase’s elements of storytelling worksheet, the students must develop a point of view and make a realization about their lives.  There is almost always emotional content.  The sound establishes the emotional component.   There is a certain economy taken into account for the assignment too because I ask that minimal words are used and that only truly powerful images are used to streamline the storytelling (I would assume that I’d received 47 puppy pictures if I didn’t make that stipulation).  My goal in assigning this is to make a connection to help them brainstorm for the college essay they will write in only a few short weeks. I usually show my students these videos   to start. 

I think I love digital storytelling…like before this module or even this class.   I started creating videos using iMovie in 2017, and these videos have replaced the photo albums of yore.  Here was my first attempt at a digital narrative–it’s long and rambling, but my daughter’s spooky story (1:30 ish) is the best:

Using the suggestions from some of the selected reading this week, I will be uploading my digital narrative:  Turning 36 in Quarantine.  For an ENFJ like myself, quarantine is frustratingly challenging.

 

SIDENOTE:

Though unrelated to my post for this module, I was intrigued by the Unfiction video and automatically though of Netflix’s Bandersnatch.  The work of fiction worked to become a work of unfiction.  A quick reddit search will show the lengths the online community went to to prove the unfiction of Bandersnatch true.  PS The coding language was beyond me, but I did find that amount of dedication fascinating.

https://giphy.com/gifs/netflix-black-mirror-j64kEBJY4JUMlJorr3