Narrative Writing Digital Storytelling

ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology

Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding   |   Stand-Alone, Integrated ENL/ELA   |  4W3, 4SL5   |   Book Creator, Screencastify

Content

I can write a narrative story with a clear beginning with a hook, middle, and end.

Procedure

Setting: The lesson will be done during integrated and stand alone ENL class. The ENL teacher pushes in during the writing period.  

Unit: The unit that the class is working on is Narrative Writing. The students are able to decide whether they are going to write fiction or nonfiction narrative writing.  

1. Introduction & Driving Question (Engage): Begin the lesson by presenting the driving question: "How can we use digital tools to bring our written stories to life and share them with others?"  

Show an example of a completed digital story using Book Creator to inspire students and provide a clear vision of the final product. Discuss how storytelling can be enriched with visuals and audio to make it more engaging for an audience. Introduce what narrative writing is and the differences between fiction and nonfiction. The teachers will use different thinking maps to begin the brainstorming process on which topics the students will be writing about. 

2. Review and Edit Narrative Writing (Explore): Students revisit their narrative writing pieces in Google Docs and engage in a peer-editing session to ensure clarity, organization, and grammar. Use color-coded highlights to identify areas where they can add vivid descriptions or details, providing scaffolding for students at different proficiency levels. During integrated periods the ENL teacher will have individual and group conferences to talk to the students about their narrative writing. 

3. Introduction to the application Book Creator: Once the students have completed their narrative. The teachers will introduce the application Book Creator. The teachers will provide a step-by-step demonstration of Book Creator, highlighting features like adding text, images, and audio. Break students into small groups or pairs for guided practice to explore the app. Offer visual instructions and translated labels for newcomers as needed. 

4. Creating a Digital Story: Students transfer their narratives into Book Creator, breaking their stories into pages. Encourage students to add pictures or graphics that represent their story. Then the students will record their voices reading the story aloud for the audio component. The teacher will provide sentence stems or read-aloud practice for students needing pronunciation support. The teacher will also differentiate sentence starters, vocabulary lists, or visual aids for students at different language proficiency levels. 

5.  Editing and Feedback: Then the students will review their digital stories and receive feedback from peers or the teacher. They will also use a checklist and rubrics to guide revisions. 

6. Publishing: The teacher will then work on Screencastify to play their finished work and record it on Screencastify. This will make a video of their project.  This will be better for the flow of the project and make it more like a movie of the narrative.  The students will then present/show their movie to their peers.  The teachers will call it “Digital Narrative Premiere Day.”  The students will then fill out a reflection to reflect on their project and their finished work.