Poor little Jonny. He hates to write. He’s the student who can think of about ten million excuses why he won’t ever have to pick up a pencil, but can explain things verbally to you without a problem.
We all have Jonny in our class. Most of us probably have multiple Jonnys who work together to fabricate excuses against writing down their assignments. What can we, as eductors, do to help students put their thoughts down on paper? We can use the computer of course!
I had the pleasure of working with the program Microsoft Photostory. Students are able to create stories from real pictures, downloaded images or videos. Individual students can use the program to choose the pictures they want to use and then crop/edit them. After editing them, they can create captions for them, which incorporates the written communication. Do you think students will think twice about getting their thoughts down on a computer screen? No!
The students can take the storytelling a step further and add music and/or sound clips to it. This would incorporate verbal communication into the project, which is part of the student’s Language Arts grade! Student who are more hesitant about speaking in front of people have the option of typing their script onto the page before saying it into the microphone.
What a fabulous way of incorporating Language Arts into a technological world.
The best part? It doesn’t need to be done in a computer lab! Students could tackle this assignment as a center activity with a buddy if there are 2-3 computers available for use in the classroom!
