Reading & Workshop Discussion - Week 5

This weeks readings consisted of:

Kadjer, Sara B 2006, What is digital storytelling? Bringing the outside in: visual ways to engage reluctant readers, Ch. 2 p 17-25

Nilsson, Eleanor 1992 Novels and short stories (11+ years): the organisation of your story, Writing for children, Ch. 5 p 83-117

Our task was to prepare some notes summarising the key points to inform our own writing and creation of a digital narrative for our upcoming assignment.

Kadjer - Key Points
- There are seven elements of effective digital stories:

• Point of View
• Dramatic Question
• Emotional Content
• Voice
• Soundtrack
• Pacing and, 
• Economy

- Stories take us somewhere; work towards a 'point'
- Narratives lead the reader to become interested in a compelling question
- Good stories breathe and effectively use pacing
- Use technologies as tools that bring elements together in one text

In the classroom;
- remind students that they are not learning a new technology; they are using a technology to learn
- encourage students that their story is worth telling
- offer broad topics and idea starters to help students begin their narratives

Nilsson - Key Points
- Making a start is the hard part for beginner writers
- Students learn to write by studying good models
- Stories can be introduced by the character, the plot, image or plot and character
- A beginning passage can spark a short writing exercise or go on to become a full story
- Don't make it too easy for your character to find a resolution; make one small idea last out a whole novel
- If a writer knows his/her characters inside and out, there can be something predictable about the story
- Beginning writers often skip the climax because by the time they get to it they just want to wrap it up
- There is often an ending or 'rounding off' after the climax that the writer needs to make sense of the events
- It is not the material that makes a story interesting but the way it is presented

Workshop Preparation
We were asked after these readings to create our own narrative based on a fairy tale. We were asked to retain the plot but change the setting, characters or resolution.

We came up with a version of Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs and one group member even created an entirely unique narrative, including picture and text. It was interesting to see throughout the class the variety of ideas that people came up with. Given that we could alter any aspect of the narrative it gave great scope for creativity while still maintaining elements of the original story.

After discussing the readings and preparation we viewed this years winner of Tropfest, which was a seven minute movie titled, 'Lemonade Stand'. This was a great example to further inspire the creation of our upcoming digital narratives, and reinforced some of the key points from the readings.

Most importantly for us to note was that, 'it is not the material that makes a story interesting, but the way it is presented' (Nilsson, 1992).

References

Kadjer, Sara B 2006, What is digital storytelling? Bringing the outside in: visual ways to engage reluctant readers, Ch. 2 p 17-25

Nilsson, Eleanor 1992 Novels and short stories (11+ years): the organisation of your story, Writing for children, Ch. 5 p 83-117