Digital Storytelling Project:
Almost all students in Chinese 1 and probably in most foreign language classes have a unit where they learn how to introduce their family and friends. In my classroom, I have often grouped this unit with the unit about activities and hobbies to give a more three dimensional picture of the people in their lives. Students are often able to master these skills and attain the mastery and proficiency goals that we outline for them. When it comes time to document these skills in a larger presentation that can be used as part of the students' language portfolios, however, I have often found the resulting projects underwhelming. Students either do a poor job preparing the visual elements needed to illustrate their family and friends, or they spend too much time on collecting pictures and examples and do not invest sufficient time in practicing their oral presentation (which they are generally are asked to present in front of their classmates).
Using computers and ipads, I hope to give students a chance to create a product that they can be proud of. In both the tools I have selected, Voicethread and Explain everything, the process of collecting a curating pictures and multimedia are inseparable from the process of recording practiced and perfected oral and text narration. By providing students with the tools and examples of how to make engaging and professional presentations I hope not only to give them 21st century skills and spike their interest in the project at hand, but also give them the means to use Chinese in a formal-esque presentational mode that can be expanded upon during their further study of the language.
Technology Tools
Voicethread: Voicethread is an excellent presentational tool for personal computers. The workflow that I will present to students is to: 1.) collect pictures and multimedia that they think best illustrates their family/friends and their hobbies., 2.) to write a short narrative for each page that they can use as a script for their recordings., 3.) To practice and record their script slide by slide creating a fully formed presentation.
Explain Everything is an Ipad specific application that has the added bonus of being free. Since my school is a 1 to 1 Ipad school, this is the tool that I will present in class. The workflow is very similar to Voicethread. It is by nature a simpler program, but the process that I am asking the students to follow does not need the additional functionality of Voicethread.
Introducing the hobbies and activities of your family and friends
Grammar points to be reviewed/used:
Here is an incomplete list of the communicative goals (and some associated grammar) that students have studied during the units on Family/friends and Activities/hobbies.
Express the things they like to do
S喜欢VO。
Express how often they do an activity
S TE VO。 （每天，每个星期， 常常 ）
Say with whom they do an activity
A 跟 B （TE） V O。
Mention that someone also likes to do the same activity
S 也 V O。
Talk about how well/poorly they do an activity
S V O V 得 怎么样。 （他打橄榄球打得非常好 ）
Present a person by talking about how he/she is related
这是我的 （朋友／家人）
Tell what someone is called
他叫。。。
Tell someone's age.
他／她 ——岁。
Vocabulary: Refer to this quizlet for a more or less comprehensive list of the vocabulary studied in these two units.
Requirements:
When introducing the technology and general goals of the project, it is important to remember to give students a clear understanding of what good, excellent, and poor work looks like. This is done in two stages: 1.) students should be given a copy of the rubric that will be used to evaluate their work (see below). Only by understanding what the benchmarks for their work are can they expected to reach them. 2.) Almost as important, students should be shown an example (either from the teacher or ideally student work from a previous year). An example of excellent work not only clarifies expectations, but more importantly challenges students to demonstrate their best work in the project. It should present a substantial, but surmountable challenge for the students. Please see below for my (incomplete) example of a project.
Introduction to project:
Please introduce yourself, and your family and friends. Tell us everyone's name, age, hobbies and how well they do some of these hobbies.
You must introduce at least 5 people for full points. You will also have to draw upon vocabulary and grammar from the family, names, and ages unit.
Use either voicethread or explain everything to narrate your story.
Please pay attention to the fluency of your speech and the accuracy of your tones and pronunciation. PRACTICE PLENTY BEFORE RECORDING!!!
Please refer to the grading rubric below.
Here is an audio introduction to the project:
Sample Project:
