Interactive Storytelling for Literacy Skills

This Classroom 2.0: The Book chapter can be downloaded at http://www.scribd.com/doc/103664483/Elisa-Gopin-Interactive-Storyte...

Literacy is one of the most important skills students can learn in school and affects their ability to understand and communicate nearly any topic they will come across. Digital literacy is becoming increasingly important as more information is being delivered through digital means and often includes audio and video in addition to text. As student-created projects are on the rise, with the popularity of project based learning and student-centered classrooms, it is more important than ever for students to be able to communicate ideas clearly using narrative and multimedia.

I developed a lesson plan for using a really simple animation program called Scratch to teach students about creating story structure, plot, and characters. Students work in groups to create their own interactive animations with a branching storyline that provides viewers with at least 3 different branching points during the story, and at least 2 different options at each branching point.

Specifc learning objectives:

• When given an assignment to write a story, students will write plot developments that make sensegiven the characters in the story
• Students will create realistic characters that appeal to readers because readers can relate to thechoices made by the characters
• Students will write a narrative structure that is logical and leads appropriately to the ending of the story