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#ellchat

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Kids use green screen-like technology to put photos of themselves (or others) into a story template, then add text and voice recording. In-app templates focus on social stories, like visiting a new place, getting a haircut, or holidays. For ELLs, the templates offer a useful foundation for building social language skills. Plus, the app's voice recording feature offers low-stakes speaking practice since kids can record themselves talking, then can listen and re-record as many times as they want.

This versatile pre-writing or publishing tool is easy for young storytellers to use. Dozens of photos sorted into categories including culture, people, family and fun, serve as inspiration for prompts. Kids can tell stories using the in-app recording feature. Teachers can also create custom prompts with their own images and voice. Giving ELLs a safe space to tell stories about their lives and experiences validates their unique contributions to the class community.

Students can create impressive video slideshows using research resources built right into the app. They can capture screengrabs from an interactive map, safely search for images from the Web and access image archives from trusted sources like the Library of Congress. Kids put the slides in order, add text, music and narration, and then export the final project as a video file. Shadow Puppet Edu supports ELLs in developing academic vocabulary in both collaborative groups and independently. Students can use it to review new concepts, present research, track progress, explain their thinking and more.

Just as with the original Toontastic app, Toontastic 3D is a storytelling app that's inspired by puppetry, theater, and animation. It employs a "Story Arc" with five sequential scenes to guide story structure (setup, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution). Kids move characters around each scene as they record narration and dialogue. For ELLs, Toontastic 3D can be an invaluable tool for building writing skills or practicing story analysis. Students can storyboard a piece of original writing or a story they read in class, and then bring it to life with fun settings and quirky characters.

Students or teachers can create and share media projects that incorporate video, image, voice, or even drawings. Once posted, projects can be open to text, voice or video comments from a select group or from all VoiceThread members. It's a natural fit for a range of student presentations and projects such as explaining research or retelling a story with original artwork. Alternately, teachers can create a VoiceThread to solicit student commentary. For ELLs who sometimes are hesitant to speak up in class, VoiceThread gives them a chance to thoughtfully craft their presentations or comments and contribute their ideas with confidence.

This formidable tool is like a superhero version of PowerPoint. Users can import photos, PDF files, movies and more from many sources to use in a presentation. Students can learn how to present information using multiple forms of expression (images, text, video and audio) through digital technology. Students can edit the audio in their presentations, which gives ELLs a chance to self-assess and revise before presenting to their peers and teacher. Plus, allowing students to create multimedia presentations can take some of the focus off the speaking task, and can give creative, tech-savvy students a chance to shine.

Sutori
(Middle/High)

Sutori* is a tool for creating interactive timelines and stories. Students can craft multimedia projects with text, images, videos, "Did You Know" call-out boxes, click-to-reveal text links, and multiple-choice quiz questions. Sutori offers collaboration features, allowing students to co-create stories for group projects as well. Teachers and students can access pre-made stories and view or contribute to a collection of community submitted stories. Sutori is another great option for empowering ELLs to share their stories and knowledge without the stress of an oral presentation.
Erin Wilkey Oh is Executive Editor of Education Content for Common Sense, creator of Graphite, a free service for educators in search of the best apps, games and websites for learning. Tools included here have received high ratings on Graphite by educators and by the editorial staff at Common Sense. Go to Graphite to read full reviews of digital tools and how teachers use them for learning in class. *This post has been updated to include Sutori.

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7 Storytelling Apps That Get English Language Learners Talking

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Kids use green screen-like technology to put photos of themselves (or others) into a story template, then add text and voice recording. In-app templates focus on social stories, like visiting a new place, getting a haircut, or holidays. For ELLs, the templates offer a useful foundation for building social language skills.

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8 tips for how to teach digital stories on immigration

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8 tips for how to teach digital stories on immigration

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This is part one of a series dedicated to the art of teaching the digital story on immigration.  Digital storytelling about immigrant heritage is a way to access a shared past and present, however distinct the individual stories are, develop reading and writing skills, and most importantly, build empathy while thoroughly engaging students. It can, however, be challenging to teach for a number of reasons: 1) uncertainty in the writing process when there may be unknown variables in immigration experiences 2) fears of technology 3) relevancy within what may be a restrictive curriculum.

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Simple, free, easy to export 6 box storyboards

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Inspire your students with thousands of free teaching resources including videos, lesson plans, and games aligned to state and national standards.

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You can make a storyboard by having a child draw a series of pictures of the main events in the story on sticky notes and then asking him or her to arrange the pictures in order. Talk about the order and whether it makes sense – since you are using sticky notes, the child can move them around. A photo story is another way of using pictures to organize or create a story. Have a child cut pictures out of magazines or take photos with a digital camera. He or she can then arrange the picture in order and write captions, much the same as with a storyboard.

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Crossing Borders with Digital Storytelling

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Crossing Borders with Digital Storytelling

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American Immigration Council's step by step common-core aligned guide for teachers to launch digital storytelling projects in their classroom

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How Digital Storytelling about Immigration Creates "Empathetic" Moments 

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How Digital Storytelling about Immigration Creates "Empathetic" Moments 

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(American Immigration Council) teachimmigration.blogspot.com

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Teaching empathy is not like teaching how to determine the central idea of a text, but it is just as essential, if not more so, to educating youth.As Elena Aguilar wrote recently in " How Reading Literature Cultivates Empathy ," "there's enough evidence in our world today that we need to intentionally cultivate empathy, and then there's evidence that people are reading less than they ever have; and so I'd suggest that within our decision-making spheres, we intentionally and strategically incorporate fiction into the nooks and crannies of our days."We can extend this idea even further when it comes to " Welcoming Immigrant Students into the Classroom " and use the act of writing stories about family immigration experiences to foster empathy and deep understanding about how we are a nation of immigrants.

The Connections between Digital Storytelling, Immigration, and Empathy

Telling stories is an innately human experience that straddles cultures and time reaching back into ancient oral traditions.It allows us to connect with others and create a sense of belonging.It also lets us see and hear from another person's perspective, a key component of empathy.Writing stories of family immigration history - no matter how distant or recent - allows for common threads and variations of the immigration experience to be seen, heard, and reflected upon.

Using digital storytelling to capture immigration stories is a powerful way for teachers to create opportunities for "empathetic moments" among students. Adding images and sound help to fully imagine another person's immigration experience as evidenced in this from the 2013 winner of the American Immigration Council's Multimedia Contest . Digital storytelling offers the advantage of authentic engagement to reach multiple learning styles as well as to teach writing skills while exploring connections and understandings to an issue that affects everyone.

Establish a Culture of Listening and Respect

Being able to tell one's immigration story can be especially important for recently immigrated students who are trying to adapt to a new life in the US while maintaining ties to their home country. Marriage Family Therapy Intern, Jill Pettegrew, at Family Paths, a community mental health agency that serves a multi-cultural population, including many immigrant children and families, says, "Telling stories of their homeland, culture, family, and friends helps bring these parts of themselves present. While some immigrant students may be trying to forget their past, especially if it involves traumatic experiences, telling stories of the things they love about their homeland can help keep the good memories separate from challenging memories."She advises teachers "to work closely with immigrant students as they craft their stories for presentation, and prevent the retelling of traumatizing events," adding that "a child should be referred to counseling if stories of trauma emerge during the process."

A foundation of listening and respect must be in place so that any student does not feel excluded, or at worst, ashamed. A former undocumented student, now a U.S. citizen, shared a decidedly "unempathetic" moment with me about a well-intentioned family history project she experienced in third-grade.The teacher asked everyone to create posters about their family history, but it was painfully clear to her that only she and one other student had recently immigrated. "Everyone else was from America.I dreaded it."Luckily, the other student presented first and was so proud of her cultural heritage, that it "empowered me to do the same."

Create "Empathetic Moments" by Modeling, Conferencing, and Sharing

Teachers can lead by example and share their own family's immigration story thereby taking that vulnerable first step.Even better is to write alongside students - modeling the writing process from research and inquiry to drafting and editing.Brian Kelley, an eighth grade teacher, uses this method with his students and blogs about his process in the classroom.He demonstrates his discoveries and writes alongside his students and provides frequent opportunities for peer and teacher conferences. Kelley says he finds " empathy arises when students linger to share something with me one on one, in written drafts as they develop their thinking, and during conferencing." They are also encouraged to talk at home, bring in artifacts, and of course, more stories." By writing about family heritage and immigration with my students," Kelley says, "my chain of empathy is available for students to connect with and learn from."

Perhaps what is difficult about teaching empathy is that it can be hard to provide evidence of it in our data-driven age.It's the kind of thing that you know when you see it, or more importantly, feel it. One student in Kelley's classroom wrote that "my mother always gives me examples of her patience, like how she had to wait a few years for my father to be able to take her to America. The worst story she ever tells is how she had to leave me in China for three years. I can only wonder what pain a mother would feel if she had to leave her child voluntarily behind, and the patience needed to continue on in life."

Students cultivate empathy by sharing, listening, and connecting to other immigration stories. Consider viewing finished digital stories by hosting a movie night open to family and community members, or by providing a gallery-walk and listening tour in your school.If you are looking for ideas and how-tos, the American Immigration Council's provides a step-by-step customizable plan for classrooms as well as ways to collaborate with other teachers. Crossing Borders with Digital Storytelling What are other ways to support and share students' digital stories on immigration and create "empathetic" moments?

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How Digital Storytelling about Immigration Creates Empathetic Moments

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Teaching empathy is not like teaching how to determine the central idea of a text, but it is just as essential, if not more so, to educating youth.As Elena Aguilar wrote recently in " How Reading Literature Cultivates Empathy ," "there's enough evidence in our world today that we need

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A technique for beginning writers to think of 3 supporting details and 1 concluding sentence about a topic in a graphic organizer.

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Creative Commons Background Home /Image Searching CopyrightFriendlyThumbnails Music Sound effects Image generators MakeYourOwnMedia Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education Avatar Makers Concept Mapping eTexts and OpenCurriculum NonFictionFilm (not all copyright-friendly) Graphing Tools MLA Style Sheet Research Guide Virtual Library

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Metropolitan Museum of Art

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online

Georgia O'Keefe East River from the Shelton Hotel 1928

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2011 Winner of American Immigration

Council's Celebrate America Creative

Writing Contest

Exemplar using WeVideo

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Digital Storytelling for Teachers Presentation on Prezi

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Digital Storytelling for Teachers Presentation on Prezi

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American Immigration Council

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Quickwrite
Objectives:
understand what a digital story is, why it's valuable, & the steps to develop one
create their own digital story
learn tools & resources that support student's digital stories

in order to develop a class project

What is digital storytelling?

Roland, C. (2006). Digital stories in the classroom. School Art,105(7), 26.
7 Elements of a Digital Story

1. Point of View
2. Dramatic Question
3. Emotional Content
4. The Gift of Voice
5. The Power of Soundtrack
6. Economy
7. Pacing
2. Find Some Media
Three Steps to Making Digital Stories
1. Outline a Story Idea
2. Find Some Media
3. Pick a Tool to Tell Your Story
Amplify with Image and Sound
See the padlet: http://padlet.com/Immigration101/l387zdr4w5z1

Image Recommendations:
Photos for Class (G Rated, Creative Commons, Automatic Attribution
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs

Audio: A lot of digital storytelling platforms have built-in audio, so why fuss over it?

(Tip: know that image searching takes a lot of time and some
platforms even allow for drawing so you may want to limit slides for students you think will take a lot of time)
.
3. Pick a Tool to Tell Your Story
No tool will be perfect.
Consider:
How easy is it to use?
How would it tell your story?
Is it appropriate for students?

Recommendations: Little Bird Tales, WeVideo, Animoto
1. Outline a Story Idea
Lead with the Narrative
Pre-Write:
Ask questions. Peak Curiosity. Write with students.
Webbing, Journaling, Diagramming,Drawing, Listing, Family Trees, Turn and Talks...

Example: Family Heritage & Immigration (
some

adapted from NPR's StoryCorp Great Questions list)

What is your ethnic background?
Where are your various family members from? Has anyone ever visited there?
What traditions have been passed down and still exist? What traditions have been lost through the years?
Who are/were your favorite relatives when you were a child or adolescent?
Do you remember any favorite family stories that a specific family member loved telling?
What is "American" about you?

Crossing Borders:
How to Create Digital Stories with Students

Do you have a favorite family story about your heritage that a specific family member loved telling?

Write a 5 min story as you remember hearing it or as the person telling it.
At the end of our sessions, TWBAT...
It's a multimedia movie that combines photographs, video, animation, sound, music, text, and often uses a narrative voice.
Why do you think it's useful for the classroom?
builds & strengthens reading/writing skills
allows for exploration & creativity
creates a space for listening, understanding, empathy as students connect with each other & the stories
develops presentation skills
engages students!
adapted from Joe Lambert, Center for Digital Storytelling
How does this story capture the
7 elements?
Ana González-Dorta "
The Immigrant: From Immigration to Integration
"

2015 American Immigration Council
Multimedia Contest Entry
When viewing models with students, you might ask them different variations of this question:
what they like/don't like
choose a focal point of writing
choose one element
Credit: http://50ways.wikispaces.com
Walk the Walk Teacher's Blog
Brian Kelley
Focus on an Essential Question
What does it mean to be an American?
www.celebrateamerica.org
Read examples of good, short writing
(excerpts or poems)
Connect...
...to what you're reading in class.
... to students.

Recommended Mentor Texts:
"Flashcards" - Rita Dove
"Dusting" - Julia Alvarez
"Those Winter Sundays" - Robert Hayden
Winners from our previous Celebrate
America contest

(family heritage, individual/cultural identity)
Storyboards
You don't have to. The most important part is to write a good story.

But if you want to or think your students will benefit:
storyboardthat.com
make your own and/or use index cards (one per scene with a few words of what you might read)
adapt a personal narrative organizer

Little Bird Tales
WeVideo

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Automatic Attribution Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Audio

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American Immigration Council Multimedia Contest Entry When

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Crossing Borders with Digital Storytelling

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QuickwriteObjectives:understand what a digital story is, why it's valuable, & the steps to develop onecreate their own digital story learn tools & resources that support student's digital stories in order to develop a class project What is digital storytelling? Roland, C. (2006). Digital stories in the classroom.

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Graphic Organizers for Personal Narratives (PREWRITING)

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Graphic Organizers for Personal Narratives (PREWRITING)

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K-5 Scholastic

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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NWP ELA teacher blogs about his process of creating family heritage digital stories and podcasts with middle school students and on his own. Also focuses on the teacher writing alongside students as emphasized by the National Writing Project.

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My first mentor teacher, Bernie, kept a manilla folder on each student and walked the aisles, every day, folders in hand. When he checked homework, he recorded a plus or a minus on each student's folder. When students submitted work, each sheet went into a folder.

Every two weeks or so, Bernie emptied the folders into individual portfolios in a cabinet (or returned the work he no longer needed) so that the folders he carried up and down the aisles never grew too thick, too heavy. If he scored something with a number or a letter, that also went on the outside of the folder.

Every week, Bernie transcribed the records from the outsides of his folders into his grade book. That was his system, and it worked for him. He was organized and diligent. This was 1993. We did not have computers in our classrooms for students. Teachers did not have an individual computer in their classrooms. Record keeping happened with pen and paper. Writing, for the most part, happened at home.

Almost 25 years later, my memory locks onto Bernie's fastidious record keeping on manilla folders. That couldn't be all I "learned" from student teaching...was everything reduced to that one memory?

Wanting to dig deeper, I started a list of what I remember:

-Bernie served in the Peace Corps in Brazil.
-In 1993, he was writing a novel based on his experiences in Brazil.
-He kept a theoretical chart of the consistency of symbolism. He had sketched it out for himself: midnight, winter, December/January, black, blue all aligned in the same way that 3pm, summer, red and yellow, and June/July all aligned. His chart had a dozen different layers of details...much more than I can recall.
-Bernie telephoned my parents to tell them how well I did as a student teacher.
-As a parting gift, he bought me a first edition of a novel he loved: Butterfield 8, by John O'Hara.
-He wore a jacket and a tie every day.

-He told me he worked at being a better teacher every day, every year. He said it took effort.
-He coached soccer at various points of his career.
-We taught Lord of the Flies and Romeo and Juliet. We taught The Scarlet Letter.
-Bernie was highly respected by his colleagues. Accordingly, his colleagues treated me very well and always spoke with great admiration about Bernie. They were pleased that they knew him, that they worked with him, and that I got to be his mentee.

The thing is, I don't remember anything about how we taught.

I don't remember great lessons or failed lessons. I don't remember teaching strategies. I just remember scattered fragments of content. And I remember how Bernie was, who Bernie was. I remember the great respect he afforded me, but I especially recall the great respect he gave to the profession.

In retrospect, I don't remember Bernie conferring with students or working or getting to know them. I don't recall ever seeing the students write or seeing them read. This isn't to say that it did not happen--I just did not experience it when it did happen or my memory fails me. While Bernie was a writer, I don't remember his sharing that fact (or his writing processes) with the students. I don't recall Bernie writing in front of them.

But the one thing I still carry with me is Bernie's affect--his control and confidence in who he was and what he offered in the classroom. I remember trying to process what Bernie meant about trying to be better every day...did he mean that his record keeping became more efficient? Did he mean that he grew smarter about the novels? I didn't really know, and even today I can only surmise from a different point in my life.

Bernie was true to his spirit, his style. He knew how to make himself--who he was--most effective for his students. And, it seemed at the time, that many of his colleagues also had that trait...they seemed to enjoy that they worked with people who were different than they were. Teacher A wasn't trying to be like Teacher B. Teaching wasn't standardized even though the content was. It was ok to teach to your strengths.

Maybe my one significant take-away from student teaching is just that-- maintaining control and confidence in who I am in an escalating climate of assessment, judgement, and policy. Maintaining control and confidence comes from action. Taking control over who we are fuels our confidence.

Maybe the best we can all hope for, after leaving student teaching, is remembering one key thing. Maybe we are so overwhelmed by all of it that our brain does not know which kernels of experience are so valuable that we must remember them forever.

Maybe we don't really know what to see, what to hear. Or maybe a teaching career does have to begin with content, and maybe growth only comes with practice and experience. There are no magic packets or workbooks. There are no magic techniques.

As a student teacher, I remember being so concerned with knowing the facts, knowing the books, knowing the answers, that the pedagogy often came a distant second. I didn't want to be wrong. I didn't want to get caught not knowing something. What if students asked a question that I could not answer?

The only energy I put into pedagogy was a reliance on how I remembered being taught as a student and what I observed when Bernie taught. I mimicked what I experienced and observed.

And I wonder what it was, in me, that flipped a switch to start to grow, to seek change, to find a process that would help me become a better teacher later in my career. The thing about Bernie is that I met him towards the end of his career. I don't know how Bernie started. I don't know how Bernie grew. Yet, I remember Bernie telling me that the previous year was his best year of teaching. I remember being surprised. Thirty years into the profession, Bernie only just felt that he had a great year.

As I reflect on that experience, I am reminded that we may never master this thing we do, teaching; yet, that does not mean that we just settle on being who we were when we started.
Even though policy and climate may shift from year to year, it is incumbent on me to take responsibility to grow and change from year to year while retaining the confidence and control of who I am and who I can still become in this profession. I cannot wait for guidance to make me better. I cannot wait for top-down Professional Development to make me better. Growth, confidence, and control are all within my power and, quite honestly, what makes up much of my being professional in this vocation is what I do--taking responsibility for my actions and development.

I wonder, what have you taken with you from student teaching or your first classroom experience?

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My first mentor teacher, Bernie, kept a manilla folder on each student and walked the aisles, every day, folders in hand. When he checked homework, he recorded a plus or a minus on each student's folder. When students submitted work, each sheet went into a folder.

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Seven Elements presented by Stony Brook Libraries

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Research & Subject Guides: Digital Composition, Storytelling & Multimodal Literacy: What Is Digital Composition & Digital Literacy?

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Resources for digital composition, storytelling and multimodal literacy.

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7 words digital story

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You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.

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Favorite piece - sets expectations for teachers well and offers resources (edutopia)

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Digital stories, now both easy to produce and simple to publish, are an ideal way to energize learning and engage students at a deeper level. Digital storytelling creates space for students to pursue topics about which they are passionate, grows their learning around assigned topics, and showcases their learning for peers, teachers, and audiences beyond the schoolhouse, all of whom are able to interact with the storyteller. To allow the power of story to blossom in learning spaces, it is necessary to focus on a few factors that can maximize its effect.

Create Space for Listening

The world is full of story -- just look at the fire-hose blast of Snapchat images, YouTube videos, and those moments of binge-watching Netflix. The noise of this digital information can be overwhelming. It can create a numbness to the outside world and limit the ability to retain and reflect on essential learning. Because of this, places of learning must be places of listening that allow time and space for the speed of life to be digested in a meaningful way. How have you practiced listening to story as a teacher, and how have you created this space for students? The power of digital story comes from the power of the audience that is genuinely engaged in listening to its message.

Persuade with the Head and the Heart

Digital story works because it fills our heads with engaging emotional rhetoric and paves a compelling reason to act or think differently. Emotion alone doesn't make digital story, as the names, faces, and numbers of the situation round out the message. Without the intellectual hook, the emotional plea can sound hollow and appear to be built on a flimsy foundation. The unique nature of digital story -- with its quick visual displays of information coupled with its engaging images of people, place, and planet -- provides the ideal media for amplifying the impact that comes from seamlessly weaving together these areas.

Lead with the Narrative

Great digital stories are rooted in their narrative. The beauty of digital story is that the narrative follows the same story arc that has always been a part of oral and written story. Helping kids become great presenters and great writers will support their proficiency as digital story creators.

Amplify with Images

A thousand words isn't the true power of images. Great images link story elements, humanize the abstract, and force the audience to see invisible people and places. Images are a gateway into the soul of stories. Digital story creators need to select each image with the same intentionality that each word is chosen for the narrative. Beautiful images allow digital stories to be remembered by more people in a deeper way.

Nurture the Process

Classrooms, schools, and districts that are rich in story will better support the learning of students who are already living in a culture of digital storytelling. Teachers, students, and community members need to feel an environment for learning that promotes voice, shares best practices, and celebrates the best of learning. In addition, the best of digital storytelling comes from the art of iteration. Success comes from publishing, revising, editing, analyzing, and tinkering with the craft. Allow time for adults and students to be a part of this powerful practice.

Understand the Tools

The quality and quantity of web-based tools for creating, designing, and making incredible digital story continues to grow. It is important for classrooms and schools to choose a few tools that work for them based on ease, accessibility, and cost, and take the time to really understand those tools both with and without content wrapped around their use. Currently, there are excellent stories being created using online tools like WeVideo and the editing tools within YouTube. Others are using iPhoto, Garageband, and iMovie to craft stunning digital stories that elicit strong emotion from audiences around the globe. In this process, students also have a chance to learn about the importance of using Creative Commons videos and properly crediting artists for their intellectual property. Some excellent student examples of these tools in action can be seen in Emma Bright's "My Defining Moment", MRH Middle School's "Dauphin Island Reflection", and Ollie J.'s "Eleven by Sandra Cisnaros".

Today's best tools for digital story will quickly become relics, so it is also essential to stay in the conversation, listen to what other educators are doing, and see what kids are using in their own creation space, so that the tools and features being used to create story will stay fresh.

Finally, it is essential to share story, personal and professional, successes and failures, because story inspires story. As we see through the beauty of digital story, idea generation, inspiration, and collaboration can only grow. And, in a larger sense, best practices in education will grow and scale whenever we all release trapped or siloed wisdom into the system.

How are you using the power of digital story in your classroom or school?

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Digital stories, now both easy to produce and simple to publish, are an ideal way to energize learning and engage students at a deeper level. Digital storytelling creates space for students to pursue topics about which they are passionate, grows their learning around assigned topics, and showcases their learning for peers, teachers, and audiences beyond the schoolhouse, all of whom are able to interact with the storyteller.

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Little Bird Tales System Requirements & Account Differences

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Little Bird Tales System Requirements & Account Differences

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What are the system requirements to run littlebirdtales.com?

Generally any computer with:
Internet access
Flash version 10.2 or higher

What browsers are supported?

Chrome
Firefox 3 or higher
Safari 4 or higher
Internet Explorer 7 or higher

Does your site work with Chromebooks?

Yes.

Do you have an iPad/iPhone app?

Yes. You can find it on Apple's app store.

Is there a page limit for a tale?

The page allowance is only limited by how much storage space you have left. The larger the image and the longer you record, the fewer pages you will be able to create in total.

Is there a maximum recording time?

Each recording on a page can be a maximum of three minutes and as long as there is storage space available.

Possibility to create lessons (up to3 without teacher premium account $24.99/yr) and align to a standard
Cannot make tales public unless you have premium account, but you can make a class and you can have them share with you.

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College of Liberal Arts | University of Minnesota

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Immigrant Stories helps recent immigrants and refugees create digital stories: brief videos with images, text, and audio about a personal experience. The IHRC shares and preserves these digital stories for future generations through the IHRC Archives, the Minnesota Digital Library, and the Digital Public Library of America.

Over 250 stories representing more than 50 different communities are now part of the Immigrant Stories Collection. A National Endowment for the Humanities grant is now helping us collect stories with our story-making website.

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Immigrant Stories helps recent immigrants and refugees create digital stories: brief videos with images, text, and audio about a personal experience. The IHRC shares and preserves these digital stories for future generations through the IHRC Archives, the Minnesota Digital Library, and the Digital Public Library of America.

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Prints & Photographs Division

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Civil War

Explore the faces, places and events of the U.S. Civil War through photographs, prints and drawings in one online location.

The Prints & Photographs Division holds thousands of images relating to the Civil War, found in many different collections. This category allows research across those collections in one easy search.

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The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials as a contribution to education and scholarship.

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"My Grandfather Ben" Maya Young, 2011 American Immigration Council Celebrate America Writing Contest Winner

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"My Grandfather Ben" Maya Young, 2011 American Immigration Council Celebrate America Writing Contest Winner

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Exemplar using Little Bird Tales

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Little Bird Tales - "My Grandfather Ben"

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Little Bird Tales: Capture the Voice of Childhood. We offer a fun,unique way to create,record and share stories online. Kids can make drawings,upload photos or artwork and record their voice online,creating a slideshow format book,then share it with family and friends as gifts or a keepsake. Environmentally friendly and great for schools,too.

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Free -- 30 seconds only

started video but couldn't finish

not worth it unless you upgrade to educator or non-profit

educators - need to provide school info, non-profits - need charity #; application can take weeks to allow

really like call-to-action button

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Animoto is a free classroom tool for educators, students, and administrators. Easily create and share videos with your class, with parents, and beyond. No software downloads required.

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Quickly create introductions, recaps, educational videos, and more with our fast and easy video maker.

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Students can create unlimited videos on their free accounts. Assign projects and promote higher-order thinking in your classroom.

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School administrators can create and share marketing videos for social media, email lists, and school fundraising events in a matter of minutes.

Upgrade to Animoto Professional to remove the Animoto branding, and gain access to additional fonts, colors and songs. You'll also find premium features like customizable branded watermarks, and 1080p downloads.

Create and share videos for free. Upgrade anytime for more customization.

Have a question? We've got answers! Visit our Help Center and find FAQs and tutorials that'll help you make better videos.

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Classroom Video Maker | Make Videos for School Free

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Teachers, students, and administrators can easily create and share teaching videos with Animoto's classroom video maker. Get started for free!

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What is your ethnic background?

Where is your mom’s family from?

Where is your dad’s family from?

Have you ever been there?

What was that experience like?

What traditions have been passed down in your family?

Who were your favorite relatives?

Do you remember any of the stories they used to tell you?

What are the classic family stories? Jokes? Songs?

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Stories from people of all backgrounds and beliefs

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Safe G-rated

Creative Commons license

Automatic citation

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Search now to download properly attributed, Creative Commons photos for school!

Teachers have told us they need a place to access safe images that are available to be used in the classroom and for educational purposes. Plus, they want accurate image citations. We’ve heard you and created “Photos For Class” to meet your needs for images!

Age Appropriate Images - All images are appropriate for the school setting, thanks to Flickr and Pixabay SafeSearch and our proprietary filters - Read More

Automatic Citation - Downloaded images automatically cite the author and the image license terms - Read More

Creative Commons - All photos shown are, to the best of our (and Flickr's / Pixabay's) knowledge, licensed by Creative Commons for public use

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Photos For Class - The quick and safe way to find and cite images for class!

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The World’s easist way to search for safe, creative commons images and cite them.

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Moovly - Create videos and video presentations

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Make your own explainer video, animation or YouTube intro in less than 15 minutes!

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Have fun choosing from our huge selection of free images, video clips and audio.

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The Easy Online Tool for Animated Video | Moovly

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Make your own explainer video, animation or YouTube intro in less than 15 minutes! Over 600.000 free templates, videos, animations and sounds Or use your own material and upload your own media Easy to use drag and drop interface Edit directly in your desktop browser Start now It's easy and fun!

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My story, My life, My journey | Samantha Boateng

Tells her parents' (love) story about immigrating from Ghana and how that led to her life in the US.

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My story, My life, My journey | Samantha Boateng

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American Immigration Council's 'Change in Motion' Multimedia Contest 2015. My Story, My life, My journey by Samantha Boateng

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Stephen Ko

Mixes personal immigration story with larger immigration theme of salad v melting pot

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american immigration council’s ‘change in motion’ multimedia contest 2015

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Rita Dove reads her poem FLASH CARDS (from her poetry collection GRACE NOTES, 1989); the animation was produced for Lifetime TV in 1994.

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include: scene/image, brief plot description

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Images

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Flickr | The best place to be a photographer online.

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The nicest place on the internet is here for you: inspiration, community, creativity, art, passion, and a heaping scoop of weirdness await you. Join for free.

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See PBS NewsHour Challenge

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Edutopia: Digital Storytelling & Authentic Assessment

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Edutopia: Digital Storytelling & Authentic Assessment

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Children love telling stories, and these apps will keep them creatively engaged, as well as providing means for assessing and sharing their products.

Digital storytelling is a powerful way to engage students in the writing process. Whether they are telling stories from a summer vacation or writing a persuasive essay on a community issue, technology tools can help motivate reluctant writers. Students can use their writing, audio recordings, video creations, illustrations, and images to create a digital storytelling product that demonstrates their understanding of a concept.

Enhancing Creativity

Authentic assessments are essential in order for students to develop 21st century skills. Students should be able to create products with a purpose and for an audience. We hear so much about real-world tasks, especially in discussions around Common Core English language arts. Digital storytelling can be used to connect students to local and global audiences, and provide a sense of purpose for their work.

When we think of digital storytelling, it is often connected to narrative writing. The idea of students recounting a personal experience or sharing a special moment from their lives can clearly be enhanced with multimedia content. Children might create an interactive book that includes a video reflection or photographs from a field trip. Apps like Book Creator and Book Writer give students of all ages the power to become storytellers. As they explore the other writing types (argumentative and informational), they can also create digital products that transform their writing.

Opinion or argument writing can benefit from the multimedia enhancements offered by technology tools. Students can take persuasive essays and create public service announcements, combining videos they've created with Tellagami or ChatterPix into a short clip that supports the argument outlined in their writing. Your elementary school students might use their own voice and add pictures of book covers to give a recommendation, while older students can use video clips and images that support their argument on a community issue. An informative piece of writing, like an ABC book on animal habitats or a step-by-step guide that describes a science experiment, can also benefit from the multimedia features available in a digital storytelling tool. Students can use SnapGuide to include videos and pictures as they describe different steps of a process. Explain Everything is a fantastic screencasting tool that lets students draw on an image like a map or photograph as they point out different features of the animal or ecosystem that they studied for a research report.

Digital storytelling products are all about the objective. This objective might be a similar task that you would normally give students with an expectation that they include a certain amount of multimedia in their final product. Depending on their age and ability, you can give them a choice of different apps or web tools, or walk them through one app that you've picked out for this project. All students can benefit from checklists and a rubric aligned to the task.

Stories That Get Around

The great thing about digital storytelling products is how easy they are to share. These authentic assessments showing a student's understanding of different writing types and craft skills can be made for a local or global audience. When we think about a local audience, picture something that stays inside a classroom or the walls of a school. You might decide to have students play their video creations for the class or during a celebration that family members have been invited to attend. Students can share eBooks they've created with a younger group of children, or add them to a shared set of iPads that are checked out in your media center or library.

Sharing with a global audience can motivate your students to produce something they are truly proud of while demonstrating their mastery of an objective. Many digital storytelling products include "shareable" links to a particular creation that's hosted online. This is true of videos created with Adobe Voice, animated movies made with Toontastic, or screencasts recorded with PixiClip. All of these give you a link to view student creations. With this link, you and your students can share their final products on a class Twitter account, a school Facebook page, or a teacher's blog. Products can be linked to a QR code or augmented reality trigger to be sent home in a district newsletter, or they can be attached to a bulletin board for school visitors. You can even take a student-created ebook and upload it to the iBookstore for anyone to read and enjoy anywhere.

Dedicating time to talking about audience, whether local or global, is so important when introducing a task to students. Letting them know who will benefit from their how-to guide, who might listen to their persuasive argument, or who could hear their favorite story will motivate young writers. Make sure to spread the word about your students' great work to other teachers in your school or to the world on social media. Whether the audience is large or small, students will engage in a task when they know who is listening.

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Digital Storytelling and Authentic Assessments | Edutopia

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Children love telling stories, and these apps will keep them creatively engaged, as well as providing means for assessing and sharing their products. Digital storytelling is a powerful way to engage students in the writing process. Whether they are telling stories from a summer vacation or writing a persuasive essay on a community issue, technology tools can help motivate reluctant writers.

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Edutopia: How to Use Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

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Edutopia: How to Use Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

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This how-to article accompanies the feature " Film School: Making Movies From Storyboard to Screen."

Storytelling is a vital skill with seemingly unlimited applications. Done well, it can have a magical effect -- moving, enlightening, or entertaining audiences of any size. We tell stories to woo lovers, calm children, or reassure ourselves. Lawyers rely on the power of storytelling to vividly re-create crimes to juries, archaeologists conjure former civilizations, and teachers make abstract concepts real to their students.

In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is a favorite classroom tool, and the affordability and accessibility of technology such as iMovie provides opportunities not imagined twenty years ago. Joe Fatheree and Craig Lindvahl, two teachers who have made seven films between them and who teach filmmaking workshops to educators, say that even when teachers are comfortable with the technology, they don't often feel confident about teaching the art of storytelling. But they probably know more than they think, say Fatheree and Lindvahl, who offer the following advice to help teachers:

1. Learn from what you watch.

Think of movies you adore, movies you could watch again and again. What makes them so effective? Is it the dialogue, the character development, the way shots are framed? Likewise, consider movies so bad they make you squirm. Just why are they so excruciating? Work with your students to dissect several well-known films; you'll soon find yourselves with several categories that fall under the rubric of storytelling techniques. You will be amazed at how much you already know.

2. See technology as a storytelling tool, not as a teaching goal.

Though students need some knowledge of how to use equipment, teaching about technology should never be the focus of the curriculum. Simple editing programs such as iMovie are intuitive and easy to learn. If you have a camera or phone and a computer, you're ready to go; your creative aspirations will drive your technology learning curve. Once you think of an element you want to include that requires more advanced software or gear, you'll be compelled to learn how to use it.

3. Allow your students to push you (and lead you).

Don't be intimidated if your students learn faster than you do. Many of them are accustomed to quickly absorbing technology. Use their aptitude to your advantage by letting students teach each other; you'll find that they show their strengths fairly quickly. Within a class, you'll have great writers, editors, camera operators, and technicians. They can improve their weaker points while using their strengths to help others (including you).

4. Learn by trial and error.

Accept the fact that you will spend a portion of your time scratching your head, wondering, "Why won't that work?" Seek out resources where you can post questions and get answers quickly. ( Creative Cow is an excellent online destination; it has sections for virtually every kind of production and postproduction software and hardware.) Every glitch will build your technology savvy until you get to the point where you can anticipate the kinds of problems students will have. Take heart in remembering that most great filmmakers come from a creative background, not a technical one; they depend on others to make technology work on their behalf.

5. Give your students freedom, but hold them accountable.

Kids are not used to the kind of freedom they'll need to do great creative work. Some will thrive in that environment, others will require close supervision to make sure they complete their projects. One good way to do this is to have students pitch a one-paragraph description of their project and provide a production schedule. In essence, it's a work contract.

6. Consider yourself the executive producer.

Work with your students as a partner learning about technology and storytelling, but don't forget that you call the shots. You have to be the arbiter of good taste and the studio boss who decides whether an idea is production worthy. Serving in this role as a teacher is actually much easier than it is for a real-live executive producer, because students naturally look to you for leadership.

7. Don't forget to celebrate your students' work.

Whether you show completed projects to the class alone or to the entire school or even the whole community, present the stories your students tell. There's a good chance their work will be much more professional than you expect, and light-years beyond what your community might anticipate. A great side benefit of public showings is that your students will take their work very seriously. The knowledge that others are going to see it (and you can't hide C-quality work on a big screen) has been the source of tremendous inspiration for filmmakers for a hundred years.

Jennifer New is a writer and educator in Iowa City, Iowa. Her latest book is Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art.

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How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom | Edutopia

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This how-to article accompanies the feature " Film School: Making Movies From Storyboard to Screen." Storytelling is a vital skill with seemingly unlimited applications. Done well, it can have a magical effect -- moving, enlightening, or entertaining audiences of any size. We tell stories to woo lovers, calm children, or reassure ourselves.

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Edutopia: the Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

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Edutopia: the Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

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The first time I saw Ken Burns's documentary series The Civil War, I was captivated. He used old photos and personal letters to bring this part of our history to life and touch our hearts while we learned. Storytelling has been a form of communicating throughout the history of humanity and was a way to educate the younger generations.

We tell stories to children to introduce them to literature. As teachers, we are inspired, impressed, touched, and altogether enlightened with the digital stories we see. Whether on the Web, in a class, or just among friends, I enjoy them so much that when I have a little spare time, I search for new stories and replay several of my favorites. Like little jewels, they brighten my day.

There is an art to storytelling and a sequence to unfolding the story to the end. In the process of storytelling, we become more creative, gain speaking skills, and improve our verbal organizing skills and our ability to empathize. Now, with digital stories, pictures enhance storytelling's visual communication and appeal. The process includes planning, writing, editing, illustrating, and producing the components so that we communicate the heartfelt essence, not just the events.

Children are often bursting to tell their stories, and many teachers want to help them to become good storytellers. In working with hundreds of teachers, I have found that they would like resources and strategies to aid them in this task.

I would like to use the Spiral Notebook as a place to share good ideas and resources for developing storytelling in all levels of our culture and to make it even easier to tell our stories with technology. There are hundreds of guides, forms, software solutions, and examples to choose from. Each week, I will present a scenario and ask for your suggestions. Here is the one for this week:

In this week's case, a second-grade teacher wants to use storytelling in her curriculum but is too busy to help all twenty-five children individually. She decides her storytellers need listeners and help with their scripts. She collaborates with a fifth-grade teacher, and the older students are trained as listeners and scribes to listen to the stories and help the younger ones write or sequence their stories. On this Web site, she sees the Edutopia magazine article, "How To: Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom."

What would you suggest for next steps? We now have many helpful guides, software programs, and other resources to help us create and share digital stories. What are your recommendations to help primary teachers who want to use digital stories in their curriculum? Do you have a favorite Web site or training guide, or software recommendations, to get teachers and younger children started?

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The Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: Telling Stories With Technology | Edutopia

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The first time I saw Ken Burns's documentary series The Civil War, I was captivated. He used old photos and personal letters to bring this part of our history to life and touch our hearts while we learned. Storytelling has been a form of communicating throughout the history of humanity and was a way to educate the younger generations.

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Free but also offer a $4/mo premium plan which is recommended for adding subtitles and and ease of editing (export limit = 1 hr/month) Educator plan = $149/6mo (offers classroom package + analytics)

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Free Online Video Editor | Interactive Video | WeVideo

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The #1 video editor for schools, businesses, and solopreneurs. Create professional-looking multimedia projects with powerful, easy-to-use tools. Try free today!

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How to Create a Digital Story - 2 min video tutorial

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WeVideo Academy | Tutorials and How-To Information

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Find tutorials and information about video editing and WeVideo features. Learn how to make video edits, add music to movies, or find project ideas.

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Recommended Digital Story Tools

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Recommended Audio and Visual Tools

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https://www.storyboardthat.com/portal/storyboards/sburnett/classroom-template/good-money-storyboard

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Tool to create digital storyboards, templates, and manage your class

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Rostering

Compatible with popular learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Clever, Canvas, ClassLink, and Schoology, Storyboard That makes organizing your students, classes, and assignments a breeze. In addition, sharing assignments with students and keeping track of their progress is as easy as clicking a button.

Real Time Collaboration

Knowing how to work together is an important part of a child's education. Students will love working in pairs and in small groups on the same storyboard!

Want your students to add writing to their storyboards? We've got tons of options for speech and text.

The storyboard creator free trial for teachers allows you to try out all of the premium features for two weeks. Thousands of copyable activities, worksheets, and posters are yours to use and keep in your storyboard library. Educators love Storyboard That because it helps students process and understand the information in a deep, meaningful way. When students storyboard, they are actively engaged in the learning process and can make connections between the text and their own lives.

Storyboards also promote higher-level thinking by encouraging students to synthesize information and think critically about what they have read. Finally, storyboards are a great way to assess student understanding because they provide a visual representation of student learning.

Storyboard That is the perfect tool for novel lesson plans and activities because it's so easy to use and extremely versatile. With Storyboard That, you can create a wide variety of storyboards such as the story from the main character's perspective, or any other character's point of view.

By combining the storyboard maker with your lesson plans, you can adhere to the curriculum and required standards, while ensuring that your students will be engaged and excited to learn. Another added bonus is that our premade lesson plans are aligned with the Common Core!

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Free Storyboarding Software - Online Storyboard Creator | StoryboardThat

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Create storyboards with our free storyboard software! ⚡ Try 1 month for $1 ✩ Filmmakers, teachers, students, & businesses all love using ❰Storyboard That❱ for storyboarding & comics online!

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Brainstorm an idea and WRITE!

Suggested topics:

"Why I'm Glad to Be An American" American Immigration Council 5th Grade Writing Contest There

What's your family heritage/story?

What does it mean to be an American?

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1. Outline a Story Idea

2. Find Some Media

3. Pick a Tool to Build Your Story

(Credit 50+Ways to Tell a Story - see below)

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50+ web tools you can use to create your own web-based story. Also has a simple how-to & multiple examples.