Ralph Tells A Story

One of the focuses of this week’s course work was on Storytelling. As a kindergarten teacher I am constantly thinking about children’s play and how I can support learning through that vehicle. In kindergarten, for a large portion of the year, most of children’s storytelling happens orally and through drawing. One thing I hadn’t really put much emphasis or thought on is using digital technology to support the creation for their stories. In the past I’ve listened to kids play and step in at the perfect moment where I can say, “How could we turn this story into a book?” We’d get out a little stapled booklet, crayons, and markets and begin drawing. I’ve found this is incredibly challenging for my students because they often cannot draw or sequence their stories in a way that allows them to share with their peers.

I recently watched a YouTube video (link down below) that inspired me to think about storytelling through a digital lens. The suggestion was to provide the child with a camera and have them consider what parts of their story they want to capture (e.g., the dragon swooping into the castle). Then the teacher prints each picture individually and has the child tell the story behind each photo. He or she then scribes the child’s ideas, it’s sequenced, printed, and then stapled into a book. I LOVE this idea, but it’s still problematic in the sense that other children won’t be able to access the text. I was thinking I could use SeeSaw to have the child take photos of their story and then use the audio feature to add their own voice over. Then we could share it on their portfolio so other kids could view their story. I’m excited and inspired to try. It’s so easy to be unintentional about using tech in the classroom and fall into the trap of just using it as a station. I’m exciting to jump into this new adventure and see where it leads.

The book I’m featuring in this post is called, “How To Write A Story” by Abby Hanlon. Ralph is forced to write stories everyday in writer’s workshop, but he never feels like anything exciting happens to him that’s worth writing about. With the help of his classmates, soon Ralph realizes he has loads of stories to write. This is a book that I read each year as I’m launching writer’s workshop and is always loved by the kids. Finding an idea for writing is challenging for a lot of kids, but this book will make them think differently about the everyday events that happen that are stories worth writing about.