Writing a story....

In a recent lecture we were asked to text in how we could make writing a story multimodal or empowering, or both I suppose. I didn't think I could give this task any justice in a text so I made this blog to share my ideas.

So how do you make writing a story multimodal? Before considering the answer look at what is being asked. Because we want to make this a multimodal task it should be noted that "writing", in the traditional sense of the word, sitting down with pen and paper, is not what is about to happen. the question should be interpreted as "creating a story".

Before setting the task of creating a story I would look at what I wanted the end product to be. I could have a story written or typed out, with maybe a picture or two to go with it. This would give me a chance to see how well the individual child is performing in their creative and writing skills. Perhaps I want a piece of drama acted out by members of the group. This would allow teamwork, creative thinking, writing skills if a scrip is required, and confidence building dramatic skills through performing the story. I could even have the story presented through video, a poem, song or just pictures.

What I will do for this scenario is assume that I'm not setting this work purely as a literacy task. My aim will be to empower the children to take control of their own learning (NCSL 2007). I would ask them to create a story, in groups, but I don't want to read it. I want it presented to me, and the rest of the class, in another form. This could be in a film, a play, as a choral speaking piece, a poem or song, or they could read it to the class themselves. Now this might seem like I'm asking allot but they will already have all the tools there to use. My idea is to have this as a final display of what they have learnt throughout the term.

This project could be run throughout the term covering nearly all areas of the curriculum. I shall just give a very brief overview of how each curriculum subject can be involved:

Literacy: Through literacy I would look at how stories are structured, what goes into them, what makes a good story and what kinds of stories there are. I would also look into

By looking at how stories are structured, how different cultures make and tell stories and how we tell stories today through film and drama, I could make the topic cover many different areas of the curriculum. By looking to all the different areas of story telling, seeing examples and even trying out their own ideas, the children would build up a knowledge bank of methods, ideas and structures concerning story creation and telling. This information could then be drawn upon when it is time for them to create their story. The creation of the story can be as multimodal as the children wish to make it but as they would have a wealth of information to draw from it would likely be a multimodal production.

The ideas in this post are only explained in brief and by a student so they may not work but I would certainly like to try.

NCSL(2007) Strategic Leadership in ICT, Nottingham, SLICT
Quinlan, O. (2011) "Throwing open the tool box" Oliver Quinlan: Learning, teaching, technology, 13 September. Available at: http://www.oliverquinlan.com/blog/ (Accessed: 7 October 2011)