Post-demo letter
June 28, 2007
Dear SI 07 Fellows:
I am writing to thank you for your cooperation and participation during my demonstration on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my ideas with you.
I am pleased that your letters revealed content understanding as well as questions in the areas that were not totally clear to you.. This has already made me think of ways to improve my demonstration.
I did not give thought to the visually impaired students, because I have never had to deal with that issue and I thank you for bringing that concern to the forefront of my revision. I will be researching how to stimulate the visually impaired.
Also, I noticed that some did not understand parallelism. I did not realize that I had mentioned it without explaining it in the needed detail. As defined by Wikipedia, “Parallelism means to give two or more parts of the sentences a similar form so as to give the whole a definite pattern.” Harry Noden called it, “Repeating with a purpose.”
Further inquiries arose for some activities that may incorporate story boarding would be. Off the top of my head, I would say,
1. Breaking down text chapters to better understand them.
2. Students could story board to show their interpretation of the text.
3. Students could story board what they think may happen next (predict).
If there are any other suggestions out there I would like for them to be shared, too.
Lastly, you made me think of the extensions of the demonstration. I may go into the drafting/revision steps or discuss some of the conferencing that is used.
Your letters were delightfully insightful in that they showed me that which was not clear. Any further suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time and keep smiling,
Marsha
Marsha,
We used storyboards in our Digital Stories workshops that we’ve hosted in the past. In fact, in the midst of the technology, we’ve used posterboards, glue sticks, and scissors in a very traditional way. What has been interesting for me is in those experiences is that many of the teachers we’ve worked with have been reluctant to revise UNTIL they put their story on the board and then they start moving things all around because seeing the story as parts (instead of as a whole) and seeing it with image and text seems helpful!
Karen McComas
June 29, 2007