Jackie Pop – EDUC 5333 DIGITAL STORYTELLING PROJECT PLAN

• What story would you like to explore? (Ohler Chapter 2, 5, 6, & 7)

I would like to explore the story of Scout, my dog, learning to assimilate to her new home after
getting adopted.
o What type of story will you tell? What is the purpose or impact?
I plan to tell a personal story about my dog, Scout, from Scout’s point of view. This is a story
that will include prose that is easy for the audience to follow, like an essay, but if it were to be
put on the essay vs. poem spectrum, it would not land right on the essay side, but a bit more
towards the middle. The purpose of the story is to entertain the audience. The story should be
viewed passively, rather than actively (Ohler, 2013).
o What are the story elements?
The elements of this story are:
1. The Beginning: call to adventure: Scout finds herself among hundreds of other dogs at a
dog adoption event. After many people coming by to look at her, but failing to take the
next steps to adopt her, she loses hope about getting adopted, until a young girl finally
sees her and convinces her parents to adopt Scout. When Scout gets to her new home,
she learns that she is not the only dog present. She meets Koda and Cub, two dogs who,
for their own reasons, do not seem to want Scout around.
2. The Middle:
1. Problem/challenge: as a puppy who has never been trained and does not know
how to interact with other dogs, Scout finds herself wondering if she’ll ever fit in
with her new dog siblings. She does not know the proper ways to act around
Koda and Cub. She has accidents in the room that they share, she does not know
what “go potty” means, she gets herself into mischief, she does not know how to
walk on a leash, she barks at inanimate objects, and she gets all of the
attention. Scout feels as though Koda, the senior of the two dogs, gets annoyed
by her presence, and Cub gets jealous of her.
2. Transformation: Scout realizes that she needs to start making a better effort of
trying to fit in with the other dogs. She needs to learn from their actions and pay
attention to important details to avoid making the same mistakes that have been
leading her to feel isolated. She starts to learn the meaning of “go potty,”
including when and where she is supposed to go, she learns that each dog gets
assigned their own bowl of food –feeding time is not a free-for-all, she learns how
to walk on a leash without getting her brothers tangled up, and she learns that
Koda does not mind having her around when she is calm, but when she gets spurts
of energy, he would rather be left alone, but Cub is a good playmate. Scout
makes a transformation, which allows her to feel like she is starting to belong.
3. The End: Scout has learned how to adapt to her new living environment and now gets
along with her two brothers. She has gone through a transformation of character and has
assimilated to her new home, yet she is still able to be her former fun-loving, spunky,
quirky self.
o What approach will you take to mapping or developing your story?
I plan to develop my story through a few different steps. I plan to begin by creating a story map,
so that I can be able to better express the story’s essential elements (Ohler, 2013). After
finishing my story map, I plan to create a storyboard, so that I can sketch out each event of the
story and make sure my story stays on the right track.
• How might you use this story in an educational environment? (Ohler Chapter 3, 4,
5, 6, 7)
Since this story will be about my dog, from the dog’s first-person perspective, I can use this story
to teach my students about Point of View. Additionally, since this story’s purpose is for
entertaining, I can also use it to teach about Author’s Purpose, and Genre. Lastly, this story
contains an underlying message and theme. I can use this story to teach my students how to find
the themes and message of a story.
• What content and technology standards are addressed? (Ohler Chapter 3)
This story will address a few content and technology standards. It will address the ELA
standard: CSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event
sequences. The ISTE standard addressed is Standard 1.6 –Creative Communicator. This
standard says that students will use different platforms in a creative way to be able to
communicate and express themselves.
• What tools will you use to capture, edit, and communicate your story?
I plan to use photos that act as a slide show that depicts the different events in the story. I will
use a microphone to record myself as I narrate the story from Scout’s point of view.
o How will you produce your story (Ohler Chapter 3)
I will produce my story by completing the various steps needed to create a digital story, and then
by creating a slideshow-type of video that will automatically scroll through various photos that
are aligned to the story.
• How will you assess digital stories? (Ohler Chapter 3, 4, 7)
First, I will assess digital stories by having students complete a self-assessment of their own
work (Ohler, 2013) and then I will use rubrics and Ohler’s “List of Digital Story Evaluation
Traits” (Ohler, 2004) to assess the digital stories.

Instructor Feedback: “How might you use your story to support students to consider different
perspectives?”

Response to Instructor Feedback:

In Chapter three of Digital Storytelling (Ohler, 2013), Ohler discusses how digital
storytelling can be used as an educational tool in terms of content standards and literacy. One of
the California 4th grade ELA content standards, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3, says that
students will be able to write narrative to develop real or imagined experiences (Common Core,
2021). Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6 states that “students will be able to compare
and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference
between first- and third-person narrations” (Common Core, 2021). I can use my story to help
students better understand and consider the idea of perspective and point of view. My story is a
work of fiction, because it is a personal narrative, from the perspective of a dog. Even though I
am writing my story from a first-person point of view, I am not writing the story from my point
of view. My story can help students consider the creative twists that they can implement when it
comes to writing works of fiction.
References:

English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 4 | Common Core State Standards Initiative.
(2021). Corestandards.Org.
Ohler, J. (2013). Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy,
Learning, and Creativity (Second ed.). Corwin.