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.
○ 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).
○ 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:
a) 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.
b) 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.
○ 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.
○ 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.