As a teacher of English as a second language (ESL), I understand the need for English language learners (ELLs) to use their diverse talents in creative ways; moreover, I believe the biggest reward for these students comes when they feel a sense of ownership of the final product of an assignment. Several activities common to ESL classes, including readers' theater, life murals, language experience activities, and class-made publishing projects, involve ELLs in the processes of production, authoring, or publishing their own works (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). These can all be accomplished with the use of technology which can enhance the language learning outcomes because students are practicing skills with new media. For example, a new dynamic is added when readers' theater is recorded on video for a school Web site or when a student-made storybook is published in a virtual library online. Consequently, students are learning to differentiate their creativity for a variety of audiences and purposes which is a necessary skill for creating successful media projects.
While fostering creativity in a rigid educational system that values conformity through standards seems like a daunting task, I feel that it is necessary for teacher to make the attempt. Moreover, I feel there is a way to integrate language objectives with content learning in a way that students are being creative. Authoring and publishing can accomplish this, but can only be effective if the students have an understanding of the audience for that specific content (Norris & Soloway, 2010). Moreover, Sir Kenneth Robinson states (in his video "Can You Teach Creativity?") that creativity in a variety of fields, including math and science, can be assessed when the value placed on the output is viewed in a fitting domain. For example, a science experiment will demonstrate the language functions of a "how-to" essay as well as academic content, but should be created with the scientific community in mind. In this instance, the students have a clear understanding of the audience that will be viewing the creative product. Simply put, any author must know his or her audience.
As teachers we must become familiar with tools that aid the authoring process, but we must also impress the importance of content and audience on our students. Moreover, as feedback is an essential part of this process, we should want our students to feel verified in their output. This will help them gain a true sense of ownership of their product and a pride in their creativity.
ESL Methods & Multimedia Tools for Creative Authoring
Creative authoring can be done either individually or collectively, and both types of activities can be found in an ESL classroom. Furthermore, there are applications available that can transfer these activities to a digital setting. As mentioned above, the dynamic of these projects changes as students recognize their audience changes when their works "go digital." However, I would like to focus on how these ESL activities can be enhanced when published in a digital format.
Independently authored ESL projects include life murals and language experience activities (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). Life murals involve the creation of pictures pertaining "to significant events, people, and places" in the life of a student and serve as a scaffold to writing personal narratives. The language experience approach (Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Tinajero & Calderon, 1988, as cited in Peregoy & Boyle, 2005) involves student-dictated stories that are subsequently reread by the student and often illustrated for display in the classroom. As students are authoring and publishing their works from personal experience, they gain a sense of ownership over the words they choose and pride in their work. This provides an excellent scaffold towards the writing process. These activities can also be accomplished with storyboard/comic strip applications (e.g., Storyboard That, Comic Life), virtual bulletin boards (e.g., Padlet) and also animated software that aids in digital storytelling (e.g., iMovie, PowToon, Animoto). These apps allow their stories to become three-dimensional, and also expand their audience beyond the classroom display wall.
(Watch this digital story by an ESL student. She enjoys talking about her family and home culture.)
Collaborative authoring projects in ESL classes include reader's theater (i.e., stories scripted by the class for performance purposes) and collective publishing projects (i.e., class-written and designed books for publishing in a school library). These activities stem from ESL methodologies like Communicative Language Teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) that value natural communication as a means of acquiring language rather than the explicit teaching of grammar rules. In addition, they fulfill the "interaction" component of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2013, pp. 143-70). This component stresses hands-on activities and group work as a way of creating a stress-free and relaxed learning environment in which students are engaged and motivated, thus lowering the affective filter (Krashen, 1983). Readers' theater could be enhanced through technology if the student-plays are recorded and uploaded to a school Web site where their peers can view their accomplishments. Publishing projects like collectively authored books can be turned into digital storytelling (Sylvester & Greenidge, 2009) projects using applications like Animoto, PowToon, or iMovie. In both instances, the students are interacting with each other while also learning to use technology in a meaningful way.
(Watch this video on the "interaction" component of the SIOP Model. How can tools for creative authoring enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
Either individually or collaboratively, the scope of purpose and audience is expanded through the implementation of applications that allow for online publishing. Therefore, the creative aspect becomes closer to a process as described by Sir Robinson (Azzam, 2009). Consequently, effective scaffolding must be maintained, especially for ESL students. For instance, storyboarding and drafting can be done with paints and crayons before moving to the digital world. Technology can be a great resource for creativity and empowerment, but I believe the process should be taken in small steps so as not to frustrate young language learners.
Lastly, as these the final product of creative authoring projects includes the esthetics of design, illustration, video production, and/or performance, the knowledge and abilities of students can be assessed in a variety of ways. The "assessment" component of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2013, pp. 143-70) involves multidimensional and authentic assessments that demonstrate student output in ways that are not solely limited to a typically assessed modalities like reading and writing. Therefore, creative authoring applications provide excellent ways of assessing ELLs.
Multimedia Tools for Creative Authoring in an ESL Setting
Wikispaces:Wikispaces is a Web site that enables multiple users the ability to create and edit their own pages. Throughout the course of a unit, students can draft entries and select appropriate content as well as create links between pages. Therefore, projects designed in Wikispaces are collaboratively and creatively authored. Wikispaces offers ESL teachers the opportunity to assess ELLs in multiple ways. For example, student-written text demonstrates comprehension of academic content and the integration of multimedia can show how well students are proficient at Web design.
iMovie: This application is commonly used for digital storytelling (Sylvester & Greenidge, 2009) in a number of subjects and often espoused as having beneficial effect on struggling readers including ELLs. iMovie allows students to add voice-over narration to a slideshow of still images. These can be created to show comprehension of social studies topics like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Typical ESL digital storytelling projects involve individual students creating narratives about their personal experiences leaving their home countries and coming to live in America. These digital stories empower ELLs by giving them a voice and validating their home culture.
This Comic Life sample shows how a student used the application to create a comic strip of her heritage.
Comic Life: A creative way to enhance publishing projects like class-made books, life murals, and language experience activities would be to use the Comic Life application. Students can make their ideas come to life in a comic book format using this app. As students tell their own stories, they are validating their own experiences. Moreover, the linear nature of comic strips provide a scaffold for cognitive strategies like ordering details and sequencing events. As most children love comic books, Comic Life makes traditionally paper-based authoring more engaging.
Dr. Stephen Krashen's Home Page - For more information about Dr. Stephen Krashen and his theories on language acquisition, visit his Web site.
References
Azzam, A. M. (2009). Why creativity now? A conversation with Sir Ken Robinson. Teaching for the 21st Century, 67(1), 22-26.
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2013). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. A. M. Ramos (Ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York, NY: Pergamon Press.
Norris, C. A.,. & Soloway, E. M. (2013). Substantive educational change is in the palm of our children's hands. In Z. L. Berge & L. Y. Muilenburg (Eds.), Handbook of mobile learning (pp. 109-18). New York, NY: Routledge.
Peregoy, S. F. & Boyle, O. F. (2005). Reading, writing, and learning in ESL: A resource book for K-12 teachers. A. M. Ramos (Ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching: A description and analysis. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Sylvester, R. & Greenidge, W. (2009). Digital storytelling: Extending the potential for struggling writers. The Reading Teacher, 64(4), 284-295.
Overview
As a teacher of English as a second language (ESL), I understand the need for English language learners (ELLs) to use their diverse talents in creative ways; moreover, I believe the biggest reward for these students comes when they feel a sense of ownership of the final product of an assignment. Several activities common to ESL classes, including readers' theater, life murals, language experience activities, and class-made publishing projects, involve ELLs in the processes of production, authoring, or publishing their own works (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). These can all be accomplished with the use of technology which can enhance the language learning outcomes because students are practicing skills with new media. For example, a new dynamic is added when readers' theater is recorded on video for a school Web site or when a student-made storybook is published in a virtual library online. Consequently, students are learning to differentiate their creativity for a variety of audiences and purposes which is a necessary skill for creating successful media projects.
While fostering creativity in a rigid educational system that values conformity through standards seems like a daunting task, I feel that it is necessary for teacher to make the attempt. Moreover, I feel there is a way to integrate language objectives with content learning in a way that students are being creative. Authoring and publishing can accomplish this, but can only be effective if the students have an understanding of the audience for that specific content (Norris & Soloway, 2010). Moreover, Sir Kenneth Robinson states (in his video "Can You Teach Creativity?") that creativity in a variety of fields, including math and science, can be assessed when the value placed on the output is viewed in a fitting domain. For example, a science experiment will demonstrate the language functions of a "how-to" essay as well as academic content, but should be created with the scientific community in mind. In this instance, the students have a clear understanding of the audience that will be viewing the creative product. Simply put, any author must know his or her audience.
As teachers we must become familiar with tools that aid the authoring process, but we must also impress the importance of content and audience on our students. Moreover, as feedback is an essential part of this process, we should want our students to feel verified in their output. This will help them gain a true sense of ownership of their product and a pride in their creativity.
ESL Methods & Multimedia Tools for Creative Authoring
Creative authoring can be done either individually or collectively, and both types of activities can be found in an ESL classroom. Furthermore, there are applications available that can transfer these activities to a digital setting. As mentioned above, the dynamic of these projects changes as students recognize their audience changes when their works "go digital." However, I would like to focus on how these ESL activities can be enhanced when published in a digital format.
Independently authored ESL projects include life murals and language experience activities (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). Life murals involve the creation of pictures pertaining "to significant events, people, and places" in the life of a student and serve as a scaffold to writing personal narratives. The language experience approach (Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Tinajero & Calderon, 1988, as cited in Peregoy & Boyle, 2005) involves student-dictated stories that are subsequently reread by the student and often illustrated for display in the classroom. As students are authoring and publishing their works from personal experience, they gain a sense of ownership over the words they choose and pride in their work. This provides an excellent scaffold towards the writing process. These activities can also be accomplished with storyboard/comic strip applications (e.g., Storyboard That, Comic Life), virtual bulletin boards (e.g., Padlet) and also animated software that aids in digital storytelling (e.g., iMovie, PowToon, Animoto). These apps allow their stories to become three-dimensional, and also expand their audience beyond the classroom display wall.
(Watch this digital story by an ESL student. She enjoys talking about her family and home culture.)
Collaborative authoring projects in ESL classes include reader's theater (i.e., stories scripted by the class for performance purposes) and collective publishing projects (i.e., class-written and designed books for publishing in a school library). These activities stem from ESL methodologies like Communicative Language Teaching (Richards & Rodgers, 1986) that value natural communication as a means of acquiring language rather than the explicit teaching of grammar rules. In addition, they fulfill the "interaction" component of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2013, pp. 143-70). This component stresses hands-on activities and group work as a way of creating a stress-free and relaxed learning environment in which students are engaged and motivated, thus lowering the affective filter (Krashen, 1983). Readers' theater could be enhanced through technology if the student-plays are recorded and uploaded to a school Web site where their peers can view their accomplishments. Publishing projects like collectively authored books can be turned into digital storytelling (Sylvester & Greenidge, 2009) projects using applications like Animoto, PowToon, or iMovie. In both instances, the students are interacting with each other while also learning to use technology in a meaningful way.
(Watch this video on the "interaction" component of the SIOP Model. How can tools for creative authoring enhance a SIOP Lesson?)
Either individually or collaboratively, the scope of purpose and audience is expanded through the implementation of applications that allow for online publishing. Therefore, the creative aspect becomes closer to a process as described by Sir Robinson (Azzam, 2009). Consequently, effective scaffolding must be maintained, especially for ESL students. For instance, storyboarding and drafting can be done with paints and crayons before moving to the digital world. Technology can be a great resource for creativity and empowerment, but I believe the process should be taken in small steps so as not to frustrate young language learners.
Lastly, as these the final product of creative authoring projects includes the esthetics of design, illustration, video production, and/or performance, the knowledge and abilities of students can be assessed in a variety of ways. The "assessment" component of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model (Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, 2013, pp. 143-70) involves multidimensional and authentic assessments that demonstrate student output in ways that are not solely limited to a typically assessed modalities like reading and writing. Therefore, creative authoring applications provide excellent ways of assessing ELLs.
Multimedia Tools for Creative Authoring in an ESL Setting
Wikispaces: Wikispaces is a Web site that enables multiple users the ability to create and edit their own pages. Throughout the course of a unit, students can draft entries and select appropriate content as well as create links between pages. Therefore, projects designed in Wikispaces are collaboratively and creatively authored. Wikispaces offers ESL teachers the opportunity to assess ELLs in multiple ways. For example, student-written text demonstrates comprehension of academic content and the integration of multimedia can show how well students are proficient at Web design.
iMovie: This application is commonly used for digital storytelling (Sylvester & Greenidge, 2009) in a number of subjects and often espoused as having beneficial effect on struggling readers including ELLs. iMovie allows students to add voice-over narration to a slideshow of still images. These can be created to show comprehension of social studies topics like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Typical ESL digital storytelling projects involve individual students creating narratives about their personal experiences leaving their home countries and coming to live in America. These digital stories empower ELLs by giving them a voice and validating their home culture.
Comic Life: A creative way to enhance publishing projects like class-made books, life murals, and language experience activities would be to use the Comic Life application. Students can make their ideas come to life in a comic book format using this app. As students tell their own stories, they are validating their own experiences. Moreover, the linear nature of comic strips provide a scaffold for cognitive strategies like ordering details and sequencing events. As most children love comic books, Comic Life makes traditionally paper-based authoring more engaging.
Supplemental Links
Digital Storytelling: Extending the Potential for Struggling Writers - This article explains the fine details of digital storytelling and includes numerous online resources for implementing digital storytelling in a variety of classroom settings.
Technology Assisted Literacy Knowledge (TALK) - The site provides some insight to teaching literacy in content areas through the use of technology.
Arron Shepard's Readers' Theatre Editions - This site offers free scripts for readers' theater activities.
Dr. Stephen Krashen's Home Page - For more information about Dr. Stephen Krashen and his theories on language acquisition, visit his Web site.
References
Azzam, A. M. (2009). Why creativity now? A conversation with Sir Ken Robinson. Teaching for the 21st Century, 67(1), 22-26.
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2013). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model. A. M. Ramos (Ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. New York, NY: Pergamon Press.
Norris, C. A.,. & Soloway, E. M. (2013). Substantive educational change is in the palm of our children's hands. In Z. L. Berge & L. Y. Muilenburg (Eds.), Handbook of mobile learning (pp. 109-18). New York, NY: Routledge.
Peregoy, S. F. & Boyle, O. F. (2005). Reading, writing, and learning in ESL: A resource book for K-12 teachers. A. M. Ramos (Ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching: A description and analysis. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Sylvester, R. & Greenidge, W. (2009). Digital storytelling: Extending the potential for struggling writers. The Reading Teacher, 64(4), 284-295.