Telling Stories with Cultural Objects

Linda Edwards, Director of the Office of International Outreach shares her thought about storytelling.

I come from a family of readers, but we are also story tellers. Family get-togethers are a time to remember and from the youngest to the oldest each has a story to tell - often beginning with - "do you remember the time . . .?" Story telling is how cultures are built and how families remember those who are gone. In my family a story can be prompted by a photograph or an item given to me by one of my children or grandchildren that is now proudly displayed in the bookshelf in our family room. It seems natural to transfer this concept of story telling using cultural object in the classroom to teach literacy skills and multicultural awareness.

Listen to the podcast to hear what Dr. Patricia Wiese, professor of Teaching Learning and Culture at Texas A&M University has to say about using cultural items to promote story telling in the classroom.

Dr. Wiese also shares the article that she co-authored with Dr. Robin Groce,
A Mosaic of Stories: Celebrating Cultures Through Classroom Storytelling

Enter Here: An Invitation

Yesterday I read an article by Sara Kajder entitled Enter Here: Personal Narrative and Digital Storytelling that seemed like an appropriate opening point for discussion on this site. On the door to her classroom, Kajder placed a black-and-white photograph of the door to her grandmother’s house. When students inquire about the photograph, she simply tells them, “It’s an invitation.” She often shares stories about the door with her students and asks them to consider what they see in the door and how it might be a part of what they know.

“No matter what story I share, it is paired with an opening, much like the door, invoking and evoking students’ stories and welcoming them into our shared learning space”(1).

Digital stories are a lot like that door that Sara Kajder talks about. Opening the door, lets you enter into a personal narrative space, a place where the individual voices of others struggle to be heard.

The Yellow Pencil is a personal story that I told in my 9th grade communication class to encourage students to write about a personal experience that they learned from. In a graduate creativity class, I illustrated the oral story and designed a little storybook using a method described in Writing with Pictures by Uri Shulevitz (2). And now the drawings have been transformed into a digital story where I share with you an embarrassing experience that taught me a personal lesson about thinking!

Digital Storytelling is the modern version of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories meld photographs, drawings, video, music, narrative and voice together to create a multimedia narrative that can be biographical, fictional or documentary.

Our students today live in a multimodal world of technology from e-mail and the Internet to cell phones that send text messages and video to record history in the making. Digital storytelling combines writing and media literacy with technology education in the social studies, geography and English/Language Arts classroom to engage students in active learning. Digital stories may focus on personal learning experiences or address a critical social issue. Students can tell a story about family customs and traditions. Interviewing a foreign student or visitor might lead to a story about another culture or a multicultural folk tale. Digital stories can also be used as book trailers to review a book about another culture or a special hero. Historical topics give students an opportunity to delve into research and share their findings and impressions with others. As students design digital stories, they gain confidence in the power of their own voices, develop planning skills such as reflection, revision and self-direction, and become more aware of narrative structure. Students are also motivated by the opportunity to share their digital stories with an audience in the school and community or on the Internet.

In March, I attended a digital storytelling workshop lead by Joe Lambert and Stephanie Sese from The Center for Digital Storytelling (3). In three exciting days, twelve educators shared stories, edited scripts, and put together digital media to produce short digital stories. The stories we told were, for the most part, personal. The stories reveal personal experiences, reflections, epiphany, and fond remembrances. I extend my thanks to the educators who agreed to share their stories with you on this site. Please open the door to our digital stories.

My Island: Greg Rodriguez, Technology Integration Facilitator, San Antonio ISD
Photo Opportunities: Dr. David Noah, Center for Teaching and Learning, Uni. of Georgia
The Little Colonel: Dr. Lisa Shiro, Digital Media Center & ETRAC, Rice University
First Pay Day: Jamie Gustin, Elementary Technology Coach, Magnolia ISD
Garbed In Silver: Miguel Guhlin, Director, Instructional Tech. Services, San Antonio ISD
And My Mother Smiled: Martha Green, International Outreach Education, Texas A&M Uni.
Passage: Dr. Martha Meacham, Instructional Design Specialist, Austin Community College

1. Kajder, S. (2004). Enter here: personal narrative and digital storytelling.
2. Shulevitz, U. (1985). Writing With Pictures. New York:Watson-Guptill Publications.
3. Center for Digital Storytelling - http://www.storycenter.org
4. Green, M. (2004) About Seeing