Week 3- Digital Storytelling

   Digital storytelling is a wonderful resource that I am looking forward to using in this class.  I used digital storytelling last year with my Kindergartener's as part of our author's study on Eric Carle.  Students each had a part to read of the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We used VoiceThread to tell our story.  Students created pictures through TuxPaint and I imported them into the VoiceThread.  Then students recorded themselves reading their sections of the story.  We finalized our story by putting their pictures together with their reading.  Once completed we viewed and commented on each others reading and shared online with parents.  This project was great for beginning readers.  Students were able to practice sight words, reading behaviors, strategies, and fluency through this project.  This is a great way and fun way to get students interested in reading and motivated at a young age.  My students loved this project so much that when I see them this year they always bring it up and ask if I still have it!
    I found many advantages of using VoiceThread.  I really liked how parents could view the story just by clicking on a link I posted in my blog and then could write a comment that the students could read.  Students were eager to listen to the comments left and it offered students away to digitally share and discuss their work.  Using VoiceThread was easy to create and manage.  I was a little uneasy about letting the students use this site because they were only Kindergarteners but it was very safe and easy for me to monitor their use as there was only one area where the story was that students needed to view.  I would defiantly recommend this website to other teachers at the primary level.  It is not only great from digital storytelling but the use of this site is endless.

                                                                    http://voicethread.com/