Ashley’s Science Article
Preservice secondary teacher candidates often are prepared and excited about teaching science, though they are not as prepared or enthusiastic about teaching the language necessary to communicate about science. These teachers feel great about their abilities to teach literacy when it comes to vocabulary, but nothing beyond it. The importance of facilitating students’ understanding of “both science content and academic language in the discipline,” is overlooked (par. 2, Frisch)
Digital storytelling was the specific focus for this study, it has seven important elements.
- Point of view: the perspective of the author;
- Dramatic question: drives the story forward and is answered by the end;
- Emotional content; meaningful issue or palpable affect is evident;
- The gift of your voice: the author’s identity is evident in the piece;
- Pacing; the rhythm of speech;
- Soundtrack; music or sound effects; and
- Economy: the story is under 10 minutes.
This instructional strategy promotes the acquisition of high-level reflection.
The purpose of this article was to allow students to become more engaged in science through personal stories told by their teachers, to give them real life connections to science. Also, this encourages students to express themselves and further their own science investigations in their personal lives.
The multiple candidates created very different types of podcasts. Not all podcasts contained all seven elements, or appropriately addressed them. It was concluded that embarrassing or disgusting stories tended to be more memorable. There were too many variables that caused the results to vary so greatly. All in all, some candidates seemed to be more or less than creative or better storytellers than others. It turned out that many elementary education candidates did not feel comfortable describing science concepts and making connections to them in their stories. Some candidates were very heavy on their science concepts in their stories, besides making them relatable or personable. Sometimes the vocabulary words were mentioned but left undefined. All in all, digital storytelling can be effective as long as all of the elements are included and the story itself is something students can make connections to, is memorable and engaging.
3ScienceLadies 