Sarah Hatton:::

The Storyline, multimodal environment and language learning scenario, 2008

developed by David Birchfield, Sarah Hatton, Harper Piver, Ellen Campana and Tracy Avalos

top down view of The Storyline, language arts learning scenario for the SMALLab, 2008

During Spring and Fall of 2008, I have helped teachers at a local Phoenix high school incorporate the Storyline scenario into their curriculum. I helped develop this scenario, I created artwork for the “sandbox” tutorial phase, and I worked with students to help them create the visual aspect of their stories.

Background on the Storyline

(I yoinked some of this text straight from our Storyline project page which you can visit here!)

The SMALLab story line scenario was created in collaboration with high school language arts educators. The scenario addresses four primary content learning goals. Through their participation, students should gain understanding of: summarization of key plot elements, identifying theme, distinguishing between multiple perspective, and the model/story structure of rising and falling action (tension in plot).

At the beginning of the activity, students study a work of literature, or write their own stories. In the past, students have studied “La LLorona”, a latino folk tale about a mother who drowns her children in a river after her marriage falls apart. While studying “La Llorona”, students focused intensely on the role of perspective. Students choose a character in the story and retail the story from that character’s perspective. Students have to create six images and six sounds that match the six key story points of the story. The image below shows how students reenacted the story through role play, black and white photography and collage.

retelling La Llorona from the Ranchero's perspective

There are two phases to the curriculum. During phase 1, groups of students take the role of designers to create an interactive storytelling environment in SMALLab. During phase 2, groups of students interact in SMALLab to construct a multimedia storyline using the materials created by their peers in phase 1.

During phase 1, students:

• Identify the theme of the story
• Identify the perspective from which they want to tell their story
• Create audio recordings
• Create visual media
• Upload their media to the SMALLab database
• Program the interactive elements for their storyline in SMALLab

There are six elements to the interactive storyline scenario:

• The collection of story points created by the students
• The storyline structure
• The story workshop
• The storytelling station and presentation
• The theme display
• The perspective display

Groups of three or more students work together to create a storyline in SMALLab during Phase 2. One student positions the story structure within the story workshop area using the glowball. Meanwhile, another student uses the glowball to audition the sounds and images which correspond to key points in the story. These two students work together to appropriately sequence the events. A third student holds a device that responds to shaking. This student shakes the device to increase the “tension” of a particular story point. The more vigorously he or she shakes, the higher the tension will rise. In this manner, all three students work together to construct a story sequence and structure that accords with the original story.

The Fall of the House of Usher Storyline

For the purpose of learning how to use the Storyline, we created a “sandbox” (or is it a fishbowl???) phase for students to play before they start taking on the role of designer. We based our sandbox Storyline off of an abridged version of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Teachers can also use this Storyline as a supplement to their curriculum, as Poe is a popular read around Halloween, so playing the Storyline is a real treat! Students can play through the story and discuss themes and descriptive words used. Below are some examples of what students constructed. Notice that the first and second story point are often interchanged.