I very much enjoyed writing a literacy vignette and then digitizing the story. I discovered something new with this assignment: I really like using technology! I found myself having fun learning how to play with the special effects of transitions, music, and voice over. This didn’t seem like homework to me after I had gotten started. I had a light bulb moment. I had always wanted to learn how to add pictures and music, but by forcing myself to also add my own voice from my writing gave it a personal touch and more meaning. I wish I had more time to play and work on it. Even though I had some trouble spots with volume and editing, I discovered something new that I didn’t know I could do, and may have found a new hobby.
I would also like to give my students lots of opportunity to discover interests they never thought they had. This also challanges teachers to find variety in lesson plans to develop different skills and exposure to a lot of different types of areas like technology and art. I can see students being very engaged with this type of assignment. Instead of an over focus on correctness with conventions, allowing students to read their writing and then listen to themselves can be an awakening and motivating facet for showing students the most memorable piece in their writing: the story, flow, word choice, and the message.
I really appreciate what you say here about the possibilities for how motivating a project like this can be for writing -- and how reading and recording one's writing provides a whole different framework for thinking about what makes writing "good". Really glad that you enjoyed this assignment and that it sparks imagination about how this can be taken to the classroom!
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