A1: Digital Literacy Narrative
Composition I by Tiffani Tijerina and Magnus Florini is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Composition I by Tiffani Tijerina and Magnus Florini is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
For this assignment, you will create a short digital story (2-3 minutes in length) that reflects on your personal journey with reading and writing. This is a chance to think beyond the traditional essay and use a combination of media to tell a compelling narrative about how you became the writer you are today.
A digital story is a brief, multimedia narrative that uses a combination of images, text, audio, and video to tell a story. You'll act as author, producer, and narrator of your own story, exploring key moments that have shaped your relationship with literacy. Your purpose is to reflect on your experiences and share a part of your identity as a learner.
An example from a previous class is shared with permission in Blackboard.
Length/Scope: Approximately 500-750 words or 2-3 minutes
Rough Draft & Peer Review Deliverables/Submissions:
Post your rough draft of the digital story to the designated discussion board in Blackboard. This should be a complete draft of the multimodal story, including recordings. However, You do not have to include your written script here. Remember to maintain a copy of your editable files so that you can revise after peer review.
Post your two peer reviews as responses to your classmates on the discussion board. Choose classmates who have not already received two peer reviews.
Final Draft Deliverables/Submissions:
Written narrative script (Word or Google Doc)
Digital story final draft link (make sure sharing permissions are set to unlisted or public, depending on the format)
Before you can create your digital story, you will need to write a script. This script will be the core of your project and serve as a the voiceover narration. Your script should:
Tell a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. You might focus on a specific memory, a challenge you overcame, or a pivotal moment.
Be written in a conversational tone. Remember, you'll be speaking these words aloud.
Be well-organized and clearly outline where you plan to use images, video clips, or sound effects.
Submit this part of the assignment as a Word or Google Doc. For Google Docs, make sure sharing is set to allow anyone with the link to view.
Using your script as a guide, you will produce a digital story. Your story must include the following multimodal elements:
Audio: A recorded voiceover of your script. You may also include background music or sound effects.
Visuals: A sequence of images or video clips that visually represent your story. These can be personal photos, scanned documents, drawings you've made, or relevant images.
Text: On-screen titles, captions, or embedded text to highlight key points).
Note: I know many of us may be somewhat uncomfortable with public speaking at this early stage of college. That is okay. You will share this work with our class for peer review, but it does not need to be shared beyond our class. I would like for you to try to do the audio part of the assignment yourself to practice your communication skills, but if you find you cannot do that for any reason, you may recruit a friend or family member to "act" your script out with your direction. You may also experiment with AI narration, but you should be critical of the tone it produces.
Your final product should be an MP4 video file or a single, sharable link to an online platform such as YouTube, Adobe Spark, Google Slides, Canva, etc.
Tool ideas:
For video editing: Adobe Express, iMovie (Mac), YouTube Studio
For audio editing: Audacity, GarageBand (Mac)
For image creation: Canva, Google Slides
Post your rough draft of the digital story on the designated discussion board in Blackboard by the rough draft deadline. Then, choose two classmates who have not already received two reviews.
The purpose of this peer review is to provide constructive feedback to your classmates on their draft digital story. Your feedback should help them identify areas for improvement before they submit their final project. Consider the following questions as you review their work:
Narrative & Content:
Is the story compelling or engageing? Does it clearly convey the author's literacy journey?
Does the story have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
Is the story told in a conversational tone rather than sounding like an essay read-aloud?
Multimodal Integration:
Do the visual and audio elements effectively support and enhance the story?
Do the different modes (text, audio, visuals) work together to create a unified message?
Is the voiceover clear and easy to understand? Is the audio well-paced?
Technical Quality & Presentation:
Is the project well-edited and easy to follow?
Is the audio clear and visuals well-paced?
Does the project meet the 2-3 minute length range?
Overall Feedback: After answering the questions above, please provide a few sentences of overall feedback. What did you enjoy most about the project? What is one specific suggestion you have for how the author could improve their digital story?