Storytelling with Digital Cameras

Students are introduced to a story that we are reading in class. I have used the story "The Night Before Christmas" right before the Christmas holiday. I then split the students into groups of four, and each group is given a digital camera. The students are given copies of the story that they are going to be finding pictures of, and each group is assigned a section that they need to find pictures for. Students are informed that they must rotate who takes the pictures for their section (that way there is not just one person taking all of the pictures). Students must take at least 5 pictures that relate to their section of the story (they can not be random, they must correlate to what their section of the story is). They can not have more then 10 pictures. After students have taken their pictures they return to class with their camera. With the assistance of the teacher, the students upload the pictures into the computer. Students then work with their team to decide how they want their pictures arranged. Students that have the first section of the story go first, and so on until all of the groups have gone in order. Pictures are then uploaded into Microsoft MovieMaker in their order, and a microphone is hooked up to the computer. The students take turns reading a sentence or two of their section into the microphone. The retelling of the story directly correlates with their pictures. After the story is read, the pictures and retelling become part of a "movie," and the students are able to view their project using a laptop with a projector attached.