‘Digital Storytelling for Engaging Young Learners of English in Large Mixed Ability Classes’ is a project designed to motivate students to learn English as a foreign language for a purpose, to use the materials in a meaningful way, to develop their language and literacy skills by working on products that will exist beyond the classroom walls and develop their creativity by promoting collaboration and cooperative learning between the class members. By applying existing knowledge to generate new ideas, they are to create original work as a means of group expression. Technology is not to be the aim and the carrot at the stick reward, but an important and integral part in all the stages, a means and a tool to enhance the project work and display. Overall project goal: Working in collaborative small groups, students - young learners of English aged 10 - will create, produce and deliver a new 4 -5 minutes long story based on a book or TV cartoon and present the characters, the plot and the resolution by writing dialogues between the characters with each student adding at least two lines to the story to be digitally recorded and published.
The aim of this project is to establish contact with a partner school in a foreign country in the form of a monthly newsletter designed and edited by students of two (or more) classes. While improving their writing and reading skills in the English language and learning how to create a class newsletter by using Microsoft Word for PC, they will get to know more about lives and interests of their peers in those countries by using ICT.
