Article: Is It Still Considered Reading? Using Digital Video Storytelling to Engage Adolescent Readers by GINGER MALIN

I read an intriguing article that seemed to fit perfectly with this class. In it, the author looks at one way to help engage struggling readers by using video storytelling. The problem is that I can't access the video on which her article is based to see exactly what was or wasn't done.

Despite this, I have some ideas about how a teacher might implement her ideas.

She begins with some interesting research that probably does not surprise anyone:

Benton (1983) argues that in order to engage with a text, a reader must create a “secondary world” in which he or she imagines, experiences, and elaborates on the story from within it. In this way, the engaged reader is a participant in the drama of the story rather than simply a spectator. Enciso adds that a reader is engaged when he or she enters into the world of the story and can vividly “imagine and interpret the characters, setting, events, and thematic possibilities of literary texts. [This state] includes a complex interplay of imaginative and intellectual processes that are typically private and elusive, yet critical to comprehension and pleasure in reading” (1992, 1). Without taking interest in the action of the story—that is, without being able to visualize particular settings or scenes or enact various character roles—a reader will not connect the story to his or her life and subsequently will not engage with the text or construct meaning from it. Therefore, students who are not engaged in the experience see reading as a passive transmission of information that does not evoke any sort of thoughtful ideas or feelings and thus serves little, if any, meaningful purpose in their lives (Enciso 1992; Hynds 1997; Wilhelm 1995).

She goes on to argue that read alouds help struggling students to visualize and take this important step toward engagement. From the description of the digital read aloud, I wonder if a teacher could use Screencastify to create a video with appropriate visuals to help students "enter the world of the story." S/he could upload that video to Edpuzzle so that the teacher could add annotations to aid comprehension further. This way students could pause or rewind the reading as necessary.

The article also said that part of the video watched for this study included discussion of the story that students could watch before taking part in a similar discussion of their own. Struggling readers cited this as very helpful for their comprehension and their confidence in talking about the reading themselves.

I'm not sure where one would find the time to create all of this, but perhaps it could be a project for advanced readers that could be used in other classes. So many ideas, so little time.

Malin, G. (2010). Is It Still Considered Reading? Using Digital Video Storytelling to Engage Adolescent Readers. Clearing House, 83(4), 121-125. doi:10.1080/00098651003774802

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