Reagan Nail Henderson, "Make Me Care!: Creating Digital Narratives in the Composition Classroom" (6.1)

ASSAY: A JOURNAL OF NONFICTION STUDIES
6.1

Reagan Nail Henderson

Make Me Care!:
Creating Digital Narratives in the Composition Classroom

In order to connect to other people, we tell stories. When we want an audience to understand a complex policy like health care or a concept like white privilege, we put faces to these issues, providing testimonials that force the audience to empathize. Telling a good story is now an essential component in nonfiction forms like investigative journalism, documentary, and TED Talks. News websites publish video essays to incite action on political issues, like this one from CNN “What would make you care about Aleppo ?” persuading viewers on multiple media platforms with the click of a “share” button.

Writers in narrative fields like creative nonfiction and memoir can tap into all of the senses by integrating sound and images, especially since online journals and magazines provide the perfect platform for digital media. Where we used to rely on oral and written stories, though, we now have a variety of media to utilize, making our rhetorical choices that much more significant. Writers can take words off the page and contextualize them with images, video, and sound; this is the language of digital storytelling. Should we use slow motion for this dance sequence or speed this up? Would a black and white photo of a protest be more emotionally impactful than a chaotic scene of colorful picket signs?

These choices apply to composition classrooms as well. Expository writing, like argumentation, analysis and research, also relies on storytelling as an integral part of the rhetorical process. Every detail, every statistic, every example, every transition—these are choices writers make to convey a message and to personally connect with an audience, regardless of genre. My advanced Composition students now create digital narratives (videos) that complement their researched arguments and appeal to the emotions of their audience. The digital narrative assignment, developed over the last two years to replace the standard Power Point presentation, is a way to engage two different nonfiction styles in a required composition class. The collaboration ignites creativity and encourages multi-modal learning, which is increasingly relevant. Moreover, like many college-level instructors, my teaching philosophy stems from a place of social justice, and the goal is to help produce more informed, reflective, and compassionate citizens. If we teach our students to create emotional digital texts in the classroom, they might become more aware of the subtle manipulations of the media outside the classroom, and equally importantly, have the tools to meaningfully engage in their communities.

The Form

Digital narratives are stories made with multimedia tools, such as music, voiceover, images, and video, using movie-making software. This medium feels more personal than an ordinary movie, however, often including images of the creator, their voice, or video clips created on their phones. Like any good story, it must include a beginning, a middle, and an end, as well as a deeper meaning, and the script must be short because it becomes the voiceover and dictates the overall length of the video. Additionally, writers of digital stories can include elements such as video skits to enhance dialogue and character development. If done well, viewers will feel moved by the traumatic event or inspiring idea that has shaped the storyteller.

In recent years, teachers in a variety of disciplines have been using digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool. In the field of English Foreign Language Studies, for example, Naoko Kasami, author of The Comparison of the Impact of Storytelling and Digital Storytelling Assignments on Students' Motivations for Learning, examines how digital storytelling impacts student motivation for learning. Kasami compares physical storytelling in groups to digital storytelling and finds that “77.77% of all students were more motivated for learning with the [Digital Storytelling] assignment than with the [Storytelling] assignment” (182). Analysis of the student comments also explain the rationale behind the positive experience, noting that the concepts “enjoy,’ ‘movie,’ ‘variability,’ ‘creativity,’ ‘present my work,’ and ‘self-efficacy’” came up often in the questionnaire responses (Kasami 182). In my writing classes, most of my students are native speakers, but just like Kasami’s students, they value the creativity and freedom in this assignment, especially at the end of the quarter when they have put a lot of energy into writing and researching heavy subjects.

Certainly, motivating students to learn is a primary goal of most educators, but teachers are also using digital stories to teach basic technological skills. At my university, we have changed our writing curriculum over the last decade to prioritize digital and information literacy, so integrating media like blogs, memes, and infographics has become part of that bundle. In “Digital Literacy Learning in Higher Education Through Digital Storytelling Approach,” Chan, Churchill, and Chiu used digital storytelling to teach digital literacy. Although the study sample was small, they concluded that “digital storytelling seems to be an appropriate approach to developing digital literacy skills for community college students,” also emphasizing the importance of “an authentic learning environment” (Chan, Churchill, and Chiu 14). The authors mention “the degree of freedom” in encouraging a creative atmosphere (Chan, Churchill, and Chiu 14), which could indicate the freedom to choose topics, to exchange ideas, and to explore the different facets of technology.

To begin the unit, I show students a sample from storycenter.org, an organization that has “transformed the way that community activists, educators, health and human services agencies, business professionals, and artists think about the power of personal voice, in creating change.” This website, and many other samples and resources, came from Dr. Perrin Kerns’ presentation “Digital Storytelling in the Writing Classroom: Word, Image, Tune.” “The Gift of Nonviolence” begins with an image of the writer, an older gentleman, his voice slow and even as he describes how he used his body weight to end the abuse from his father. He then explains how that experience in non-violent protest reappeared later in his life when working at a nuclear power plant. This three-minute video relies on voiceover, photos, and calming background music to tell a powerful life lesson and serves as a solid example of emotionally connecting to viewers with multi-media tools. To demonstrate the scope of the medium, I also show students an advertisement from Airbnb, (also recommended by Kerns), which uses digital storytelling methods to sell their product. “Don’t ‘Do’ Paris,” the voiceover advises, showing video clips of tourists on Segways and holding selfie-sticks: “Live there.” This example opens the door for a discussion on the wide range of possibilities for digital storytelling, including the assignment for my class.

The importance of multimodal skills is a focus in many college level writing courses. In reference to digital storytelling, Shaofeng Tang argues that this medium aides “in transforming students to become creative and critical narrators” (577). Tang also explains how the digital storytelling project takes away some of the customary fear of writing, as students “are not writing to finish the teacher’s assignment, but to present their stories to other people or even to the world…” (575). When students create a product that could possibly be shared, in class, or to the world via Youtube, then, writing turns into a more authentic and less stressful process, which is a goal for most writing teachers. In my experience teaching the Digital Narrative, students are highly aware of their peer audience; they want their videos to make an emotional impact and to impress each other with their skills.

The Assignment

With my interest in multi-modal writing, I incorporated digital storytelling into my advanced Composition class in Spring 2017 for the first time. Fortunately, at the 2017 CCCCs convention, Dr. Perrin Kerns’ provided several digital storytelling resources, including her Pinterest site dedicated to student work, because she taught classes focusing solely on the art of digital storytelling at Marylhurst University. In my required argumentative writing class, however, we rarely engage in creative writing, let alone personal writing. Thus, connecting digital storytelling to my students’ longer project of writing a complex academic argument was a dilemma. We typically would do a “remix” of their research to wrap up the quarter, where they would create a digital text for a specific audience and purpose. Often, I felt the results were lackluster because students had too much freedom to choose their medium and, thus, less instruction on how to make a great product. Essentially, I decided the Digital Narrative would be the “remix” text for their research project, turning my classroom into a digital “maker space” where we could learn and troubleshoot together.

The assignment is to flip their researched argument paper into a digital narrative to “make me care” about their topic. Since my composition class focuses on rhetoric, moving the emphasis from ethos and logos (credible researched argument) to pathos (emotional appeals) made pedagogical sense. It also gave students a clear rhetorical purpose. By trying to “make me care,” they could create an authentic text, in this case, a video, that either would or would not succeed in persuading an audience. In academia, we rarely ask students to emphasize emotion over empirical evidence, but we see it all the time in popular media, especially in advertisements. To successfully connect with an audience, students must first learn everything about them, their values, fears, desires, then make strategic rhetorical choices that hit home.

I crafted and adapted my digital narrative assignment from several different digital storytelling sources, including Kerns’ 2017 CCCCs presentation, the University of Houston’s digital storytelling website, and Samantha Morris’ article “Exploring How Digital Tools Transform Learning.” The details of my assignment are as follows:

Choose a topic based on one of your group members’ research papers and a rhetorical purpose for your Digital Narrative.

Write the narrative script. This should tell a story about your topic, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. 325 words max.
Create a storyboard for your project that outlines possible images, sound, and pacing.
Gather content. Find and save sound and image files that you want to use. Take your own pictures, make your own video clips.
Create your voiceover using Audacity or using the recording button on your movie software.
Put the voiceover, images, and sound altogether using IMovie or other.
Workshop the Digital Narrative with another group. Consider timing, transitions, etc.
Play it for the class!

Pairing Up

For the digital narrative assignment, I direct students to work in partners. The digital narrative is based on their research papers, a solo project, however, much of my teaching methodology relies upon Vygotsky’s concepts of the “Zone of Proximal Development” and “the more capable peer,” which explain how children learn more when working with someone of higher ability, essentially “grow[ing] into the intellectual life of those around them” (86-88). As a result, most of my in-class work involves group discussions and skill-based assignments that students explore and create together. If at least one student in a group can explain ethos, for example, the others are more likely to understand the concept. Also, at my university, many of my students don’t have a laptop, so it makes sense for students to work together when engaging with a brand new genre that will require specific software. Not only does pairing up solve technology or accessibility issues, but troubleshooting as a team is easier and more enjoyable. For example, when students all have their laptops open, one may ask out loud, “How do I cut the voiceover without cutting the image?” or “Why does this picture keep zooming in when we need to see the whole graph?” Students will jump right in and assist each other as they slowly evolve into iMovie experts. They gravitate toward their strengths, so some students record perfect voiceovers while others focus on sound quality. Making a movie (even a short one) requires great focus and attention to detail, and with obstacles popping up constantly, students need each other to lighten the mood. When students worked alone on this assignment, I found the classroom was a more somber place, and I missed the laughter and generativity of collaboration.

They also work in partners because some paper topics are better suited to the digital storytelling medium. For example, one student researched mental health access in high schools because her brother was in a recent (and local) school shooting. While she could have based her narrative around her brother’s actual experience, it felt too personal. She instead used her partner’s paper topic for the project. Another student, who researched the mass incarceration of African Americans, chose to do her partner’s paper on “Choosing Veganism” because, as a vegetarian, her partner was invested and could write a more personal narrative. Because my students have already-written research papers, I don’t require new research in their digital narratives, as they can achieve their rhetorical purpose of “making me care” without it, but I emphasize that the most convincing videos often include all elements of the rhetorical triangle. In the end, most students choose to include facts and statistics anyway, to establish credibility, to show relevance, or to drive home their message (ie, Texting and Driving Kills!).

Constructing “A Way In” and Student Workshop

Turning a research topic such as “psychological impacts of social media on adolescents” into a digital narrative can be tricky because the genre involves a personal story, something we’ve actively avoided thus far in the class. These digital narratives provide a platform for discussing the specific rhetorical strategies writers can employ when the goal is to make their audience care. We discuss the pathos behind certain images, the mood created by the music, and the pacing of all the clips. By discussing the structural elements, the students invent a vocabulary for their own digital narrative workshops, where groups reveal their rough drafts to others and see if their video has the intended effect. For example, one group played their video on texting and driving and found it made their audience laugh.

“Why are they laughing?” the student asked. “I don’t get it!”

We then discussed how certain images felt “real” but others felt comical. “Also, the music during this driving photo is very dramatic, but your narrative hasn’t gotten to the dramatic part yet. We see a happy mom, but the music implies there’s a monster in the backseat.” The incongruence, thus, makes us laugh. Due to the emphasis on audience impact, these inconsistencies in tone are heightened in the video format but rarely is this a concern in their academic argument papers where we focus on support and logical organization.

Building on their existing skills with pathos, we discuss how to find “a way in” to the story. They need to keep to the integrity of their research and search for the star of the story, which could be a person, an idea, or something else entirely. Who is this narrative about? Is this person a hypothetical example based on research data or an actual person pulled from the research? What is more powerful? Can either of the students relate personally to the topic and can they use that in their story? One group decided to use a student paper on organic farming and wrote their narrative script from the perspective of a dairy cow that was described in their research. Another group used their own obsessions with social media to bring up the global issue of smart phone addiction, acting out scenes where they stared at their phones waiting in coffee lines and sitting at dinner tables instead of socially engaging with each other. These video clips, embedded into the digital story, directly appealed to their audience of fellow college students.

Some students choose to delve deeply into the painful and personal, though the pairing and topic choice allows them to avoid this if they choose. One student’s video reveals that she got thyroid cancer from polluted drinking water in her hometown. In her voiceover account, she tells us about her “normal” life, using her school photo and images with friends to paint the scene. She then uses infographics and facts about local water sources to get to her main point: keep our water clean. The impact on her audience of peers was immediate: they fell silent and gave her their full attention. Her research topic was about the importance of water treatment and maintenance, but her childhood cancer diagnosis was her group’s “way in” to the narrative.

Last winter, one of my students researched the misdiagnosis of mental health disorders in children. In her movie, she tells a story of leaving an abusive childhood home, showing us pictures of her life in a group home, describing the friends she made, and analyzing how their mental health diagnoses affected their self-esteem and development. Doctors had given my student at least five diagnoses, including borderline personality disorder, and an assortment of drugs to battle them. In the end, she explains that counseling and talk therapy made most of her mental health issues disappear. This student’s bravery and enthusiasm in sharing her story shocked me and her fellow classmates in the best possible way.

On the other hand, research topics not immediately adaptable to narrative proved instructive as we constructed “ways in.” An engineering student wrote a research paper on concrete corrosion and he struggled to write a story based on such a “boring” topic that no one else cares about. In the beginning stages of the assignment process, students discuss their topics with each other and brainstorm ideas for a storyline, but this student wanted to work alone and missed out on some of the perspective collaboration brings. He came to office hours often, though, and eventually found a “way in” by telling a story about the greatest concrete structures of our time, showing us images of beautiful bridges and ancient structures like the Pantheon. In his video, he recounted historic events where concrete corroded and failed, visually exhibiting the destruction and explaining how people died. Contrary to his first instincts, he was able to make us care about concrete.

Reflections

The final piece of the project is an individual write up where the students reflect upon their rhetorical strategies, describing how each choice helped to “make their audience care.” The grade on the digital narrative is split 50/50 between the final digital narrative product (group grade) and the final reflection (individual grade). I also ask them to reflect upon their group effort and the challenges they worked through during the creative process.

Teaching digital storytelling is also a process, and I have modified my methodology every quarter. I allot at least two weeks in my course calendar for teaching this assignment, much more time than given for prior end-of-quarter remix assignments, and I have a lot of sample digital narratives in the bank which greatly improve my students’ ability to create a decent product. Because moviemaking requires a steep learning curve and small challenges can cause timely setbacks, I now grade the digital narratives with a lighter hand, aiming to reward their efforts rather than their editing abilities. In fact, contemporary composition philosophy has always prioritized process over product, though my department, like others, often struggles to determine what that looks like in practice. In my classroom, students get to tell stories about their research, learn from each other’s experiences, and play with moviemaking software. I just hope the rhetorical strategies they use in school translates to their reading of the world, the digital spaces they navigate, and the choices they make as writers.

Click here to download a printable PDF with Works Cited.

Reagan Nail Henderson is a Senior Lecturer at Eastern Washington University. Her work has appeared in The Truth About the Fact Nonfiction Journal, The North Coast Journal, and the Weird Sisters anthology from Scablands Press. Reagan lives in Spokane, WA and is a teacher, a mother, and a singer-songwriter.

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