Product Review

When teachers and students first learn about digital stories, they often focus on the bells and whistles: images, music, sound effects, and so on. To Lisa Miller, a good digital story -- like any good story -- is all about the writing. In Make Me a Story, Lisa shows how to use digital stories to lead students through all phases of the writing process, from planning to revising and editing. Digital storytelling uses computers and software to marry text with art -- photographs, drawings, paintings, and video -- as well as narration and music. Lisa leads teachers step-by-step through the process of creating a digital story in an accessible (even for the computer neophyte), instructional, and entertaining way. Make Me a Story discusses different types of digital stories; shows how to assess digital assignments and motivate reluctant writers; and explains how digital storytelling teaches skills supported by national education and technology standards. Teachers will find specific suggestions for writing exercises and various ways to get students thinking about how best to tell their stories. The accompanying CD includes examples of student stories discussed in the text.