Introduction to the Civil War/Digital Storytelling Module

Audio Introduction to the Module

This podcast was developed as part of an elementary-level Clark County School District Teaching American History Grant. The three-year grant will fund six modules per year with each module focusing on a different era of American history and a different pedagogical theme. This podcast focuses on the the Civil War and Reconstruction and Digital Storytelling. Participants in the grant are third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers in Clark County (the greater Las Vegas area), Nevada. Teaching scholars include Drs. Michael Green and Deanna Beachley of the College of Southern Nevada and Dr. Christy Keeler of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. As part of this five week module, teachers meet on campus on two occasions and the remainder of their work is completed online. The posts appearing hare also available via the iTunes podcast: “Civil War and Digital Storytelling” (http://feeds.feedburner.com/CivilWarAndDigitalStorytelling).

During this module, teacher participants will complete three projects:

1. Teachers will use the R-A-F-T (Role-Audience-Format-Topic) strategy, video iPods, and digital voice recorders to record a book review of Brooks Simpson's America's Civil War. The review will be a simulated KNPR broadcast.
2. Teachers will develop their own R-A-F-T strategy projects relating to the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. They may work alone, collaboratively with other teachers, or they may submit work their students develop as part of a classroom unit on the Civil War era. The final project must included edited audio features such as the inclusion of music and voice modulation.
3. Teachers must review and evaluate digital stories created and posted by their colleagues. The evaluations must attend to content as well as digital storytelling elements.