A Special Social Story: Student Librarians follows Ash, a Year 6 student who is training as a student librarian in their school library with the teacher librarian and library assistant. It is split into three sections (duty days, meeting morning, and special events) with subtopics such as shelving and tidying books, using the STEM room for media broadcasts, and helping with Book Week celebrations. Each sub-section features a short social story about the student librarian’s role and responsibilities therein.
It is being created on Google Slides, as this makes it simple for the interface to feature graphics in the style of a Bitmoji classroom (regularly used within the school), as well as audio recordings, and hyperlinked interactives. The dynamic nature of the platform also allows for easy editing and adding of extra sections at a later date if the same questions come up regularly or specific information is requested.
A Special Social Story: Student Librarians is mostly aimed at students in Year 5 and 6 at a particular state school in Brisbane’s north west. It is made to be introduced in class time before students apply for a role as a student librarian, so they have an idea of what to expect in the role if they are selected, but is also designed to be used again as a ‘jumping off point’ for training at the beginning of the year. It is also usable as a resource to inform other grade levels (especially students in the lower years) and staff about what is within the scope of the student librarian role.
4 Comments
This appears to be comprehensive, relevant and adaptable to your school’s needs in explaining the roles and responsibilities of a student librarian. I like the non-linear story format, which lets students find relevant information without reading everything sequentially (Sanchez-Lopez et al., 2020).
Google Slides is a suitable platform for digital storytelling, but I am keen to see exactly what audio recordings and hyperlinked interactives you plan to use. I am also curious about why you have called this a ‘Social Story’, since that term is typically associated with resources for students with special needs (Gray, n.d., as cited in Pierce, 2022) and you have not mentioned that your target audience has any additional learning needs.
Have you considered expanding the resource across transmedia platforms? For instance, integrating Google Forms could enhance audience interaction and provide the feedback you seek to improve the resource over time. Additionally, incorporating Virtual Reality in future iterations could align with current digital storytelling trends (DSOM, 2024).
I look forward to seeing how your project evolves!
DSOM. (2024, January 2). Captivating captivates: Latest trends in digital storytelling for 2024. Dehradun School of Online Marketing. https://www.dsom.in/captivating-captivates-latest-trends-in-digital-storytelling-for-2024
Pierce, R. (2022, October 25). How to write a social story (A step-by-step guide). Life Skills Advocate. https://lifeskillsadvocate.com/blog/how-to-write-a-social-story/
Sanchez-Lopez, I., Perez-Rodriguez, A., & Fandos-Igado, M. (2020). The explosion of digital storytelling. Creator’s perspective and creative processes on new narrative forms. Heliyon, 6(9), e04809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04809
What a great idea Angela! You are not only inducting potential future librarians but empowering them to apply the knowledge you have taught. Making the social story episodes fun will help fill the positions with eager and informed candidates. As Dobler shares, considered use of digital tools enhances readers engagement and connection to the story (2013, p.20).
Your social story proposal is aligned with social constructivism pedagogy, where your students will be engaging with your digital narratives to construct their version of the real-life experience of operating as student librarians (Nunes, 2022, p.50). Selecting common scenarios where students have to problem solve and engage in cognitive apprenticeships will help students to engage vicariously in the role. Adding scenarios followed by a quiz will not only help students consolidate their understandings of job tasks but also add to the interactivity of your digital social story. You could increase access for cultural and linguistically diverse students by embedding hyperlinks, such as Wikipedia Simple English (2023) for simple language descriptions and text translations of terms such as Dewey Decimal System.
Enjoy the social story process!
References
Dobler, E. (2013). Looking beyond the screen: Evaluating the quality of digital books. Reading Today, 30(5), 20-21.
Nunes da Conceição Duarte Pinheiro, M. (2022). Beyond play: Unraveling the educational power of interactive digital narratives in childhood learning. https://www.politesi.polimi.it/handle/10589/218410
Wikipedia Simple English. (2023, April). Dewey Decimal System. Retrieved September 2024 from* https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_System
An interesting idea, that appears to cater to your school needs. I am interested as to who exactly will access this resource, as in just those who apply for the role or the entire cohort as to ‘sell’ the role? You have chosen a suitable platform that is accessible for staff and students alike and you have a clear plan and purpose that has been thought out. I am interested to see how students will be able to interact with this piece of digital storytelling.
All the best!
Hi Angela,
I think your digital literacy project is set to be a useful, innovative resource. It will be an exciting way to introduce prospective students to the role of student librarian and could be very useful in their training. This is a type of resource I would love to use with my library monitors in my own primary school library.
Utilising the interactive format of Google Slides will allow you to use features such as hyperlinks to jump to new and useful information, creating clickable elements for easy navigation and exploration making the resource an engaging, multimedia experience for students.
Your program choice is fitting in terms of it being easy to update as things change in your school and library. This can potentially be used for differentiation of students’ needs as well.
Including audio elements such as voice narrations to enhance accessibility and engagement is a clever addition. I wonder if you could also add some video elements as well- such as how to videos filmed within your library space to support the information being given to your students. This would also be useful for them to access if they need a reminder of any aspects of their jobs such as shelving books.
Excited to see how it turns out!
Sarah