Concept
Year 6 students will collaboratively design a non-linear, ‘Twisted Fairytale’-themed digital transmedia storytelling experience hosted on Google Sites. From the homepage, each link will take readers to a story exploring a theme, character, or setting, incorporating narrative, multimodal e-poetry, letters, diary entries, and news reports. Each independent yet linked story will reveal a piece of the overall story arc. Students must combine at least two media types, such as text, audio, animation, video, photography, or illustration, using tools like Canva and Adobe Express.
Example of thematic adaptations:
- The Forest of Glitches – animated digital poetry, ambient audio, dark forest video.
- Who’s Afraid of Hacker Wolf – short story with illustration and audio – a new spin on the classic wolf.
- Red Hood – text animation of a written letter, revealing the dark side of the girl in red.
This aligns with Australian Curriculum Year 6 English (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d.a.) content descriptors: to “create and edit literary texts that adapt plot structure, characters, settings and ideas from texts” (AC9E6LE05) and “create, edit and publish multimodal texts” (AC9E6LY06).
Purpose
The project extends literary learning through transmedia storytelling (Gogon & Marcus, 2013), enabling students to adapt fairytales into new forms while experimenting with digital storytelling and share with the wider school community.
Needs
Digital storytelling promotes Digital Literacy (ACARA, n.d.c), and Critical and Creative Thinking (ACARA, n.d.b.; Cope & Kalantzis, 2015; Serafini, 2010; Walsh, 2010), supporting diverse learning strengths and communication styles. Students can choose genres and digital formats suited to their abilities and use accessibility tools like Read&Write for EAL/D or low-literacy students. This fits well with the school’s ongoing commitment to the Universal Design for Literacy framework (CAST, 2018).
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.a). Australian Curriculum: English, Version 9. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.b). General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Version 9. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.c). General capabilities: Digital literacy, Version 9. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/digital-literacy/
CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 2.2. CAST. http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2015). The things you do to know: An introduction to the pedagogy of multiliteracies. In A. Healy (Ed.), Multiliteracies and diversity in education: New pedagogies for expanding landscapes (pp. 1–30). Oxford University Press.
Gogon, L., & Marcus, A. (2013). Transmedia storytelling in education: New literacies for a digital age. Routledge.
Serafini, F. (2010). Reading multimodal texts: Perceptual, structural and ideological perspectives. Children’s Literature in Education, 41(2), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9100-5
Walsh, M. (2010). Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(3), 211–239.
Hi Tracey.
This is a wonderfully creative and age-appropriate concept. Year 6 students will connect strongly with the fractured fairytale theme, and the choice of Google Sites as the platform is clever, as it is accessible, flexible, and aligns with classroom needs. Your examples demonstrate clear vision in showing students how multimodality can transform traditional stories. As Serafini et al. (2015) notes, multimodal texts broaden the ways in which learners interpret and produce meaning.
One question I had is about the coherence across contributions. Rowan and Bigum (2012) caution that digital projects can become fragmented when students work independently. How will you scaffold collaboration so the overall narrative arc holds together while still allowing for creative variation?
An additional suggestion you should consider is to reference Unsworth (2006), who highlights how purposeful integration of text, image, and sound defines quality digital literature. Linking this to your project could strengthen the argument that the work is not just playful, but also rigorous in developing multiliteracies.
Best regards,
Rizky
References:
Rowan, L., & Bigum, C. J. (2012). Transformative approaches to new technologies and student diversity in futures oriented classrooms: Future proofing education. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2642-0
Serafini, F., Kachorsky, D., & Aguilera, E. (2015). Picturebooks 2.0: Transmedial Features across Narrative Platforms. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(2), 16–24. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1079408
Unsworth, L. (2006). E-literature for children: Enhancing Digital Literacy Learning. Routledge.
The “Twisted Fairytales” proposal is a fantastic and creative project that leverages digital tools to foster multimodal literacy. The non-linear, collaborative transmedia story is an excellent concept for Year 6 students, well-aligned with the curriculum.
To deepen the project, consider incorporating a reflective process where students explicitly analyse how their digital work challenges or subverts traditional fairytale themes (ACARA, n.d.b). This moves beyond creation to purposeful design, a key aspect of multimodal pedagogy (Walsh, 2010). Another excellent suggestion is to consider a pre-production planning phase, such as using a storyboard to map out the narrative connections.
For student-created video and audio elements, you might also consider a simpler tool like Flip. Its ease of use and accessibility features could be a less intimidating option for diverse learners, further supporting the project’s alignment with Universal Design for Literacy (Seale, 2014).
This is a really strong proposal, and I look forward to seeing the final product.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.b). General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking, Version 9. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/
Seale, J. (2014). Digital inclusion, disability and learning: A social justice perspective. Routledge.
Walsh, M. (2010). Multimodal literacy: What does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 33(3), 211–239.
Hi Tracey,
I really like your idea! I love the Twisted Fairytale theme and how each page will reveal a new layer of the bigger story. Year 6 students will really enjoy the freedom to mix genres and media like audio, video or digital poetry. It’s a clever way to cover the curriculum outcomes for adapting plots and publishing multimodal texts.
You might choose to think about how students will keep the whole story arc connected so readers don’t get lost. A shared planning map or story board could help track links and themes. Also, you might like to check that the chosen tools (Canva, Adobe Express) are all approved for student use.
Accessibility ideas could include adding alt text to images and offering captions or transcripts for audio/video so everyone can follow along (CAST, 2018). If you’d like to lean into the tech side tools like padlet could let students embed all their pieces in one interactive hub.
I think this is a fun, collaborative project that really encourages creative thinking and digital literacy. I hope you have fun constructing it.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.a). English v9.0: Create and edit literary texts that adapt plot structure, characters, settings and ideas from texts (AC9E6LE05). https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.b). General capabilities: Critical and creative thinking. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.c). Digital literacy general capability. https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
CAST. (2018). Universal design for learning guidelines version 2.2. http://udlguidelines.cast.org