This is Michael

Michael was 7 at the time of the research project. He is an ESL learner due to the fact that his parents are from Africa (will find country.) He has an older sister who was in fifth grade last year.

Michael was in Ms. G's class. Mrs. G. agrees that she does less modeling than Ms. P so that her students had room to go off on their own a bit more in assignments. However most writing was teacher directed; prompts. Even "creative writing" assignments were directed: If they were learning about penguins they might be assigned to write facts about penguins; then as a creative writing activity it might be "what would you do if you had your own penguin. (teacher informal interview)

In class Michael is often a slow starter and seems to not to be "with us." On an observation, I came in and sat beside him during a spelling test. I was surprised to see that there were no words on his paper, just a bunch of erasings. In the lab he struck me as a sharp student. After I sat down beside him he started writing the words where the teacher was... about number 15 out of 25. The words were challenging regular words like after, and bought and he spelling them all correctly. (my observation)

His teacher considered him a high reader, but had trouble completing his thoughts. She said he spoke in wrong tenses (I goes with my mom) and broken sentences. (teacher questionaire)

In his class journal Michael wrote in a fairly standard narrative form. I have pieces from him from January of his first grade year on. By standard narrative, I mean he wrote sentences that were in linear order and grouped on the same topic. In his journal he wrote about his dog and his family. He included feelings of happy and sad. He also wrote about going to his dad's store and exchanging money. (journal samples)

In his pre-interview he said he liked funny stories like Captain Underpants. He said he liked to tell stories like Charlotte's Web.
He said he liked to go home and tell about things he did at school. (Parents mention this as well.) He says that at school he also likes to write about what he did and where he went. I think this is the standard journal entry for his class: What'd you do this weekened?"

Like all the other students, the parents seemed unaware of any writing students did at school.

He said he was a good writer and that he was good because his sister taught him. He could not verbalize what made a good story. When pressed about what he could do to make telling a story interesting to a younger child, he could not verbalize what he might do with his voice, etc.

In the pre-interview he said he liked "reading stories" on the computer. (There is a website we used in the computer lab.) His parents said he had a computer at home and liked playing games.

In his post-interview He said a good story makes people be nice, funny or mean... makes people feel something. So a good story ilicits a reaction from the audience. In his post interview he said he liked playing games and making stories on the computer. He was pretty delighted with the dvd and when reviewing his work he commented on things he thought were left out... things he meant to say.

Before the project, he wrote about the things he wanted to make a movie about:
His dog being gone (mentioned also in his journal)
Giving his mom food.
Dad being funny.
Something about a pet (handwriting indecipherable.)


I can say: Michael write about his family. Michael showed previous interest in exchanging money in his journal. His father owns a store. He tells a trickster tale (tricking dad out of money.) He tells absurd tales: giving mom a gorilla,

Every story begins with the dollar bill stamp (his anchor) and he works around that.
He is the one child who asked for specific help in manipulating the stamp so it could fit his needs. That is, bending the technology to his will rather than going with where the technology took him. He had very purposeful ideas about what he was doing with that stamp (he cried out very upset when his cut and paste covered up his picture when he was just learning how to cut and paste the dollar stamps.)

Michael was the wanderer (like a father-to-be in the waiting room) during Author's Chair sections.


Labbo Stance: Screen as paper (for storytelling) Screen as playground (for jokes) Doesn't quite translate due to the digital story nature of this project. For instance the jokes are in the vocal part not necessarily in what was created on the screen.

Awareness of audience in the last piece?


Michael's Elaboration over time. The pictures were generally the same spare drawing. Same themes. Now that I know that his dad owns a store, I don't know if he departed that far from family after all with the last one. The elaboration over time came from how he told his story. He was having such a good time with the second story that he was shouting it on the way out the door (tape recordings) the day he recorded it. Interesting how 1st story is pretty much in the pictures. Second story he goes beyond the pictures he's drawn (the pictures are place holder for the extra story he wants to tell about gorillas, and punches, etc.) The third reflects decision... what meaning will be carried in the images, what meaning parts will be carried in the vocal recordings.

Theory: The more children used the digital tools, the more they depended on the verbal to carry meaning of the story. (story, tonal pitches)


Michael giggles forcibly through the showing of his second story. Was kind of wild eyed in amazement at the first (wow really??) Third paced the floor like an expectant father. Responded seriously to teacher comments of how she will edit silence spaces or extra talk digitally.

Michael was eager to comment on the stories of others. He said things were "great" and funny.

He said he added items because he wanted to make them funny. (The gorilla) I asked him about the use of his voice (bill cosby!) and he said Well I do not know but I think so. Later you can hear him commenting on others' stories mentioning how their "voice" was funny.