CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
A. Research Findings
In this study, I explore various emotions during teaching English through digital storytelling. I taught students to write a story through digital storytelling in 4 meetings. As a pre-service teacher, this research illustrates how my emotions are expressed and how my teaching improves my experience particularly in designing and implementing activities before teaching while teaching, and post-teaching. Drawing on my experience, the emotions emerge in four teaching episodes including lesson plan making, addressing the supervisor’s feedback and comment, negotiating lesson plans with an English teacher, introducing Digital storytelling, building knowledge with narrative writing, collaborative digital storytelling making, editing video, and my reflecting of in digital storytelling.
Lesson plan making
On Mei 22 2022, I passed my thesis proposal seminar which included chapters 1, 2 and 3 of my research in this study. Next, I revised the lesson plans based on the comments given by my supervisor before starting teaching in the class. My supervisor also asked me to make lesson plans so that I could teach my students based on the lesson plans I made.
“I felt confident to make the lesson plan because I had experience to make one when I did teach practicum called PPL for 2 months. I was trained how to teach, communicate, give task and create lesson plan.”73
First, I enjoyed the moments of making the lesson plans for teaching English through digital storytelling and felt disappointed at the same time. I was positive because I prepared the drafts based on my experience during my former teaching practicum program. Additionally, I consulted them with my supervisor about the ways of teaching digital storytelling such as, what tool that I used, how digital storytelling was implemented, and how it could be taught in the class. While I had enough experience in making lesson plans, I was frustrated because my supervisor was not happy with my proposal. Here is my reflection.
“I prepared 4 lesson plans. Each meeting had different activity. After making the first lesson plan, I submitted it to the supervisor. Then I had many comments from him. He advised me to read sources such as journals about lesson plan making that had been published in international journal. I was expected that I knew how to make clear and easy to understand and structured the lesson plan in effective ways. I felt so disappointed because I thought my lesson plan was right
73 Reflection data, 22 November 2021., at home
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because I had made lesson plans many times when I did PPL before.
However, unfortunately, it was useless.74
From this reflection, I became more aware of the importance of reading because it could help me draft the lesson plan from certain theoretical or practical point of view. I could adapt or adopt the learning tasks designed by the authors. And it could shape my creativity in combining my ideas and the expert’s ideas of teaching writing through digital storytelling.
Furthermore, the data also shows that even though I had ample experience of making lesson plan, it was not enough. I believe I still needed more practice in making a better lesson plan for different learning purposes.
Figure 1. Supervisor’s comment on the lesson plan
This picture shows how the supervisor commented on my teacher’s activity. He asked the goal of using the application and its relationship with story making activity. This indicates that I missed the idea of exploring the teacher’s activity to make it more detail. This comment helps me better understand that the lesson plan focuses not only on how the teacher activity is designed but also how students are involved in learning. I became more aware
74 Reflection data, 22 November 2021., at home
that teacher guided and helped students in process of creating digital storytelling.
Addressing the supervisor’s feedback and comments on the lesson plans (I was so stressed but also, I was motivated because my supervisor feedback)
During the process of making lesson plan, I received many comments because my lesson plan was still considered confusing and unclear. I felt stressed and stacked in revising it. I did four-times revisions to make one lesson plan. I read and adopted sources of articles trying to understand how the authors make a lesson plan. I spend 2 - 3 hours doing my revision every night. I did my revision by listening to my favorite music in the order I did not to feel bored. When revising the lesson plan, I was guided by my supervisor’s feedback and comments. I was happy that the consultation process was enacted online (see Figure 2). It helped me to know what was wrong and right, spend no money to print my papers, and have the consultation from home. I read and understood his feedback and comments carefully in order I could make a better lesson plan.
“I consulted the lesson plan with my supervisor by online. However, I got comments that made me stressed. It had been done in four-time revisions, my supervisor still helped me give his feedback that made me motivated in making a better lesson plan and finally, I could finish making a lesson plan”75
From this reflection, I learned that my supervisor has an important role in guiding and helping me facing difficulties. The most important thing is that he showed patience, responded to my revision timely, and had impressive
75 Reflection data, 23 Mei 2021, Zoom meeting
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experience in writing articles. It made me more motivated to make a better lesson plan.
Figure 2. Online guidance with my supervisor
The Figure 2 shows that I followed the lesson plan consultation session online via zoom. The session was held twice a week. Before the consultation, my supervisor asked me to submit the revised draft before the day. I sent it by WhatsApp application. Sometimes if I had questions about the lesson plan, I could directly ask him about it via WhatsApp then he soon responded. After passing the revision four or five times I could create a better plan by learning, reading, and accepting the supervisor’s feedback. This consultation process helped me develop my identity as a pre-service teacher.
Negotiating lesson plans with the English teacher
In one morning at school, I consulted and negotiated the lesson plans that I had prepared before teaching with an English teacher. I explained to her what the learning materials were, how many meetings were required, what goals of my teaching were, and what skills the students can achieve in learning English through Digital storytelling. After knowing these, the English teacher
looked at my lesson plans proposal. She was interested because DST was new for her. Although she planned to teach narrative text next month, she was happy that I could share the materials on DST whenever I was ready. The negotiation process can be seen in Figure 4.
“Before teaching, I must know what materials the teacher had taught in the class. I was doubtful about it because I am afraid that the teacher will reject the lesson plan that I prepared to teach in the class.
But gratefully, I was so grateful that the English teacher accepted and agreed the proposed learning materials”76
From the reflection, I am aware that I could not directly teach in the classroom. Before teaching, I must know the materials, the classroom situation, and the student’s knowledge, particularly in English. Consulting and negotiating with the teacher had an important role to make my teaching successful in the classroom. This process could help me anticipate what would happen during a teaching in the classroom. Then, I delivered some questions or small interviews to her to know if the material that I taught in the classroom had been done by her.
Me : Mom, has the material of narrative writing been taught in the classroom?
Teacher : not yet. Now, the material of English in acceleration class is descriptive text
Me : well, thanks, mom. So, could I teach narrative writing through digital storytelling?
Teacher : What is digital storytelling?
Me : Digital storytelling is a short video and a tool for the student to express and tell their story of life or experience. and then to make them more creative in improving their writing skill and also creativity I conduct it through a digital storyboard called storyboardthat. So, students can explore not only it but also improve their digital skill which nowadays technology always interact with and is used by them.
76 Reflection data, 3 November 2021., at home.
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Teacher : yeah, it is good. I accept it. it will be something new for students because they will tell stories not ask them only to write as usual tasks l but also make digital storytelling. and Maiga does not worry about the facility of your research, this school really supports it. because the teaching and learning access use almost using technology77
Drawing on this interview excerpt, it can be seen that the learning materials that I made in the lesson plan has not been implemented in the classroom. So, it will be a new thing in teaching and learning English through digital storytelling. And also, it can add teaching references for English teachers in the school to implement in their language classrooms. Digital storytelling is so important to be understood by students because they can make a story alive than is made by traditional storytelling. The digital storytelling would help them to know how to write a good story in English language skill as well as improve their digital literacies.
While teaching of Introducing students with DST
In this activity, I began my English teaching to the eleventh-grade students. In a beautiful morning, I entered the class with positive thinking and motivation believing to myself that I could teach the materials of DST. I felt excited. In the first meeting, I introduced myself to the students and told them about my background study and the reason I taught in their class. I was surprised for me to see the students’ interest when I introduced myself. This vibe helped me transfer positive energy in the first meeting. Thus, I felt comfortable with the class situation. The classroom facilities were complete and supported my teaching such as, an LCD projector, 4 AC, good internet Wi-Fi, and a touch screen whiteboard.
77 Informal talk between an English teacher and I., 3 November 2022., at office teacher.
“I introduced myself to the students, who I was, what did in their class, where I was from, what my purpose for teaching in the class was etc.
so, it could build the good and close relationship and trusted students.
While I introduced myself, I saw their expression were so welcome and happy. Before teaching, I asked them to do a warm-out-like small game in order for them to be spirited and focused. The purpose of the warm-out was for making students focused and happy”78
From my reflection, I learn the role of pre-service teacher in preparing myself for feeling such as confidence, positive thinking, and spirit. So, pre- service teacher and students enjoy and spirited process of teaching and learning until the end of learning.
Next, I continued my teaching by questioning students about digital storytelling. To my surprise, no one student could answer it. They never got the lesson about digital storytelling. I saw their expression was so confused while I delivered the questions. I was so startled. I thought they had known it at least, just had little knowledge of digital storytelling but the fact was they never knew it. The interview excerpt can be seen below.
Me : Students, do you ever know or hear about digital storytelling?
Students : No miss?79
The data shows that I should explain it carefully and slowly in order they know and understand digital storytelling materials easily. I explained it using my power point slide for 15 minutes through an LCD projector. After that, it continued with questions answered between me and the students. The classroom activities were so active. There were 5 students who had questions and answer about digital storytelling. Here, my students and I were enthusiastic about having questions and answers about digital storytelling.
78 Reflection data, 4 November 2022., at classroom
79 Informal talk, between students and I. 4 November 2022., at classrom
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Introduction digital storytelling finished, then. I asked them for making a group. this was made for helping them in creating the project of digital storytelling easily. During this time, I gave them a worksheet consisting of questions for students’ activities or steps (see Figure 3)
Figure 3. Students’ answer of worksheet
In figure 3, I prepared a worksheet for students’ activity in guiding and creating digital storytelling structurally and easily. This worksheet mediated students to learn to respond to questions which required them to think critically, develop idea stories, work in group, and become responsible. In ELT context, the participants were encouraged to practice their story writing and exercise their writing skills.
a. Building knowledge of narrative text
The next activity in teaching digital storytelling was building knowledge of the narrative text. I taught this material because it related to creating digital storytelling. in this lesson. I asked students to make a project on digital storytelling such as narrating their experience as digital.
But before that, students must know how to write their story in the English language skills particularly writing skills. The narrative text is the material that narrates someone’s experience in their life. I taught students about what was narrative, goal, structure, features, and language English skills. I explained it through an LCD projector using PowerPoint. During teaching narrative, I did not spend much of my energy like taught DST. Because students never got the lesson when they were ten grades. Here is the reflection, and the picture students writing stories (see Figure 4.)
“The next activity was narrating the stories. Students worked to narrate the stories in 100 to 300 words. Students wrote it in the order they did not feel difficult in narrating stories so I asked them to write short stories as their tasks. After that, they were asked to analyze a series of English skills such as the grammatical, tenses, vocabulary, and writing skills. The goal was to develop their English skill, and critical thinking presented and motivated them to learn English by creating stories through digital storytelling. In narrating stories, Also, I asked them to open their phones in the order they could find the difficult vocabulary that they did not know”80
Figure 4. Students are writing stories
80 Reflection data,. 5 November 2022., at classroom
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From the data above, creating digital storytelling needs a good story. it can show that by writing stories with true grammatical, plot structure, the role prayer of the stories, setting place and time and etc. from this, students can explore how to develop the story in the order they easy to make good digital storytelling.
Furthermore, the role of the preservice teacher in guiding students while writing stories. the teacher must be patient and ready in facing students’ difficulties. For example, the teacher gave them directed feedback. because it was not easy to implement in the class and the pre- service teacher became a vocabulary robot because sometimes, they often asked for the vocabulary to me. it needed to spend much energy to always check and give directed feedback on their progress and answer their questions (see Figure 5)
Figure 5. Pre service teacher giving direct feedback
“Next activity, I gave them my feedback. The feedback could help students to know what was their mistakes in writing stories. So, they could make better stories from their mistake before. I found students’ difficulties like students felt difficulty how to find the difference between irregular and regular verb forms particularly in verb present, and past participle verbs. The goal of this learning was for students could learn the series of English languages and
help them to understand the stories while they will be presented the stories in front of the class” 81
From this reflection, it was known that giving learning material before creating stories for digital storytelling. The learning material particularly narrative text. It could help students to know how to make good and structured stories. in addition, students know how to write stories in English structure such as grammatical, writing skills, and formula of narrative text. In addition, the role of pre service teacher in giving a direct feedback to students. Students was helped in my feedback because they directly known what was the mistake then if they have got difficulty in creating story, they could directly ask to pre service teacher then pre service teacher helped and guided them directly. Why I did directed feedback because it made students directly understood what the feedback and they could not easy to forget my feedback. It means, they could directly correct the mistakes
b. Collaborative digital storyboarding making
The next activity was creating a digital storyboard making.
Students worked to create a storyboard by storyboardthat website., I started by showing the video of storyboardthat that I took from YouTube.
After students knew what was storyboardthat, I showed them by video tutorial on how to create a digital storyboard. I asked students to observe how the tutorial was and analyze it by answering the worksheet that had been proven. The worksheet helped them to know how students
81 Reflection data., 5 November 2022., at classroom
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understood digital storyboards using storyboardthat website. Next, they created a digital storyboard using storyboardthat. The digital storyboard was an important role in creating digital storytelling. from this, students could learn how the plot was, and how to create the role-play of character stories such as how was the scenes, expressions, emotions, appearance, conversation, or any features that the website provided. So, it would help them improve their creativity, digital skills, and critical thinking. Thus, students also felt fun, and active and enjoy learning English through a digital storyboard using storyboardthat website (see Figure 5). Below is my reflection while guiding students in creating digital storyboards:
c
Figure 5. Students’ activity in creating digital storyboard
“In this section, students create a digital storyboard using the laptop. Students begin with choosing the cells, background, characters, speech bubbles, items, and shapes they wanted.
Students looked so fun and excited because they could improve their digital skills by learning English so they did not feel bored”82 Furthermore, from the data above, students were not only learning English skills particularly writing skills but also, they could improve their digital skills to develop and create interesting stories. in addition, in creating a digital storyboard, sometimes students were confused with the
82 Reflection data., 6 November 2022., at classroom
features of a digital storyboard. So that way, I played a role to guide and help them to solve their problem. Students felt a little bit difficult to implement it because they were the first time practiced digital storyboards.
However, students still could finish their digital storyboards well.
After that, the next step was the presentation. At the beginning of class. I informed them that they did a presentation to retell their story from digital storyboardthat in front of the class (see Figure 6). Their response was very good. They were ready because they had known the stories well.
This activity to students’ confidence and speaking skills. Before presenting their project, I gave them five minutes to prepare the presentations. I was excited because their presentation and explanation of digital storytelling through storyboard were good and well. Here is my reflection:
Figure 6. students’ project presentation
“Presentation was beginning. I was not only asked them to presentation but also, I taught them how to be better presentation. I practiced and showed it to them on five minutes. It did in spite of they known how to have good presentation. I asked their presentation using English. although they were not ready yet I asked them to still used English during presentation. My reason