Toontastic Lesson Plan 1

ELPS 811 Final Paper

Toontastic Lesson Plan

Toontastic Lesson Plan 2

Developing lesson plans for students with disabilities that use the

theories discussed in this class will help develop important skills that the

students will use in both the classroom and real-world settings. The lesson that I

have developed is for a Language Arts class, and the topic that is covered is story

development. Story development does not mean the elements of a story

(characters, setting, theme, etc.), but it means how the plot is structured in order

for a story to be interesting. Plot is divided up in parts that include initial setup,

conflict, and resolution. The title of my lesson is Create a Cartoon. The lesson is

designed for grade levels five through eight, but in a special education classroom.

The lesson and activities that accompany the lesson will span about three to four

eighty-five minute block class periods. Students need to have some prior

knowledge on this subject area before the lesson is taught. Students must know

the basic elements of a story. Students also need to know the basics of writing

composition and be able to write about one topic for more than a few sentences.

Knowledge about point of view and how to write basic dialogue are also

necessary skills to know beforehand.

There are many objectives and skills that the students will learn by the

time the lesson is finished. Students will be able to recognize the different parts

of story structure through reading different texts. Students will learn how to use

graphic organizer that breaks down the story structure of a story that they have

read and for the story that they will write. Students will practice and develop

their functional writing skills in order to write a short story with the story

structure. They will be able to identify, know, and understand the parts of story

structure, initial setup, conflict, and resolution. Students will understand and be
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able to use the Toontastic writing app. Students will display their writing

creatively with the use of the Toontastic app to develop their short story into a

cartoon.

The constructivist technology learning tool that I intend to use with my

students to support the lesson objectives is the Toontastic writing app.

Toontastic is an app that allows students to draw, animate, narrate and record

their own stories to make them into cartoons. Students are given different

character options, different background options, and the option to narrate their

story, move their characters around on as many scenes as they need, and then

watch it come to life on screen. It gives students more options than just basic

story telling with a pen and paper. It adds visuals and sounds to make each story

unique and come to life. This technology tool will help motivate and excite

students to learn and play with their writing.

The students will be taking part in many activities in order to prepare for

the final part of this lesson. Some of these activities include reading different

texts and deciphering the story structure of each story, identifying the parts of a

good story structure, and deciding what makes one story more interesting than

another. The last activity is the one in which the students will use a constructivist

technology tool. The learning activity that the students will be participating in

that uses the constructivist-learning tool, Toontastic, is creating their own

stories with the app. After students have studied story structure and played

around with the app, they will be given the opportunity to create their own story

that follows the story structure that we have studied in class. Each student must

have an initial set up, a conflict, and a resolution as part of their plot in order to

make their story appealing to their viewers. How they wish to show this story
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structure is up to them using the Toontastic writing app. Students will first

complete a graphic organizer that breaks their story into parts so they can

organize their ideas and thoughts to help them structure and write their story.

Then the students will write their story, but it does not need to be published

since the final product is the Toontastic cartoon not a published writing piece.

This activity is constructivist because the only structure given to the students is

that they must include the story structure we studied and discussed in class. The

rest of the story, the characters and the setting are completely determined by the

student. Each student will interpret the learning a bit differently, so the

outcomes of learning will somewhat vary based on the stories that are made

(Jonassen, 1991 p.11). Each student will have a different story and a different

plot line (initial setup, problem, and solution), so there will be lots of variations

to the objective being taught. In this case, students are given a writing app or an

intellectual tool that make it necessary for the students to construct their

knowledge of story structure (Jonassen, 1991 p.12). Since students are given the

tools and background of story structure, they are able to control and mediate

their learning.

A typical way of having students practice what they have learned about

story structure is to have students fill out a graphic organizer and then write a

story either by hand or to type it on a computer. Students spend a long time

writing down their ideas to develop a story that will be both appealing to

themselves and to the people that will be reading their story. They have to come

up with the characters and setting on their own without really having the help of

a visual aid, in this case the characters already programmed in the Toontastic

app. They may have a simple idea, but students with disabilities often have
Toontastic Lesson Plan 5

difficulty thinking about these two elements in great detail and need the

assistance of a visual so they do not get stuck. Once they have written their story,

students then have to spend the time to constantly re-read, edit, and revise their

stories. After students self-edit and revise their own story, they then trade with a

partner to do a peer edit/review to see if there was anything that they missed.

Then students publish their story. Sometimes students are able to draw a picture

that goes with the story. This is a process that most students are used to going

through when completing any kind of writing activity. There is not a lot of

variation to this method of teaching writing or story skills.

When comparing and contrasting the two approaches to teaching

students with disabilities about story structure, there are some similarities but a

lot of differences. Both approaches focus on making sure students use and

understand story structure. Students get to make up their own story with their

own characters, setting, problem, and solution. Each are making something

unique and can go in a variety of directions as long as the story has the plot

structure that was taught and studied. The two approaches are also different in

many ways. The traditional way of showing understanding of story structure

only lends itself to one kind of learner. Students with disabilities often have a

hard time getting their thoughts down on paper or even verbally expressing

their thoughts. They also can struggle with putting sufficient detail in their

writing to describe their characters and setting, as well as, developing their

characters well enough for the story structure to make sense. Using the

Toontastic app helps these students come up with ideas, add more detail to their

writing because their story becomes visual. Also since the story comes alive with

the animation, students are more motivated to create a great story that will
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entertain their viewers. The visuals also help the students use their imagination

and make connections that they otherwise might not make because there are no

visual cues in the traditional approach. With the ability to add narration to their

stories, it adds another level of excitement for the students to make their stories

unique. By having both visual and auditory additions to their stories, it motivates

the students and helps them add enough detail to their story to really

development the story structure. The Toontastic activity makes learning more

fun and makes the learning goal more attainable to these students who often

struggle with their writing skills.

When analyzing this technology tool and the learning activity that uses it,

it implements most of the learning theories discussed in this class. “People learn

more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone” (Mayer, 2005

p.31). This technology tool and activity mixes words, pictures, and sounds in

order to make writing more exciting and motivating and allows students to

transfer their knowledge and information in a variety of ways as discussed in

Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. The writing app has

characters and settings already in the app (the visuals) so that students can

spend more time on the story structure rather than only focusing on elements of

the story (the writing), which is the goal of the activity. When analyzing this

activity using human cognitive architecture, this activity implements parts of this

theory as well. Students are asked to transfer their knowledge of story structure

into writing and also transfer what they know about story structure into a new

media, which is the app. Students must access what they already know about

writing from their long term memory in order to make connections to incoming

material about writing story structure. So students are combining new

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knowledge in long-term memory to be used in the future in order to write and

develop their stories. If the activity is structured well enough for the students,

then students should not experience extraneous cognitive load. Depending on

the students’ needs, if the activity is divided into smaller parts then the students

should not be overloaded. “Scaffolding can also guide instruction and decrease

cognitive load by structuring a task in ways that allow the learner to focus on

aspects of the task that are relevant to the learning goals” (Hmelo-Silver, Duncan,

& Chinn, 2006). There is scaffolding in the lesson to help students be successful

while completing their project with the graphic organizer to help structure their

thoughts, breaking down the steps that the students need to take in order to

successfully develop their cartoon. There can be extraneous cognitive load if the

students get caught up with choosing characters, the settings, and other minor

details that are not as imperative to the learning goal. If there are so many

options that the students get stuck making a decision, it keeps them from being

able to move on to making and developing their story, which will be a problem

since this is the final goal of the lesson.

Since the students are actively taking part in the learning process and

students are creating meaning through experience, this activity and technology

tool are constructivist. Students are creating their meaning of story structure

and they are using their experiences to make unique and individual stories or

cartoons. This activity is also constructivist because the teacher’s role is to

instruct the student on how to construct meaning and to “Design experiences for

the learner so that authentic, relevant contexts can be experienced” (Ertmer &

Newby, 1993 p. 59). At the beginning of the lesson, it is my job to make sure that

students are able to understand story structure and then apply it to a story of
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their own. Students are then to make up a story about any topic they would like

in order to show that they understand story structure. This activity is also

constructionist as well. “The learner is consciously engaged in constructing a

public entity…” (Papert & Harel 1991). In this case, the students are building or

constructing their own story using visuals and sounds using the Toontastic app.

Rather than regular paper and pencil stories, students are creating or

constructing a cartoon. This is the entity that students are building that Papert

refers to in constructionism.

Social constructivism applies to some but not all the aspects of this

activity because it does include the use of a virtual world, but it is not a

collaborative learning environment with lots of social interaction. Students are

learning and working on individual projects. Most of the writing process is done

without collaboration except when the teacher checks in with the students to

make sure that the students stay on track. There is no peer interaction or

collaboration where students get to share their thoughts or ideas. Only at the end

when the students share their final products. This activity does implement social

constructivism because it allows the student, “The ability to act mentally on

virtual worlds, carrying out operations in the head instead of carrying them out

externally” (Ackermann, 1991). Students are completing this activity in this

“virtual world” on the writing app where not all details need to written down but

shown through the animation of the cartoon. The Toontastic writing app also

implements some aspects of social constructivism because it has an entire online

social community where people can share their stories and cartoons with people

from all over the world. Students are able to access this online community to
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gather ideas, support, and motivate one another with all of their different

projects.

In order to check for understanding and success of the lesson I would use

different kinds of assessments. First, I would use formative assessments to check

in with students to make sure that they understand story structure and what

makes a story interesting. Students need to know and understand the different

aspects of this structure before attempting to write their own stories. These

formative assessments would let me know which students are on the right track

and which students need some concepts re-taught to them. The final product, the

students’ stories, would be the last assessment where I would be able to see if

the students understand story structure. I would assess the success of the lesson

by seeing if all of my students are actively engaged and motivated throughout the

working process of creating their cartoons. When I ask the students what their

story structure is in their Toontastic cartoon, they should be able to tell me

without referring to their graphic organizer or without showing me their

cartoon. Also, looking over and watching the final products that the students

created and being able to check for understanding of story structure would help

me assess the success of the lesson.

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References

Ackermann, E. (2001). Piaget's constructivism, Papert‘s constructionism: What’s

the difference?

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism:

Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective.
Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50-72. doi:10.1002/piq.21143

Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Duncan, R. G., & Chinn, C. A. (2007). Scaffolding and

achievement in problem-based and inquiry learning: A response to
Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006). Educational Psychologist, 42(2), 99-
107.

Jonassen, D. H. (1991). Objectivism versus constructivism: Do we need a new

philosophical paradigm? Educational Technology, Research and
Development, 39(3), 5-14.

Mayer, R. E. (2005). Cognitive theory of multimedia learning. In R. E. Mayer, The

Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (pp. 31-48). New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.

Papert, S., & Harel, I. (1991). Situating constructionism. In S. Papert & I. Harel,
Ablex Publishing Corporation.