Three Day Road Electronic Ideagram:
Telling a Digital Story
An ideagram is a visual representation of a theme. It’s a creative collection of powerful
quotes, personal reactions, dialogue, photographs, artwork and other images including
video clips. It may also include music that enhances the theme. All these elements
work together to develop the theme, or message, of your novel in a creative way.
Digital stories derive their power through weaving images, music, narrative and voice
together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid colour to characters, situations, and
insights.
Choose one of the following universal themes as it applies to your novel:
Good and Evil, Courage, Survival, Power of Family & Friends,
Persecution, Hope (or another teacher-approved theme)
Develop an electronic ideagram, or digital story, that demonstrates how the
theme was developed in your book then extend the theme to everyday life.
Download images from the internet, or take your own digital photos to tell a digital story.
Enhance your story with theme-related music, appropriate quotes and dialogue.
When you have completed the reading, you will create an ideagram using iMovie or
Explain Everything (or some other app that provides the ability to insert pictures and
audio) and you will then present your ideagram to the class.
Criteria for the Electronic Ideagram/Digital Story
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Include at least 3 quotes that clearly relate to your theme. These MUST come
directly from the book you’ve read.
o All quotes must be copied accurately and include the page number and
the title of the book you took them from. Including an explanation would
be helpful, particularly when you present this to the class.
5 – 7 other pieces of evidence to support your theme. These could include
quotes from other sources, poems, songs, speeches, movies etc. You MUST
credit your sources (example: give the name of the poem and author, NOT just
the website you got them from).
Include at least 10 images that represent your theme with an explanation. You
may use photographs, artwork, or video clips—again, please credit your sources
and explain why the images are significant (either verbally and/or with text).
Include a title or opening that grabs the viewer’s attention
Use correct spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.
Ensure your ideagram is pleasing to the eye (aesthetically pleasing)
Make sure it is also well organized, creative, enthusiastically and clearly
presented
Your overall production should be about 2 to 4 minutes in length
Planning Steps
1. Brainstorm an idea for your story. Consider your audience and purpose.
2. Develop a narrative script. How are you going to tell the story? What are you
going to say?
3. Create a simple storyboard to determine the sequence of the story.
4. Collect or create images for the story—use the internet or take your own digital
photos. Beware of copyright infringement.
5. Identify music for soundtrack—use your own CDs/MP3s or go to
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/ to download appropriate sound clips.
Research
The following web pages will give you a plethora of samples, links and ideas for
completing this project. Beware of plagiarism!
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/
Ideagram/Digital Story Evaluation:
Aspect:
Not Yet Meeting
Expectations
Meeting
Expectations
Fully Meeting
Expectations
Exceeding
Expectations
 Imagery, text,
 Creatively and
effectively uses
imagery, text,
sound and
dialogue to
develop the
theme; wellintegrated
(minimal to
moderate)
Theme
Development
 Use of imagery,
text, sound and
dialogue
 Emotional impact
and use of
multimedia
 Irrelevant imagery,
dialogue; theme is
undeveloped
 Does not include a
variety of
multimedia; has
little emotional
impact
 Makes some
connections
between the
imagery, text,
dialogue and
sounds; may
exclude some
multimedia
elements
 Multimedia
presentation is
straightforward
and basic
Meaning
 Ideas and
information
 purpose or point of
view unclear
 relies on retelling
or listing
 Use of detail
 ideas are not
developed;
information may
be misinterpreted
Form
 opening
 weak introduction
 organization and
 abrupt conclusion
sequence
 conclusion
 sequence may be
confusing
 relevant reactions
and ideas
 straightforward
and direct
 uses details and
examples; some
may be inaccurate
sound and
dialogue clearly
represents the
theme
 The multimedia
use attempts to
create an
emotional impact;
demonstrates
some original
thinking.
 reactions and
ideas with some
insight
 may speculate,
generalize,
attempts to extend
the theme
 accurate details,
 The multimedia
use brings out
emotions in the
viewer; the
imagery “speaks
for itself”
 some insight and
originality
 attempts to make
an emotional
impact; effectively
extends theme
beyond the book
 details, examples,
examples; logical
explanations
and explanations
develop analysis
or arguments
 introduction is
often effective;
middle and end
undeveloped
 often starts
strong, then
develops in
predictable ways
 strong opening;
well-defined
middle and end
 “stream of
consciousness”
 logical sequence
and connections
 logical sequence
and connections;
presentation
flows effectively