Teachers as digital composers: Designing digital jumpstarts to scaffold for emerging bilingual learners

Abstract

This study contributes to scholarship about effective technology use for emerging bi/multilingual students who are learning English as an additional language. Prior research on digital storytelling has largely examined student created products, but this study examines how teachers purposefully planned differentiated instruction through their use of a specific type of digital storytelling: digital jumpstarts. Participants included 17 pre- and in-service teachers enrolled in graduate courses focused on teaching English to speakers of other languages. Analysis of digital jumpstart projects that the teachers created, their lesson plans, and their written reflections revealed that digital jumpstarts can effectively provide students with planned scaffolds that support language and content development through the incorporation of multiple modes, key terms and definitions, translations, and connections to students’ lived experiences. We provide implications for how teachers can create and use digital jumpstarts in their classrooms with bi/multilingual students.