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Student engagement is said to be the best predictor for learning. Storytelling through drama and computer-based multimedia authoring present English for second language learners (ESLLs) with engaging opportunities to develop concurrently basic skills in language arts and higher order thinking skills. Storytelling offers teachers a chance to delve into their students’ background experience and draw on the knowledge of these students’ families and communities.

This website illustrates ways to address the needs of ESLLs in our schools and communities. Projects included on this website demonstrate a range of students’ interests and abilities teachers usually encounter in their classrooms. In the sample projects and videos, you will find students using language arts skills to express diverse experiences and emotions such as wisdom, pride, or pain.
(Sample projects on the Multimedia Strategies page including Ke Keiki Mehameha, The Government & The People, and Discrimination illustrate how students express these emotions through technology projects.)

Regardless of the diversity of individual experiences, the processes involved in drama activities and developing multimedia projects allow students to stretch their imaginations and reach for the words to express things relevant to their lives.
(Sample videos on the Drama Strategies page show step-by-step how to have students use their imagination to create action and dialogue.)

Acquisition of language arts skills is at the heart of these storytelling and multimedia strategies. While the students have fun with the process, they learn important skills that align to language arts standards they are expected to meet. While the activities are designed to help students practice their oral communication skills, expand their vocabulary, and develop their writing skills, the topics of the projects can be extended to other curriculum areas, such as science and social studies.
(Sample project Mour Im Manit: Life and Culture is an example of how multimedia is integrated with a subject area.)