Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Lights! Camera! Action!

Every student in your class can be a film producer. Yes, every student. Questions you may ask yourself…

  • Why would I want them to produce a film?
  • What good would it do?
  • How would that even fit into my curriculum?
  • Which types of equipment, tools and resources would I need to make it happen?
  • When would I have time to add this type of project into my curriculum?
  • All very good questions! Here are some answers!

    • Choose a unit, (goal/objective) based within the NC Standard Course of Study
    • Gather digital cameras or Flip Cameras from your Media Center and/or teachers at your school
    • Teach the lesson as you normally would...
    • At the end of the lesson, have the students use the camera to shoot footage depicting their perspective of the lesson - showing you (visually) what they have learned!
    • Allow them class time for making/producing the video. Be sure to find out which students have access to cameras at home!
    • Have the students upload the video footage into Windows Movie Maker (or video-editing software of your choice) to make any necessary edits, add text, music, narration, etc.
    • Decide on a red-carpet “Premiere” Day and showcase each of the students' documentaries!
    • Check out these resources to help your students along the way... Roadmaps and Characteristics. These informational links are courtesy of Digital Documentaries.

    Want a specific example?

    • Eighth Grade: Social Studies
    • Competency Goal 1 – Objective 1.01: Assess the impact of geography on the settlement and developing economy of the Carolina colony

    What footage could your students shoot that would provide distinct visuals for Objective 1.01 of the NC Standard Course of Study within Social Studies?

    What happened with this lesson? Simple! Your curriculum didn’t change, but you added 21st Century Learning Skills into the mix. Did the students seem to enjoy learning? My guess is a resounding yes!

    Don’t teach Social Studies? This idea of allowing video/camera footage to tell a story works across the curriculum!

    Don’t stop with documentaries! Try PSAs, commercials or even movie trailers! Movie trailer video footage or posters are a great way to showcase a required historical reading/text.

    Not sure how to use a Flip Camera or Windows Movie Maker? Contact us! We'll be happy to show you how!

    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Students are fully engaged with creating movies with the flip camera. This might be a great way for our school to show what to do and what not to do in our universal areas of our school. I think students would fully buy into modeling our core values and procedures in "movie" format. We could show the clips on our morning newscast.
    Thanks for the step by step directions.
    DM

    Leah said...

    Have you seen our video at Whitaker Elementary School? I learned how to use a Flip Video camera at the beginning of this school year after taking a workshop on 21st century skills. Then we started making an infomercial about our school. It's still in progress. Then we made a video about the importance of learning other languages for the ACTFL video contest. We are finalists in this nationwide contest. Voting ends Jan. 31st. If we win, it's a win for our school system and our tech department for bringing the Flip video to my attention!Stay tuned!