The Twits by Roald Dahl and using Imovie to Summarize!

Having recently purchased Imovie for our iPads, Mrs. Camarda and myself decided to utilize the pre-made trailers within Imovie as a tool for teaching students to summarize a novel. Mrs. Camarda utilized an audio book version of "The Twits" by Roald Dahl to read the story to students, in class. They then completed several comprehension activities with in the classroom.
Mrs. Camarda and I then sat down to plan how we would introduce the idea of creating a movie trailer to the students. We decided to have the students create a storyboard that showed, in detail each scene they would film. We asked them to think about the important events in the book and how those events would look were you to view them in movie format.  Each trailer comes pre-made with background music and captions which students could edit. The students were told to choose a particular style of trailer and then to plan out their scenes using the storyboard we provided to them. Students were given two periods to create their storyboards and to plan out their props, etc.
The filming was completed in the library. The different groups were able to spread out and utilize different areas of the library for their scenes. Many of the students created some pretty impressive props which included wings for the bird and a real pie. Students were then given three class periods to film their scenes, and edit their work. Students were very excited about the project and worked well with each other. They began to get creative with their work. In one instance students made balloons out of construction paper then laid them on the floor and a student pretended to hold on to them to create the appearance that he was flying. Other students utilized the screen shot feature in the iPads to take images from the web, edit them using our photo editing app, then insert these images into their trailers. One group asked to utilize an app that puts beards on people to insert an image of Mr. Twit into their work. There were very few conflicts, etc.
The end result has been extremely positive. The trailers are well done and students have shown a general enjoyment of the project.

We asked several students what they feel they have learned from this project. The following are direct quotations from the students.

"I learned that in a group you can't use all of your own ideas you have to compromise."
"Things have to get cut out sometimes or changed if you want to finish the project."
"There's a lot we can do with an iPad."
"Summarizing is hard you really have to focus on the important parts because not everything can fit in the trailer."

Mrs. Camarda and I talked about these comments after the students had left and we were impressed with their perceptions of the learning. They weren't interested in reciting facts to us rather the students mentioned learning life skills like creativity, flexibility and the ability to cooperate. We feel the project has been very successful and hopefully we will post several of the trailers here for people to view.

Photo Essays on Migration

Recently, students in Mrs. Naidu's grade 8 geography class completed a research assignment on the push and pull factors that affect human migration. Students utilized smart ideas to organize and map out information which compared the quality of life in Canada to life another country. Students utilized The CIA World Factbook, and many other sites to find information about birth rates, literacy rates, unemployment rates, etc. Students then took this information and synthesized it into a photo essay with captions for their chosen images. Students had many different options available for creating the photo essays. Some used the iPad or their Mac book, others used Prezi or PowerPoint. We gave them many options for creating their photo essays.
Students were given several periods to research their topics and Mrs. Naidu and myself guided the students through the numerous facts and information as they built their webs on Smart ideas. All in all the results were pretty successful. Students learned a great deal and had to do a lot of thinking about their topics. Some found that their countries weren't very different Canada in terms of health care, education, etc. These students really had to think about what might draw a person here to Canada if their home country was so similar to our own. We watched the students think they're way through the project and learn a great deal about life in other countries. Many of the students were surprised by infant death rate in many countries. It's fairly unheard of here in Canada to lose a child so this statistic surprised them quite a bit.
The project was an enjoyable experience for both teachers and students and the results were valuable. We look forward to working together on the same project next year. Of course there will be items that will be tweaked and the amount of data will probably be lessened. Student feedback on the project mentioned that this was a difficulty they had with the project.

Below are some links to examples of the project and the finished photo essays.
Jordan's Photo Essay
Nesha's Photo Essay as a website
Amy's Morocco Photo Essay

Shattered, by Eric Walters - The Culminating task!!!

I have recently begun collaborating with one of our grade 8 teachers on the unit design and culminating task for her novel study unit on the novel Shattered, by Eric Walters. Mrs. Naidu approached me a short while ago to discuss the design of her novel study. We discussed what she hoped to achieve with students as well as her main goals in using this particular novel. We worked on designing different comprehension activities for students to discuss and complete in class.

Here's the book trailer.

Mrs. Naidu wanted students to learn about social issues, to analyze a novel and discuss the themes presented within the novel. We found some graphic organizers that would assist the students in analyzing the novel and then we planned the culminating task.

A culminating task is an activity that wraps up the particular unit and requires students to utilize the skills they were taught as they read the novel. A culminating task should require students to think critically about themes and information and then display what they have learned for the teacher and their peers. Essentially, it is the grand finale of learning.

For the culminating task, we wanted to design a task where students had to think about social issues, charity organizations and then discuss these charities. We asked students to find and research a particular charity. They were asked to learn about the mission statement, volunteer opportunities and how the charity delivered its services to the public. Students were then asked to discuss and explain the charity utilizing the iPad  Students could choose from a variety of apps including educreations and explain a website. They were to record their opinions and thoughts about their selected charity.

Students were able to complete their research of the charity in one class and are currently working on writing out their thoughts on the charity and developing a script before they begin recording, filming, etc. their final presentation on the iPad.

I'll be back with more info later. :))))))