I came across this little gem in my archive of files and liked the way we used technology to not only develop as students but to also help in the development of our school's staff. Last year, my principal asked if I could give a short presentation on how I was using Literature Circles and peer coaching in my reading classroom for an upcoming in-service. Of course I agreed to do it, but we wanted to put a little spin on things. The kids were excited about creating a short presentation for all the teachers. Students in my group were beginning to get pretty good at creating a podcast and wanted to try to make a movie. So, with a little digital camera and Windows Movie Maker, we created a short 5 minute video about our Literature Circles. The students filmed all the scenes themselves and narrated it as well. They also had a hand in writing the script too, but I did some modifying of my own. We used a small MP3 to create the narrations and then placed them and the video clips into Movie Maker and *poof*. We are finished! The movie worked out great as it incorporated our Literature groups without a disruption, helped us work on some much needed writing, and gave us the opportunity to practice some 20th Century skills as well.
I am hoping to be able to create more movies like this during the upcoming school year. We tried our hand at making stop motion movies over a novel we read which seemed to take way longer than anticipated or needed. We might try to create some live action movies this year instead. I think it would also be really neat for students to create a video over stories their reading, research projects, science experiments, etc. The possibilities are endless.
