Using Video to Roll Out the Red Carpet
Students can use moviemaking tools to demonstrate their learning across all content areas. In this series of NOW lessons, students learn how to create videos and augmented-reality projects to incorporate into their presentations. Because they are generally comfortable using video technology to learn and teach others, grades 6–8 students should be able to effectively use multimedia to communicate their knowledge.
Learning goal:
I can create a simple movie using digital images and video clips.
Novice: Creating Simple Movies
Moviemaking gives students a creative way to show their learning, providing them with a collaborative process that requires them to use their language skills to show what they know and establish their voice. For example, students can use a moviemaking app and real-time weather data to report on weather conditions in a way that reflects their understanding of weather patterns. Students can include images of their own work, video clips, sounds, music, and other media, and they also have the option to narrate their movie. You should expect grades 6–8 students to be able to independently create a movie that demonstrates classroom learning using age-appropriate images, text, and music.
Students can use several video-creation apps, including iMovie (www.apple.com/imovie), Animoto (https://animoto.com), and Adobe Spark (https://spark.adobe.com), to make movies. For this lesson, we recommend WeVideo (www.wevideo.com), a website and app that allows users to create movies with pictures, video clips, text, and voice recordings. The free version limits students to two minutes of video, but you also have options for paid classroom and school subscriptions. To use WeVideo, students need to sign up for a WeVideo account using a school G Suite email address or another school email address.
Process: Recording a Simple Video
Use the following six steps to have students record and share a simple video project.
TECH TIPS
1. Have students select a moviemaking app for their project. If instead you choose one app for the entire class to use, make sure you introduce students to its user interface and basic features and functions.
2. Prompt students to start a new video project. Some moviemaking apps will ask students questions about their project before they begin making their movie. For example, an app might ask students to choose a template, title, or description.
3. Students record their video or find images to insert into their project to create a video.
4. Students should insert elements they want to use into their project. This can include importing images, previously recorded video, and audio, like narration or background music. Students use the app to drag elements into the project and arrange them in the project timeline tracks to form a complete movie.
5. Have students save and export or share their work. Most video-creation apps allow you to directly export projects to popular video-hosting services like YouTube (www.youtube.com), WeVideo (www.wevideo.com), and Vimeo (https://vimeo.com). Students can also share their videos to their class’s LMS for peer viewing.
6. Have students share a link to their published video with you and the rest of the class.
Connections
You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.
• English language arts: Ask students to make a video where they act as a book critic reviewing specific aspects of a text they read. Elements of this project can include a video of themselves speaking as the critic, audio narration, and author interviews.
• Mathematics: Have students make a commercial or ad-pitch video to sell an invented product. This project should include financial content, such as the cost to produce, sales cost, and profit.
• Social science: Instruct students to make a video of themselves acting out or recreating an event in history. For example, a student might use a green-screen app to film him- or herself talking about modern immigration issues in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
• Health: Have students make a video with them acting as nutrition specialists working with clients to explain proper nutrition to them.
Learning goal:
I can use advanced multimedia-editing features to create a final movie product.
Operational: Creating Movie Masterpieces
When students understand how to put simple movie features together, they can work to edit their movie and add special features to enhance it. This exploration process works especially well if you put students in groups so they can collaborate. Grades 6–8 students should be able to independently plan, organize, and produce a complete multimedia production. These are valuable skills for students in practicing their communication abilities and sharing their voice with others.
Each moviemaking app has different features for students to explore, and any of the moviemaking apps we suggested for the novice lesson should work equally well for this lesson.
Process: Recording and Editing a Movie
Use the following five steps to have students assemble and edit a movie project.
TEACHING TIP
Students should only add visual effects with a specific purpose in mind. Too many unnecessary effects can take away from a movie’s message.
1. Have students select a moviemaking app for their project.
2. Tell students to take photos and record video or audio that they want to include in their movie. Students can either use their default device camera app or a downloaded moviemaking app to record.
3. Have students open the moviemaking app they selected and import the video clips, audio clips, and photos they want to use.
TECH TIP
As students create and edit their movie project, instruct them to add audio to their timeline last, after they finish adding and editing video or