Lesson Plan
Title: Creating a Picture Story
Level: Elementary 4
Objective: Students have to work on a class project and create a picture story using the grammar structures being taught. This picture story should be posted online and look like a comic strip.
Webtools used: Vuvox and Flickr Toys
Other materials needed: digital camera, realia
Time needed for the activity: 2 classes of 50 minutes
Grammar structures: activity adaptable to any grammar point being taught (in this lesson plan we'll work with simple present)
Procedures:
Class 1
1. Bring some realia to class and display the objects on the table. Tell students they have to pick some objects and that they have to come up with sentences and questions using Do/Does and the verbs they have just learned in the lesson.
Write some examples on the board to guide them:
Do you like juice? Yes, I do
Does he eat pizza? Yes, he does.
He studies in the afternoon.
Give students some time to look at the props and come up with possible sentences and questions. Do some brainstorming and write down all their ideas on the board.
2. Narrowing it down
Now that you have brainstormed several different questions and sentences, invite students to choose the sentences and questions they liked the most. You might have to narrow their choices down to a certain number of sentences.
Explain to the students that they have to take pictures of themselves using the available props in order to illustrate the sentences and questions that they have just selected.
Give them the camera and let them participate actively in the process of directing and taking the pictures. Teacher should just give them some guidance and interfere whenever it's really necessary.
* Remind them that all pictures together should look like a story that has a beginning and an end, so help them with extra ideas for pictures that can work as fillers for important transitions between one picture and the other.
3. Uploading
Upload all pictures to a computer.
Class 2
1. Bring a laptop to class or take the students to the computer lab so that everyone can see the pictures they have taken the previous class.
Now , explain that they are going to use a special webtool to insert speech bubbles in all the photos with the sentences previously chosen.
Teacher should enter his Flickr account and go to Flickr Toys and click on the Tool called "Captioner".
Put captions on the first picture so that everyone understands how it works and let them try doing it with the rest of the pictures.
2. After all pictures have been captioned direct them to VuVox.
Teacher logs in to his VuVox account and start the process of editing the slide show.
Explain that they're going to edit all pictures and create a slide show with them so that it'll look like a comic strip/picture story.
Help students with the edition and upload a background song if appropriate.
Now that the all work is done show it to them!
Well, here comes the surprise!!! I have actually put this project into life with my elementary 4 students and we worked on it just like it was described in the lesson plan and it worked beautifully! Enjoy it!
Here's the link:
http://www.vuvox.com/my_vox/show/0c2a43813
Comments (1)
Carla Arena said
at 10:52 am on Nov 14, 2008
Vini, Wow! I wanted to cry when I saw the final result of your lesson plan! You've shown that in a very didactic, objective way, learners can be in charge of their own learning. They can make the process really theirs and play around with language. What I loved about the way you set up your lesson plan is that your kids were involved in all parts of the process from the early stages of collecting their realia up to adding their speech bubbles to the photos they've taken. F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C! I've never doubted that you were an educator tuned to 21st century classroom practices. I remember years ago you using photologs with students. And now, you're fully prepared to keep exploring cyberworld, not alone anymore, but with us and your learners. How fun and meaningful could that be? I hope this is just the beginning of many online endeavors you'll have with your students.
I'd really love to see your impressions on this project. Plus, I wanted to know if you sent the Vuvox links to your students' parents. If not, how about getting their email and establishing this communication channel with them, telling them a little bit more of what you're doing, how you see the use of technology in the classroom and explaining this mini-project in the class. Another idea is just to use your blog to explain the whole thing and add vuvox there (remember you can embed it in the post by getting the code and pasting it) and just give your students the link to the post so that parents access it and even add comments!
Congratulations, Vini! This lesson plan is a model of learner-centeredness and use of social media to promote engagement and true learning for students in a playful way.
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