Miss Foley’s 7th grade social studies classes created talk shows and interviewed special guests, Andrew Carnegie or John Rockefeller (USII3.d). This assignment strengthened their research skills as they found information on their “special guest.” (research & information fluency) The students worked in groups and each assigned a different task. They had to learn to collaborate and rely on each other to get the job done in a timely manner. The roles included a web designer, video editor, and writer. (communication & collaboration)
The talkshows were video taped, uploaded on the student laptops, and edited by the students using iMovie. Once complete the videos then embedded onto a web page created using iWeb.
The 8th grade students in Ms. Cosby’s World History class became news anchors for WRMN Channel XII news for a day. Students formed small groups from the students in their class and collaborated on ideas of ways they could present the information they researched about a topic from Roman history. They were challenged to use their creativity and problem solving skills to communicate what they had learned about their topic and present the information in a way that was not only informative, but also entertaining. The groups then wrote scripts based on their ideas and video taped their presentations as if they were broadcasting the news live. The footage was then imported into iMovie where the groups worked together to edit and fine tune their final product.
Through this project, the students became more connected with the information they researched and learned how to work with others in an highly productive way.
The students at L. Douglas Wilder Middle School are working tirelessly on their collaboration and communication skills. This year Wilder began televising their morning announcements. Students are responsible for researching upcoming events and relaying the information to the student population and staff. The written transcript and live broadcast are also available online for parents and the community at the following URL- http://wuww.wikispaces.com. The goal of this project is to have WUWW entirely student run within the next few weeks.
In conjunction with their unit on The Diary of Anne Frank, Mrs. Hunnicutt’s advanced 8th grade English students researched and studied The Holocaust and other instances of genocide as a way to bring to life the idea of promoting dignity and respect among all people. For this unit, students completed a learning contract that offered a wide variety of topics of study topics and a wide variety of ways to demonstrate learning. Students were asked to utilize critical thinking and reading skills as well as a myriad of tools to create traditional as well as multimedia artifacts that demonstrated their knowledge and creativity.
Mrs. Hunicutt was consistently amazed and impressed by the depth of knowledge and feeling that students demonstrated in their projects from vodcasts about The Trail of Tears to original songs composed and recorded on Garageband, to scripted chapters of Elie Wiesel’s Night, to interviews with Holocaust survivors, to community service projects, to paintings and collages that profoundly communicate the pain and suffering caused by intolerance.
The SOLs covered by this project are as follows: 8.1, 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 8.5 8.7
My Own Memory – Original Music Score
[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/myownmemory.mp3]
Why? – Original Music Score
In Ms. Brouillier’s 6th grade English Classes, students had the assignment to write a script for a public service announcement about a selected disease. Topics ranged from pneumonia and allergies to poison ivy and warts. Students spent time in the library and the henrico county database researching the chosen topic and learning how to correctly site the sources. Students then used Garageband and the library of sound effects to create an enhanced podcast about the disease. Students then were able to write comments to one another on the class blog page. Additionally students ranked how well they liked each other’s enhanced podcasts after listening to the PSA’s. Click here to view the webpage of all projects from this class. Be sure to read the comments and how well students collaborated and communicated with each other on this project.
Mrs. Newman’s Science class worked on a project where they sketched and built skyscrapers that could with stand the elements. Students discussed what helps the building stand and how a foundation is important. They looked up talk buildings they knew of and estimated the height in meters, then compared that to what they measured the Eiffel Tower to be. They then explored different forces of nature on skyscrapers and how to avoid catastrophe using the PBS website http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/lab/loads.html. Students then used graph paper to sketch out their own skyscraper with the intention of building them and testing wind and earthquake against it. After sketching on paper, students used Google Sketchup to draw and gain a better perspective of what the building would look like in 3-D. They discussed within their groups improvements and then built the skyscraper out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Students then tested each building to see which withstood the elements best.
This lesson exhibited what students are capable of when they are engaged and able to exercise creativity. The final product, a marshmallow-toothpick skyscraper, was tested again wind from a fan, and an “earthquake.” Students had a great time with this experiment and our Principal Mrs. Cooper even came to watch the students in action. Click here to watch a video of the lesson.
Students in Mrs. Deyo’s 6th grade English classes spent some time writing poetry based on paintings currently featured at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Their poems were based on the point of view of a “character” in the painting or on the point of view of the artist. After writing their poem, students recorded it into GarageBand and added music that matched the tone of their poem and painting. Here is an example based on the painting by Eastman Johnson called “A Ride to Liberty- The Fugitive Slaves, March 2, 1862″
In Mrs. Murphy’s Computer Art class, students were to use stop frame animation to create a movie. Two 8th grade students spent countless hours preparing this one of a kind movie about taking care of a dog. They used many programs to create the final product including Photoshop and iMovie. Students were able to select the topic and collaborated with a partner. Students first brainstormed the script and story. They then began to develop the plot and the characters in the movie. Much attention was given to color and aesthetic appeal of the movie. This creative project took on a life of its own when students spent much of the time outside of class and school working on the movies. These students were selected to showcase the movie at TMS Apple School Night in the Apple Store at Short Pump TownCenter. Click here to view the movie.
The students in Mr. Conway’s 7th grade social studies classes were asked to create a presentation using the free online application- VoiceThread
Their assignment was 2 part. First, they had to to recite the preamble and find pictures that appropriately represented its meaning. All of this was recorded into VoiceThread. Then, they listened to each other’s presentations and commented on them through text, audio recording and video recording. Here is an example:
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