Digital Video Sample 1
Digital Video - Sample 1 This document contains two sample activities from Chapter 8 of Digital Video. These are two of the 22 Video creation activities contained in the complete book. The complete book deals with a wide range of video related areas as well as containing more than 40 step by step lesson plans guiding you through video based classroom activities. For more information or to buy the complete book go to: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/digital-video/id1025275485 These sample materials are the copyright property of Nik Peachey and permission is hereby granted to print, store, share and redistribute them freely.
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POEM READING
Introduction
Language focus
In this activity students listen to and reconstruct a poem. They then make a video recording of themselves reciting the poem using images as prompts.
The primary aim of this activity is to get students to develop their pronunciation by confidently reciting a poem.
Rationale This activity can help to enhance students enjoyment and understanding of poetry and also help them to read and speak in a more expressive way. Reciting poetry can also help students to develop their pronunciation. Using the images of some of the words also helps them to remember the poem and helps to make the video more visual. Context
Preparation Find a short poem that you think your students will like and which is rich in visual metaphors. Find or make a recording of the poem. Make a copy of the text of the poem and mix up the lines. I have included an Example worksheet based around Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. You can find recordings of many popular poems on YouTube or other video sharing sites.
This activity works best in the classroom, though the students can do their recordings at home and upload them online. You can also get online students recording themselves reading and illustrating poems based on your own examples, but they won’t have the in-classroom support. 2
Procedure
each line of the poem they should show their image to the camera to illustrate it.
• Start by giving students some of the key imagery words from the text. Ideally there should be at least one word from each line. In the case of our Shakespeare poem these could be; heaven, lips, sun, roses, eyes, hair, cheeks, music, coral, etc.
• If students are working in groups they could do this as a group reading so that they only memorize a few lines rather than the entire poem.
• Check the students understand the words and give them some paper.
• If you really want each student to remember the poem, ask them to do the recording at home where they can practice and where there is less distraction and background noise.
• Ask them to draw pictures of the words on each sheet of paper. They could work in small groups to do this as it may save time and paper. • Once the students have their pictures, either read or play a recording of the poem and ask the students to listen and put the images into the order they hear them in the poem. • Once they have had time to listen and order the pictures, give the students the lines from the poem and ask them to use their images to help them put the lines in the correct order.
Follow up Look more closely at possible meanings of the poem. Get the students to choose their own favorite poems and illustrate and record them in the same way. Collect together the poem recordings and put them onto a school blog or website.
• Give the students time to order the lines and then let them listen to the recording again and check their order. • Now that they have the lines in the correct order, ask them to practice reading the poem. • Ask the students to try to memorize the lines that go with each of the images. • They can practice by gradually taking the lines away and just using the images to help them remember. • Now ask the students to use either the webcam or video camera to record themselves reciting the poem. As they say 3
Related links
Example worksheet
Here are some links that may help with this lesson.
Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare
•Video recording of the poem: http://youtu.be/ xP06F0yynic
Listen and arrange the lines into the correct order.
•The poem text: http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/ my-mistress-eyes-are-nothing-sun-sonnet-130
• I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
You can find more poems on these sites.
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
•PoemHunter: http://www.poemhunter.com/
• And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
•Poetry Archive: http://www.poetryarchive.org/ You can use this site to quickly mix up the lines of a poem. •Paragraphy: http://www.byrdseed.com/paragraphy/ index.php
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
• My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; • My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. • I grant I never saw a goddess go; • Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; • And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks • That music hath a far more pleasing sound; • But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
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INTRODUCTIONS
Introduction
Language focus
In this activity students introduce themselves to the rest of the class by recording a short video clip.
The primary aim of this activity is to help students get to know each other a bit better and to give the teacher the opportunity to asses their speaking ability.
Rationale Particularly in online classes, it can be difficult to get a sense of who the tutor is and what the other participants are like as people just through text based interaction. Getting students to record their own introduction at the beginning of the course can help to develop a better sense of rapport and a more positive dynamic within the class. Using this activity can also give you an example of your students’ speaking to listen to and so help you to assess their ability and their needs. Context This activity is best suited to online classes, though there is no reason why you can’t get students in physical classrooms to do it too and share their introduction clips online.
The linguistic aim of the activity is to enable students to talk about themselves. Preparation Record your own introduction to share with the students. This generally acts as a model on which students base their own introductions. You could also give a short bullet point list of things you want your students to include in their introduction. The Example worksheet has a list, but you may need to edit it for appropriacy and the level of your students.
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Procedure • Tell the students to watch your introductory video and then post any questions they would like to ask you about the things you mention in your video. • Once you have the questions, answer them and then ask the students to post a similar video introducing themselves.
Follow up You could keep the questions and answers going for some time using an asynchronous video tool. Watch the videos and make notes about the strengths and weaknesses of their language production. Example worksheet
• Give them the list of points to include if you think it will help. • Get the students to post and share their videos online. • Ask them to watch each others’ videos and send at least one question to each of the people in the group to find out more about them.
Record your introduction. Tell other students: • Who you are. • What you do. • How long you have been studying English and why you study. • What you like doing in your free time. • Some of your favorite things. • A little about your family. • Some of the things you do and don’t like. • Something that not many people know about you. • A special place you like. • Your favorite, books, films and music. • A person you admire. • Your hopes for the future.
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