So, how to make one? 1. Choose a song. This isn’t such an easy thing! Find out what your students like/want and balance that with a song that has repetition (for learning) and also isn’t so fast. A fast song doesn’t work too well because the images/words flash by so so fast. “I gotta feeling” works because it follows these few simple selection rules. 2. Learn the Song. Also important, don’t get ahead of yourself! Students should learn the song with a song sheet or if you are ambitious, make a karaoke or find a “subbed” version on youtube. The students should be familiar with the song. Then, show them a doodle video and tell your class, you are going to turn the song into a doodle! 3. Get organized – Get drawing! A good tip here is to pair students up. Number each line of the song and put the number and the lyric line, on the back of each piece of A4 paper (so you can keep track- Very Important!). Give each pair or student, a line of the song and ask them to draw a picture to help show the meaning of the line. Another tip. Get the students to fold the bottom of the piece of paper and write their lyric line there, nice and big, in clear print. The picture goes above. This will save you from having to put subtitles on when you make the video. It will save you time – BIG time and also make a more attractive video. Monitor, encourage and get the doodle pictures done! 4. Camera and Production time! After you have all the pictures finished in order (and note, lines that repeat mean the picture could have on the back and represent line 6,7,8 – for example) – take out your camera and take a photo of each. Put the doodle on a nice clear background and make sure the lighting is good. Even get a student to do this for you! I’m a clutz with a camera and my students do a much better job. Even get them making the video if possible! Yes, now that you have the photos – upload them to your computer. Now, it is time to make the video. a) Open up Windows Movie Maker – a free program on every PC computer. Click START and then select this little icon. If you have Windows 7, WMM won’t automatically be on your computer – you’ll have to download and install it yourself. Go HERE. Microsoft has a great tutorial site for using WMM and also visit the WMM forum for tips.
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