Student+Lib+Dub

My students in 5th hour wanted to approach the "About Us" project is a different way. They came to me and wanted to create a video to share with the students of Iowa. They wanted to focus on the themes of love and friendship while giving a tour of the school. The students took complete control of the project and planned it from start to finish. The chose the music and assigned the different parts of the project to the various students in class. Some students needed to create props that represented the different themes in the songs. Other students were in charge of creating shirts for the students to wear while filming. The directors wrote letters to the principal asking permission to film in the school for the project and I was able to teach them proper letter writing skills.

These skills would normally be covered over and over again with various short stories and note taking, but these students were able to take these skills and demonstrate them in a way that I never would have thought possible a few years ago. By embracing video, the students could visualize their thoughts and share them with students across the country. The lip dub is a perfect example of how integrating technology into the curriculum can have a positive impact on student learning.

The students placed the video on a Kidblog and allowed the students of Van Meter to comment. Here is the link to the Kidblog and the video.

The Super Secret 5th Hour Project

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