February+2010

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Discussion Item: Video in the Classroom
Points you made / Questions you had:
 * 1)  I need some clarification about the use of curriculum-related videos. Does this mean that if I have a video on the Salem witch trials, that I can only show a portion of it?
 * 2)  I don’t know “who” is coming up with this; but, it is NOT best practices.
 * 3)  What is the reasoning behind "no full length videos", and how is skipping the beginning, middle or end of a video that directly relates to the curriculum benefiting the student or any class discussion?
 * 4)  I'm guessing the bottom line to all of this film business is... don't push play and then just sit at your desk. There's a cool course offered at a nearby high school called Intro to Film. Throughout the semester, the students watch films and apply different literary devices in their analysis. To clarify, the teacher is standing near the front of the room, remote in hand, pausing and rewinding, asking questions, urging students to ask their own questions, referring to a wall of literary terms, etc.
 * 5)  That is EXACTLY what my remedial class did at the end...literally.
 * 6)  I brought this up at the meeting. Kevin is open to commentary on this practice. Showing movies in today's society, with today's youth, can be beneficial if approached properly. And as a result, showing movies can be highly engaging and educational at many levels.
 * 7)  In my opinion (and it is ONLY my opinion), it is ridiculous to think there is no educational benefit to students completing a novel and seeing the film created about that novel. To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, is only enhanced by seeing Gregory Peck's portrayal of Atticus. The same is true for Daniel Day Lewis's performance as John Proctor in The Crucible. ¶I am not going to interrupt the viewing of those films just so we can chat about literary terms or analyze the characters. We did that while we READ the book. ¶ I'm not saying that there shouldn't be an interactive component (I always have one), but there is something to be said for simply watching a story come to life.
 * 8)  In this time of a new curriculum that needs to be followed pretty closely as well as end of course assessments being right around the corner, do we necessarily have the time to be showing full length videos? Is the time available to be taking two class periods to show the movie version of a taught book? If skills are paramount, and with the state exit exams that looks to be the case, then maybe the question is this: what skills reinforcement can be done using a video?

Article about film misuse in the classroom
[|http://mediaeducationlab.com/blog/misuse-film-classroom]

Shared Instructional strategy
A technology strategy that I use is geared to making the historical study of a time period a little more interesting. This would be best for those who teach juniors and seniors whereby it benefits the students to understand the time period in order to better understand the literature.

I use the pages program and the students are asked to create a 2 page magazine layout. The students pick a topic from a large list of topics that I have provided them based on the historical information that is in the literature book. They then spend a day researching their specific topic. They spend two days creating the magazine layout (I require them to put documentation somewhere at the end of their article or give me their sources on a word document - most do the word document).

I then send the articles out for printing and a class magazine is created. The students are given the magazine and two days later there is a quiz on that historical time period. This gives them 2 days to look through the magazine to prepare for the quiz. They are allowed to use the magazine on the quiz, but there is a time limit to the quiz, so they must prepare a bit before they take the quiz or they may not finish. They can highlight and write in the magazine b/c it is theirs to keep.

I do this with my level 1 seniors. For a lower level class I typically have them do only a one page article and I limit the type of template they choose to use (some templates are very picture oriented).

Oh, as for the cover, that is designed by a student. If a kid finishes early they can design a cover. They get 2 bonus pts for simply designing a cover, the winner (determined by a class vote) gets more bonus points (amount varies).