Lesson 4: Making a video documentary Time Needed: Dependent on day
Grade: 4 Unit: Schooling
Video documentary time!
Materials:
Paper
Writing Utensils
Video cameras (4)
Videotapes
Worksheet of jobs (1 per group)
Computer Lab time for research and editing
NCSS Standards:
Standard A: Geography: People, Places, and Environments
Enable learners to use, interpret, and distinguish various representations of Earth such as maps, globes, and photographs, and to use appropriate geographic tools.
Standard B: History: Time, Continuity, and Change
Time, Continuity, and Change: Help learners apply key concepts such as time, chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity.
Wisconsin State Standards:
Standard E: Behavioral Science: E.4.5 Identify and describe institutions such as school, church, police, and family and describe their contributions to the well being of the community, state, nation, and global society.
MMSD Standards:
Social Studies Standards:
Describe places in Wisconsin and others parts of the world in terms of their absolute (exact) and relative location (location in relationship to other places).
Demonstrate an ability to interact within a group while performing various group roles.
Participate in organizing, planning, and goal setting in a group.
Language Arts Standards:
Inquiry/Research:
Identify, locate, explore, and use multiple sources of information appropriate to the topic, including print, nonprint, and electronic sources.
Writing:
Choose various planning strategies for various purposes.
Elementary Education Standards:
Standard 11: Uses Technology- The students will be using video cameras to document a day at school as well as use computers to edit their footage.
Standard 4: Demonstrates pedagogical knowledge of specific domains- In this lesson the teacher is integrating several subjects to give the students the opportunity to obtain knowledge and skills in multiple ways.
Objectives:
SWBAT learn about the country the documentaries will be sent to.
SWBAT create an outline to show a plan of action to make a documentary.
SWBAT take part in a documentary.
Context:
This is the fourth lesson on the unit about schooling. We will be transitioning from learning about past and present schooling to schooling in different countries. The students will have the opportunity to send off a documentary they will be creating to another school in a different country to learn about what school is like in that part of the country. I chose to split the students up in groups because some students’ days look different than other students in the class. So I wanted each group to have a chance to show what school is like for them.
Opening:
Explain to the students that we have been exploring how school has changed over the years, but we have only learned about schools in Madison. So, today we will be making a video to send to a class in another country to show them what a typical day at school looks like for us. They are doing the same thing, so we will be able to see what a typical day looks like for students in a different country! We will be sending off our videos to 4 different countries!
Day 1
Part 1: Learning about a country
1. Each group will learn about a different country that they will be sending their video too.
2. The students are responsible for not only learning about the country but they will be giving a presentation on the country to their peers. Students will have a role assigned to them by their group to learn about the country. The students need to locate the country on a world map, describe bordering countries, physical features of the country, tell the class about food, culture, holidays, facts about the country (i.e.: population, capital) any fun facts, ect.
3. Tell the students that the computer lab is reserved for them to do research there as well as the library.
4. Explain to the students that they will be writing a report on the country they researched and will be adding their parts to turn in a report as a group.
5. Once the students have had a chance to learn about the country, each group will get to present. This will happen during part 4 of the lesson.
Part 2: Creating a Plan
1. Each group will get a planning sheet where they will organize, plan roles, and choose an overall goal they want to capture in the documentary.
2. Once the students have planned out what they want to do for their documentary, they will have a conference with the teacher to explain it before starting the project.
3. Once everyone gets an ok from the teacher, everyone will have a crash course on using the video cameras. Since they already have experience with using them, it will be a quick review before allowing them to start. Tell the students that tomorrow we will be starting to videotape so if they get here early whoever is in charge for the first part of the day to record can come up and grab the video camera.
Day 2
Part 3: Create a documentary
1. Students who get there early can begin to videotape. As soon as the bell rings, remind the students that today is the day they will be videotaping. Have them look over their planning sheet so everyone knows what their role is.
2. Then start the day! Begin with morning meeting, days of school, calendar, schedule ect. Meanwhile only 4 students will be allowed to tape (1 from each group) if the students choose to videotape the morning meeting.
3. The day should be the same: specials, LMC, lunch, math, ect. But before the students leave for lunch, LMC or a special they should decide if they want to videotape during these times and who will be videotaping (they should be referring back to their plan).
4. Before the day is over, gather the students and ask them how their day went? Have them write a couple sentences about how they felt working in their group and how they think the day went.
Day 3 and 4
Part 4: Editing the Footage/ Creating Final Tape
1. The students will be in the computer lab for most of day 3 and ½ of day 4 editing their footage to make a final video to send off. The students have been learning how to edit during computer class, so they will continue to work on this by editing their video. The computer lab teacher will be assisting the teacher during this time.
2. Once the students are finished they will make a final videotape to send to the country they researched on.
Day 5:
Part 5: Sending it off
1. The students will be presenting on the country they researched. Each group will have about 5-10 minutes to tell their peers what they learned about that country. This will also be the time that the students will watch each other’s documentaries before they are sent off.
2. Each group will be writing a letter stating what they did to make their documentary for the student’s receiving it. Once the students make a final copy of their letter, it will be put in the package to be sent off.
Closure:
Tell the students how great they did this week! Explain to the students that the teacher will send them off after school and that we will be receiving documentaries soon too!
Assessment:
SWBAT learn about the country the documentaries will be sent to.
The teacher will formally assess this by having the students turn in their reports. The teacher will informally assess the students by observing and listening to their presentations about the country.
SWBAT create an outline to show a plan of action to make a documentary.
The teacher will formally assess the students by having a conference with the students before they begin to tape the documentary.
SWBAT take part in a documentary.
The teacher will formally assess the students by watching the documentary at the end of the week. The teacher will informally assess the students by observing them throughout the documentary process.
Source: Epals.com
Social Issue: Schooling
