Friday, October 9, 2009
Revising Project
The project I have finally decided on is to have my Spanish 2 students make a movie, narrated PowerPoint, or printed picture book illustrating what they do during the day. This project is supposed to demonstrate their knowledge of reflexive verbs, and one of the requirements is they use at least 8 reflexive verbs. I have thought about ways to increase creativity with this, and have decided that with the three options of project possibilities, that might be enough wiggle room for creativity in and of itself. I would rather not decrease the amount of reflexive verbs used, to allow for more creativity: the reflexive verbs is the grammatical purpose of this project. I have told them they may use pictures they've taken themselves from their digital cameras, which hopefully many of them will do. We will be in the computer lab this coming Wednesday to work on the project, at which time I'll tell them how to use the narration feature of PowerPoint, and teach them how to make movies and/or record sounds. I will allow them (and encourage them) to actually use video from their digital cameras and will encourage them to add music to their videos if they chooses. Without having to teach them how to use Audacity, however (which I think would be superflous and not a good use of instructional time), I'm afraid their projects will be a little long (as they don't know how to "shorten" songs), and I will strongly encourage their narration to be at the beginning of the project ( so I can grade their pronunciation and content first, and then skim through the rest of the video.) I think with these options, there will be enough room for the students to be creative with it, but still accomplish the language goals of the project. I hope these turn out well: I have done this project many times in the past, but it was always just the print "Daily Routine" book and I'm glad I'm requiring more elements of technology this year. At a minimum their project must be typed, include digital photos or other computerized graphics (printed in color for more credit) and include a digital narration of their project. (Yes, this narration, which was not formerly part of the project, will add time to my grading it, but I will feel like they've gotten more speaking practice and will be ultimately a good idea, as I have a hard time implementing many speaking activities.)
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I think it is important that you are not allowing technology to be the driving force in your project, but incorporating it into the project to support it. Kids see the errors of their speaking when they can hear themselves. I like that idea of yours. Maybe they could grade themselves in a rubric that you create together.
ReplyDeleteI like you idea and allowing options for the project helps with creativity. Providing the requirements for the project does not dictate their creativity. It seems they will have plenty of opportunities to be creative with what photos, images and music they use. Are you limiting the time of the presentation? I also agree that creating a rubric or at least getting suggestions from your students helps them take ownership and might help with their creative process. Can't wait to hear how it all goes!
ReplyDeleteI like that you are allowing the students to choose from three different forms of technology in order to accomplish their goal. To me that is significant because it will allow to student to use a platform that they are the most comfortable and skilled with in order to complete the requirements of the task. I also like that you are taking some time to teach additional skills that they can use on the platforms in order to enhance quality. Some students will definitely be able to use these new skills effectively whereas others will still have the opportunity to use the alternative tools, and like the other commenters noted, the content is more important than the technology.
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