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After showing the students a sample movie, they were excited to begin the project. The students learned key vocabulary words and concepts using a SMART Board lesson. They learned about setting, characters and dialogue. They watched a short video from the IDEAL Discovery Streaming Web site and learned about beginning, middle and end. Then they practiced arranging pictures and events into the beginning, middle and end of their stories.
Weston demonstrated the movie-making website to the children and they made a short sample together. The children then worked in pairs to choose their settings and characters and plan their stories. Once they had decided the general flow of their story, they wrote their rough drafts. They were guided through all of the steps of revision and editing at a grade appropriate level. Once they had received the approval of their teacher, they worked with Weston for approximately two hours to create their movies.
Xtranormal.com is a Web 2.0 tool in which users type the dialogue for their characters and the online program generates the movie. Once dialogue was completed, students were able to change camera angles, add movement and gestures and fine tune their creations. The children were very excited to see their movies take shape as they progressed through the steps.
In addition to the Language Arts standards covered (literary elements, writing process), the children also wrote their own introductory speeches, delivered them in front of an audience and wrote thank you letters to Weston.
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