Third graders in Glenn DePeralta’s class at Irene Reither Elementary had a blast creating videos introducing themselves using their school-issued Chromebooks.
The project is assigned to students at the beginning of the school year and is a fun and interactive way for students to learn more about each other, while also practicing skills on their Chromebooks. This lesson teaches students how to record themselves on their Chromebooks and use the microphone on their headphones. Students then used the web-based program, Flip, to add backgrounds, graphics, music and animations to their videos.
“I learned how to add music to my video,” said third grader Addison. “I like this project and I kept working on it because it is very fun!”
Students are asked to tell about themselves, share about their family and talk about some of their favorite activities. Students then post their completed videos to their classroom page. Students are able to watch each other’s videos and leave comments.
“You get to tell people about yourself and they get to know you better. You get to tell people stuff they didn’t know about you,” said third grader Sofia. “There’s lots of new people in this school and I like to introduce myself to the new people, it is my favorite thing.”
This is a fun way for students to learn skills they will need later in the year to create videos that demonstrate their learning.
“They had fun making these introduction videos, and in the long run, they’ll be able to incorporate the skills needed to create these videos to showcase their understanding,” DePeralta said.
While students work on the videos independently, they also share in their learning by teaching each other how to use different features in the videos. Some students even collaborated to make “breaking news” style videos to tell about themselves.
“If they choose to create a Flip video for their reports, they can do this at home or school, and learn to be independent thinkers and creators,” DePeralta said. “I’d like the community to know that their investment in technology with my students is instilling in them the importance of using technology as a viable way to show their understanding of a skill or topic.”
Later in the year, third grade students will learn about different weather phenomena and also learn about sports in society. Instead of writing a traditional report about these topics, students may opt to create a video that still covers all the objectives, but done in a way that allows students to practice the digital literacy skills of consuming, creating and communicating. DePeralta explained that giving students a choice in how they show their understanding increases their engagement in the lesson.
“It totally lines up with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) training we’ve been doing,” DePeralta said. “If they know what the end product will be, that will guide them on what they’ll need to do to present the information.”