Media Production Primary Division Style

I am so proud of the students I teach. They come up with such insightful thoughts and can create such interesting products. My schedule this year lacks open flexible partner time (not good) but grants me time for library, ICT, and media lessons for everyone from Grades JK-4 (among other assignments).

A Twitter post from Colin Jagoe inspired me to try a pretty ambitious project much earlier in the school year than I would usually attempt. He asked if the very kinesthetic definition of media that I use with my primary students was available to see online. I was originally going to make my own YouTube video but then it struck me: why not have the students make these videos?

I undertook this task with four of my upper primary classes (two Grade 1-2 groups, a Grade 2-3 class and our Grade 3-4 class). My main request was that our video share our definition of media. They were allowed to select the means and method to do this within a TV show / movie format. Each class took a different approach. I'm proud to announce that three out of the four videos are now complete and available for public viewing on YouTube. (The last video, to be created and filmed in Minecraft, has experienced "technical delays" because the open LAN connection wouldn't work and the multi-school server IP has not yet been approved by the school board. I'm not a very patient person but the students are still committed to making this film, so once this gets settled, we'll resume the project.)

Here are the other three videos. The students took on all the roles (from script writing to camera crew to technical team). I don't think Stephen Spielberg has to fear the competition just yet (as these are 6-9 year olds) but I was still very impressed with the quality of their work.

 

Just in case anyone wonders, for the last video, we obtained special permission from the parents to have their children appear in the movie. We kept names out of the credits and used initials instead.