Literacy Project Done!!!

Students have completed their digital stories and my class as a whole has watched and critiqued them. Some of my students have posted their stories on YouTube and I am in the process of getting them all collected in one common area for everyone to see.  Just to whet your appetite I have put a couple of them above. One is on immigration and the other is on the 2012 election.  Let me know what you think!
I have also added a video on 9/11 made by one of my students. It is very powerful.

Digital Story-Final Cut

Well here it is. The story has been edited and the music ends when the images are over. This production was made using iMovie which is generally a really good vehicle for making these stories. The one obstacle for us at school is that we do not have any Apple computers here at the building so it was impossible to work on it during the day unless someone remembered to bring their laptop to school. I appreciate all of the honest feedback my classmates provided and your critiques made the final product much better.

This process has been so educationally beneficial, and has ignited student enthusiasm, that I think I am going to expand the assignment into my literacy project. I am very excited to see what my students create.

The Great Depression Told Digitially

Well here is a digital story my students created on the Great Depression. It traces the event from the "Roaring Twenties" to the crash and the start of the recovery. The soundtrack is rich with music from the era and the narration is excerpted from primary sources such as a radio news account of the stock market crash and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural address. One thing that certainly needs to be modified is the length of the story. We haven't figured out exactly how to edit/end the song and the final selection goes on and on with a blank screen so don't be afraid to watch it as the story does not last for nine full minutes.

Please let me know what you think.








Could you please complete the survey above after viewing the story? Thank you so much.