Context:
This unit was created for CI 3750, Integrating Media and Technology into Teaching, Spring 2007. It was created under the advisement of Jeff Goodman. In the video I was an actor, helped film, and helped with the editing process.

This assignment can be used for group work in a Language Arts or Technology class.

Impact:
This assignment can be used for 5th grade students or for a younger grade with modifications. The students will be making a creative video and using technology to edit the video to share with the class. For a younger grade, the teacher can work with the class to make a video.

North Carolina Standard Course of Study:

5th grade Language Arts:
Competency Goal 3:The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.

Objectives 3.01:Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by:Analyzing word choice and content. Examining reasons for a character's actions, taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character. Creating and presenting a product that effectively demonstrates a personal response to a selection or experience. Examining alternative perspectives. Evaluating the differences among genres. Examining relationships among characters. Making and evaluating inferences and conclusions about characters, events and themes.

Objective 3.04: Make informed judgments about television, radio, video/film productions, other electronic mediums and/or print formats.

Objective 3.07: Make informed judgments about:Media Techniques

Competency Goal 4:The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.

Objectives 4.10: Use technology as a tool to enhance and/or publish a product.

Competency Goal 5:The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.

Objective 5.04: Determine the impact of word choice on written and spoken language.

5th grade Technology:
Competency Goal 1:The learner will understand important issues of a technology-based society and will exhibit ethical behavior in the use of computer and other technologies.

Objective 1.12: Recognize and explain the advantages and disadvantages of using multimedia to develop content area projects/products.

Objective 1.13: Identify and discuss multimedia terms/concepts (e.g., menu, branching, navigation, multimedia, design).

Competency Goal 3: The learner will use a variety of technologies to access, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.

Objective 3.03: Modify/edit databases to organize, analyze, interpret data, and create reports (e.g., documents, multimedia project, webpages).

Objective 3.06: Recognize, discuss, and establish ethical guidelines for use of personal and copyrighted media (e.g., images, music, video, content, language) in multimedia projects and presentations as a class/group. (5)

This video project would help students better understand pieces of literature that they may have been confused about. They may also gain a different meaning by seeing someone actually acting it out in real life. Students will see the story from a different aspect from seeing it acted, than reading or hearing it read to them.

Alignment:
This unit met the following NETS-T Technology Standards for North Carolina Standards:

1. Teachnology operations and concepts

B. Demonstrate continual growth in technology knowledge and skills to stay abreast of current and emerging teachnologies. We shot the videos on an updated camcorder, than transfered the video onto a computer to edit, and finally put the video on quicktime.

2. Planning and designing learning environments and experiences

A.Design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners. Each student will have a chance to work will all the area of the assignment. Students who are hands on, will benefit from working with the camcorder and filming. Students who learn visually, will be able to work on the computers to help edit the video. They will have to see what was filmed on the computer and how to arrange it in a variety of ways. In addition, those students who are slower learners will have other students there to help them if they have any questions about what they are doing. Lastly, this assignment benefits learners who have a hearing impairment, because on the computer they can turn the volume up to whatever level that they may need.

D. Plan for the management of technology resources within the context of learning activities. The students will be given a place in the classroom for their group to work with their camcorder and with a computer. The teacher will assign numbers to members of the group, in this way the teacher will be able to make the students do different jobs within their groups. For example, if the teacher says for the 3 and 4 numbered students to film, than the 1 and 2 students would be acting. This would continue into the editing part of the assignment. The teaching would switch up the students every ten minutes.

E. Plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment. The students would first observe the example video to understand what they would be doing. The students would than be using an updated camcorder to film a short production of a book. They would than have to be able to put it on a computer and edit the material that they filmed. Students would learn how to cut out unwanted shots, move different shots around in different orders, and put music onto their video. After completing the editing step, they would have to put their video onto a DVD.

6. Social, Ethical, Legal, and Human Issues

A. Model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use. The student release form that is attached to the taskstream page, would be used to send home with students to be signed by the parents. This helps to make sure that parents agree with having their students on video.

B. Teachers apply technology resources to enable and empower learners with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, and abilities. The students are allowed to be as creative as they like with their videos. They can share their cultures, characteristics, and abilities within their production.

C. Identify and use technology resources that affirm diversity. Attached to my taskstream I have a video release form that is in Spanish. This can be sent home to parents who may be only able to speak and read Spanish.

This unit met the following North Carolina Standards for Elementary School Teachers:

Standard 1: Elementary teachers have a broad knowledge and understanding of the major concepts in English Language Arts and Literacy.

Indicator 5: Teachers know and understand that reading is taught as a process of constructing meaning through the interaction of the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language, and the context of the reading situation.When filming the video from a book, the students will have to really think about the book and what it is saying. They will be putting more thought into the book than they probably normally would by just reading it. Also, when the students view their classmates work they will hopefully be able to gain a different meaning from the literature presented.

Indicator 6: Teacher understand the importance of literacy for personal and social growth. I assigned the video project to be based on a book, so that students can look deep into a book and find it's meaning and realize that books can be fun instructional materials.

Standard 6: Elementary teachers have an understanding of the basic concepts of the arts.

Indicator 1: Teachers understand the basic vocabularies, materials, techniques, and thinking processes of each arts discipline (art, music, theatre, dance). This goal was met by drawing a storyboard on index cards to show what scenes we would be acting out on the video. We had to draw what we would be doing in each scene, plus what type of music and shot we would use.