lines of thought

What if you want to go beyond the ‘photo’. What more can you do?
To begin with, let’s create a static simple movie.
On XP/Vista use ‘Movie Maker’. Got a Mac? Then fire up iMovie. The principle is similar on both platforms. Take your digital photos, import/place them into your movie making software.
By default each photo will how up for 4seconds each. 10 photos, 40 seconds. Now, if you have a laptop chances are that you have a built-in microhpone. You can add an audio track for each photo. Eg: “At the zoo we saw 10 monkeys. Can you count them?” have a student speak. Write the descriptions as a class. Review and discuss whether the audio describes the photo and work at it with the class.
Essentially, this is an English lesson achieving T&L outcomes in an environment which will be engaging.
Once the process has been modelled as a class at least 80% of your students will be ready to create their own. Kindergarten will get there, do not underestimate them. (if you have ever seen a 3 or 4 yr old with a digital camera, computer keyboard, remote control you will know what I am talking about)
Movie finished? You should have a simple video of photos with students talking about each photo. Play the video for the whole class to view. The fact that students can hear their own voices and see themselves in photos on the big screen will have them all diverted to their seats.
From this we can progress to ‘user’ level skills. We can begin to explore transitions from one photo to another and the use if music as a backing track. We can even begin playing with titling.

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