This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Numbers
Create simple videos that demonstrate numbers and simple mathematical operations, for example two cars plus three cars equals five cars.
Suggested techniques
Use both objects and numerals, in the style of Sesame Street, to help children build confidence with written numbers and the concept of number.
For teachers: benefits to students
Younger children react well to videos, and this is an entertaining way to get across basic concepts.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Buy This Book!
Create a commercial for a book, and try to persuade people to buy it. It could be a set text, or it could be a book the student has read. Some students may want to use this to promote their own work.
Suggested techniques
Do this as a book trailer, short commercial, or longer form.
Put extracts from the book as text on screen, or have them read aloud.
Do an interview with the author, or have the author talk about the book.
Do a group chat session with people talking about the book and why they liked it; however, remember that the aim is to get people to buy (or read) the book, not create a book report.
Add in pictures of the author, and reconstructed scenes from the book.
For teachers: benefits to students
The student has to demonstrate a clear understanding of the book and its popular appeal. This requires a different approach to literary appreciation.
It offers students a chance to approach set texts in a fun way.
This requires an understanding of the commercial side of literature and publishing.
This will be particularly useful to students interested in self-publishing and promoting their own work.
Creating a multimedia presentation helps develop presentational skills and requires the student to consider what information is best presented using the different media: spoken, written, or visual.
We’ve partnered with award-winning educational media specialists TrueTube to offer nine schools a chance to win Moviestorm for the school and their students.
Make a movie on the topic “Prejudice has no place in the modern world”. Submit it by October 21, and winners will be announced in November on the TrueTube Web site. Here’s a short movie that explains it all.
The contest doesn’t open until September 1, but you can sign up now. Truetube will send you updates over the summer about prizes, and a link when the competition goes live to enable you to download your free Moviestorm Education trial.
To help students, we’ve created a free ebook Making Movies with Moviestorm: A guide for schools. It’s designed to accompany the user manual, and is about movie production rather than instructions on how Moviestorm works. It covers all the tasks involved in making a movie, and suggests how to divide them up among teams so that everyone gets a plenty to do throughout.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Comprehension
Create short videos in the foreign language, and ask the students what was being said.
These two videos were created by Paul Carr as part of ESL teaching in Japan. There are 3 conversations in two parts. Part one has no sound. In pairs students watch then make a conversation for one of the dialogs. They lipsync this while the video plays. In part two, the actual conversations are played and the students answer questions and fill in word gaps. This acts as test practice.
Suggested techniques
Create anything from a short dramatic piece to a news bulletin.
For teachers: benefits to students
This is a good way to demonstrate comprehension of spoken word, with the assistance of video.
This can sometimes be best created by teachers.
Teachers can create videos that their students will relate to: they can watch videos that use simple language that aren’t childish.
This can work particularly well for teaching foreign students, as the teacher can create videos in their own language.
This is part of a series suggesting different ways to use Moviestorm in schools or other educational environments. They also make useful exercises for film-makers wanting to develop and practice different film-making techniques. Many more lesson plans and ideas, with free downloadable resources, can be found on the Moviestorm Web site.
Assignment: Physical Health
Create a public information program about the benefits of a good diet, or any other similar positive health practice such as smoking cessation, drug avoidance, or regular exercise.
Suggested techniques
Do it as a documentary discussing the issue in depth.
Present the topic in story form, taking one person as an example.
Create a propaganda style film or advert.
Intersperse the presentation with still images and video if appropriate. You could do this as a studio presentation or lecture, and display the images on a screen behind the presenter, or else you can make the images go full-screen.
Add extra content on-screen by using text to complement what you’re saying.
Add appropriate background music to create atmosphere, and ensure you have a striking title sequence.
For teachers: benefits to students
This allows the students to think creatively about how to get that message across to others in a way that means something to them. Some may prefer to concentrate on the facts, while others will adopt a more emotional or personal approach.
Adding multimedia content enables the student to approach the subject in a richer way than just using written text and still images.
Finding images and music to enhance the presentation requires detailed research.
Providing narration builds confidence in speaking without needing to do it in front of an audience or camera.
Creating a multimedia presentation helps develop presentational skills and requires the student to consider what information is best presented using the different media: spoken, written, or visual.
