Technology and Theater

Here's another fun idea! Students love making videos. Last year, students had to write alternate endings to Romeo and Juliet and film them. This year, I had students read scenes from Romeo and Juliet and create "tableaux vivants" (or living pictures) of the scenes. As an option, students could photograph their living pictures and compile them into a Power Point or short film. But while these projects are fun for students to complete and fun for me to watch, are they worthwhile? I struggle with this question. For the alternate ending films, students had to write scripts that incorporated all the elements of dramatic literature - monologue, dialogue, soliquy, dramatic irony, etc. And the tableaux vivants require students to accurately summarize and imagine what the scene looks like, so I definitely think they create a way to assess learning. Nonetheless, I could probably accomplish such things in other, less time-consuming ways - like a test. But then, I think it is important for students to use and manipulate technology. Technology is a part of our everyday lives and definitely a part of the future, so they need to know how to use it. On the flip side of that statement, I'm not really teaching them how to use it; they already know.

Save the Literature Campaign 2009

What I love about technology is the way it allows students to get creative. In the fall of 2009, I had my students read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and then organize a Save the Literature campaign. Students got to choose how they wanted to contribute to the campaign - some baked cookies and wrote "Save the Lit" on them. Some made posters to hang up around the school. Some made T-shirts (and I forced them to wear them all day long.)

But many of them chose to campaign via technology. One student created a webpage (but it has since been taken down). Another student set up a Twitter account. One student created a Facebook fan page. The campaign also birthed a myspace page as well! Another group of students created a commercial..

And another student added a special Save the Literature segment to his ongoing YouTube broadcast. How cool is this!

Technical Writing

I have struggled with the concept of technical writing for 3 years now. Our focus in 9th grade is supposed to be technical writing. At first, I thought that meant creating workplace documents - resumes, letters, brochures, memos, etc. Then, my principal told me that wasn't it; it was about explaining things. So how is that different than expository writing? Well, I don't completely know, but what I do know is that I have a great idea for a technical writing assignment. I'm going to have my students create their own stop-action-animation videos like the ones at commoncraft.com to explain a concept they've learned this year in science, social studies, or math. And I'm going to have them post it to youtube. I think this will be a great opportunity for students to plan out an explanation and have a real audience for the finished product. And it will be a cross-curricular activity which I hardly ever do. I'm pretty pumped about it. We'll see how it goes. Here's an example of one of the videos: http://www.commoncraft.com/wikipedia-video

Research Projects

My classes are about to embark on their research projects.

I'm really excited about these assignments because, for the first time, I feel like I have some REALLY, TRULY valuable information to give them. Sure, research is important for those students going on to pursue higher education, but what about those students who won't attend college? What aspects of research do they need? Well, I have found the answer with the help of my IT7360 class. The answer is DISCERNMENT! My ultimate goal in this assignment is to teach students how to be critical consumers of information. I wonder how many of them will fall for this website: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
I'll keep you posted!