This week’s readings, “Authoring With Video” (Strassman, B. & O’Connell, T., 2007) and “Aim, shoot, ready! Future teachers learn to ‘do’ video” (Hernández-Ramos, P., 2006), both extol the virtues of using videos promote student learning. The Strassman and O’Connell article advocates the use of video clips as an impetus for student writing. They narrate video clips “similar to writing text for a wordless picture book” (p. 330). The clip provides an organizer and a prompt, and allows students to find their own writer’s voices. As they point out, students are more motivated to engage in a project and revise it when they know the audience extends beyond their teacher. Because they are familiar with video clips from their own cell phones, from clips used in classes, and from websites, this is a medium with which they are comfortable. Using software such as MAGpie (p. 331), students are able to enter “text as open captions beneath the video” and focus on “writing and revising.” (p.330)
As the article mentions, students often write to complete an assignment rather than to affect readers. In order for them to understand how to write affectively, they need to be readers of good writing (Calkins,1986; Elbow,1981; and Ray, 2002, as cited on p. 331). AWV uses video to model effective writing; it is more inspirational than a page of paper. Many example of videos with good writing for a range of subject areas are suggested: Nova (www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova) and WGBH’s Teacher’s Domain (www.teachersdomain.org).
The AWV approach is most effective when teachers choose the clips so that students can concentrate on their writing and not on filming and producing a video or accessing videos that may be inappropriate or too short or too long for the assignment. The approach requires that the video clips used be downloadable (p. 332). Some suggestions are: “Moving Image Archive (www.archive.org/details/movies), The Open Video Project (www.open-video.org), and the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection (www.loc.gov/ammem/browse/index.html)” (p.333). There are some restrictions in posting materials on the Web and in how many copies may be distributed with copyrighted works.
The Hernández-Ramos article promotes the use of digital videos as “a teaching and learning tool” (p. 33) now that these technologies have become affordable. According to Wang and Hartley (2003, p. 128, as cited in Hernández-Ramos, p. 33), there are “three potential uses”: “representing situations of teaching and learning in a more comprehensive manner, linking various data of a particular teaching event and issue, and connecting preservice teachers to different contexts of teaching and learning to teach.” The Hernández-Ramos approach has the purpose of introducing digital video making to preservice teachers as a way to substantiate constructivist thinking (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, and Marra,2003, as cited in Hernández-Ramos, p.34) and as a way to promote project-based learning (Moursund,1999; Moursund, 2003, as cited in Ibid.) Since preservice teachers, indeed, experienced teachers are reluctant to step out of their comfort zone where new and unfamiliar technology is concerned; the constructivist approach is used in the teaching of video production as well. This approach “designs the learning environment and most learning activities to be as student-centered as possible, aiming for the creation of meaningful learning in each of the students through work that is active, constructive, cooperative, authentic and intentional” (Jonassen et al, 1999, as cited in Hernández-Ramos, p. 34). One goal for the model described is to inculcate a “fearless attitude towards technology” as well as “exposure to constructivist theory and pedagogy” (Hernández-Ramos, pp. 34-35). “A complimentary goal was to broaden the implicit definition of ‘technology’ …to specifically include digital video as a tool for creativity, collaborative learning, and meaning-making” (Ibid., p. 35).
Regarding the digitizing, distributing, and editing of video, the author recommends Apple’s iMovie software for Apple iBook G3 (600MHz) and for PC users – Microsoft’s MovieMaker software (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx). His workshop is divided into five steps: conversation, guidelines, shooting, postproduction, and film festival. To extend this learning, students may progress to time-lapse video and stop-motion animation.
Having had my students write creative stories in Spanish and illustrate them with drawings or computer down-loaded images, I can imagine AWV projects that begin with the visuals. It would be fun for them to create stories to narrate video clips. From imagining this, it is but a small leap to filming videos to narrate. My recent power point project where students are narrating their vacation photos in Spanish is a visual medium that is motionless until they choose to move to a new slide. Film would animate the pictured items and add a voice over. I can see the value in this learning and teaching tool. It would certainly be motivating for them; every teenager wants their five minutes of YouTube fame. For myself as a teacher, I could become comfortable using film as a teaching tool.
Here is an illustration of a use of an AP news video that is not yet narrated that could be used in a Spanish classroom setting as an example: http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Pacaya+eruption&FORM=EWRE&qvpt=Pacaya+eruption
Click on Guatemala City video.
References
Hernández-Ramos, P. (2006). Aim, shoot, ready! Future teachers learn to ‘do’ video. British
Journal of Educational Technology. Vol. 38, No. 1 (2007), pp. 33-41. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.

Strassman, B. & O’Connell, T. (2007). Authoring With Video. The Reading Teacher. 61(4),
pp. 330-333. ISSN: 0034-0561 print/ 1936-2714 online: International Reading Association.

Molebash, P. (2003). “Kickstarting inquiry with WebQuests and Web Inquiry Projects.
(Advancing Technology).” Social Education. Retrieved March 29, 2009 from

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/aml_landing_tt.pl?purchase_type=ITM&ite…

Meta reflection:
I learned how to set up rubrics both to help students self-assess and also to understand the benchmarks of a project. This case study illustrates how one very capable student was verbally and cognitively ahead of his paper and pencil results. Prior to this course, I had never researched a student’s WASL scores to see how they were progressing throughout their course work.
I learned about the distinction and the necessity for both formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments should be used to help the students learn from their mistakes so that they don’t end up being simply “told” the information and then tested. They must be allowed to work through the material with feedback before they face a summative assessment to insure mastery of the material. The constructivist learning theory supports this method.
This project satisfies the requirements for Standard 5.
Case Study (PDF)

Meta reflection
In this course I learned a lot about how language and other knowledge is processed and acquired. I also learned how to create a power point and to download visuals to include in it.
This is part of the fulfillment of the requirements for Standard 2. The power point includes the different stages of language acquisition for first and second language speakers with suggestions for differentiating instruction to aid second language learners or first language learners who have special needs such as hearing problems, speech impediments, or a processing problem. It suggests who to contact for additional classroom help and recommends including family members in the learning process. We also included information on bilingual children’s special advantages and whether or not they are able to separate the rules of one language from the rules of the other. The portions of the brain most closely related to language are pictured and their functions explained. Additionally, we suggest ways to help students who are phonologically impaired or are delayed semantically.
Final_Draft_of_Language_Development_and_Linguistic_Diversit