Digital Storytelling for Middle School with WeVideo

I created a digital story assignment to introduce WeVideo and we tried it out this week.

It confirmed for me that WeVideo is a great tool for the classroom. This assignment results in a digital slideshow, so we were only uploading photos. I'm not sure how well it will work with video, especially long clips, but I hope to try that out soon.

For now, it is my recommended editor when teachers ask me for a resource to create narrated slideshows.

For our assignment, I took 10 pictures of students in various poses. The students had to arrange at least six of these pictures into some short story in WeVideo. They were required to add a title and end clip as well as captions and some panning and zooming.

Here are the resources for the assignment:

• The assignment sheet - This includes directions, requirements and links to the tutorials.
• A shared folder on Google Drive with the pictures - These 10 photos were taken ahead of time.
• Video Tutorial 1 - This shows how to get started in WeVideo. It shows the basics of the interface, how to upload, arrange, add captions and titles and also how to pan and zoom.  Note:  The tutorial refers to uploading the photos because in our class we didn't store photos in Google Drive. You can upload from Drive or you could save those photos above in a different folder.
• Video Tutorial 2 - This tutorial shows how to add music and how to publish and share the final video.

This basic assignment lends itself to a lot of modification for different needs. Here are some suggestions:

• Have the students take their own photos.
• Have another class take the photos.
• Instead of using actors in the photos, students could set up action figures or maybe even objects.
• They could draw the pictures digitally or on paper.
• Require editing of the photos. For example, speech bubbles could be added.
• Narrate the story and have students read the dialogue.

If you use this assignment or you have suggestions for other changes I'd love to hear from you!