Inspiring Reading and Writing With an Authentic Audience - Part 3

In this third post about this project, I'll list some resources and focus on the final steps we go through to complete the digital products. I'll conclude with a bit about the challenges we faced to bring it together. If you want to read about the background, including why I think this lesson is so valuable, see Part 1 and Part 2.

 

The Planning Sheet

Once students were given the younger students' responses from the survey, we gave them a printed copy of this planning sheet. I added the planning sheet this year, since we had seen students struggle with it in the past. Here's a breakdown of the planning sheet:

• The first seven questions ask them to simply copy down what their assigned 5th grade student had submitted on their survey. That is meant to just ensure the writer read the younger student's information.
• The next few questions take them through the process of connecting those ideas (which are sometimes very unconnected) into a simple story. Some students had trouble with this, but I was impressed how imaginative they could get with just a little prompting.
• The last question asks them to outline the story. I assured them nothing was written in stone here, but it was important to make a plan.

I and the teacher worked with students individually to get through the outline process.

My plan was to have them start typing the story after the outline was done, but the teacher wanted a first draft to be written in their notebooks. I can see this group benefitted from that, so you can decide if a handwritten draft will be better than moving right to the digital part.

Making the Digital Booklets

I refer to these as digital books, but we just build them in Google Slides. I assign this template in Google Classroom, so that they each get a copy. It has two sections on each slide, so there's a place for text and a photo, like this.

Note that the first slide of the template has a place for a title page. I don't like them to take time making that at first, so the directions (typed on the slide itself) ask them to come back to that after they've completed a few slides. I provide these examples of cover images. Normally I encourage them to use Word Art, drop shadows and a good layout. See below about some challenges we faced this time around. Eye-catching title pages were not our main concern this year!

Preparing the Files

After students work through some drafts and revisions, they submit the stories in Google Classroom. I make a copy of each one and move the copies into a new folder in Google Drive. That way the teacher can grade the originals as normal, but I can polish up the copies so they're ready for the younger readers. 

The amount it takes to "polish them up" varies quite a bit from student to student. Most times it involves some punctuation corrections and some wording changes. Over the years I've had to rewrite some or nearly all of some stories for various reasons. For example, one time a younger student stated her problem as, "Sleeping through scary nightmares." The older student tried to provide a situation about overcoming fear that, even after her revisions, would have been too intense for the young student. I get input from both teachers involved, in some cases, just to be sure sensitive cases are handled appropriately.

I also rename the file so it includes the younger student's chosen nickname. That's so they can easily identify their story, depending on how they are given to the readers.

On that note, I prefer to download PDFs of each Slides presentation, then upload them to Drive. When I have a lot of time, I then build a Google Site and link to each story. This was not a year where I could do that in a timely manner, so I just sent the 5th grade teacher the link to my Google Drive folder with all the presentations. She shared that link with her class. 

Finished Examples

This first example is a very direct imagining of a situation based on what the younger student had stated in the survey. Here's what the 5th grader submitted

Here's the final story written by the 6th grader. I really appreciated this student's concern to include so many references to the younger student's responses in his simple story. 

The second example is one of the longer stories we received. There's a lot I like about this 6th grader's writing, but the detail overshadows some of the main theme of overcoming obstacles to achieve a goal. The writer's desire to address the younger student's responses is still very evident, though, and that's one of my favorite things about this project. Here are the 5th grader's responses:

And here is the finished story.

Conclusions

The additional scaffolds we provided (through question sheets) helped a lot this time around. The 5th grade teacher didn't know much about this project when I first asked if we could use her class as our audience. She was more and more impressed with it as we went along. She said her students loved getting the stories. It was a success in many ways, and I look forward to trying it again in the upcoming semester. 

I do want to address some challenges we faced in bringing it together this time. The project started as strong as ever, but a couple days into it we had several students out due to quarantines. Since every student had to write for a younger student, this activity really needs 100% involvement to come together well. For several days only half the writers were in class! Getting the ones to work on it diligently from home was a huge challenge. Even a couple students who were in class most days were resistant to writing. This was the first time some students did not care to write for younger students. We are sure this was due to the effect the absences were having on the students in general. All their classes throughout the day were impacted by it, so by our 6th period class, productivity was way down. The teacher and I almost decided to forget the project and try again next semester. 

It ended up taking several days longer than usual, so I was not in the classroom with them the final week or two. The teacher had students help each other to complete some stories. We never did get a workable story from those two tough cases. It was unfortunate, but given the situation, we focused on what we did accomplish. Two other students volunteered to write those missing stories. Their extra work and concern for the young readers was great to see!

Inspiring Reading and Writing With an Authentic Audience - Part 1

This is Part 1 of a three-part post. Click here to see Part 2 and Part 3.

Nicole Fazio is a middle school ELA teacher in our district. I teamed up with her for my Go Beyond Challenge, completing a project for her 6th grade Learning Through Literature class. We decided to improve upon a writing project we've done a couple times in in the past. It's a powerful activity, getting to the heart of what school, and maybe even our life stories, is really about.

It has multiple stages, so I'll break it down into manageable posts and share related resources in each.

The overall goal is to have older students write stories for younger students. The project accomplishes these goals:

• It gives younger students a story to read that they are personally interested in.
• Older students know someone is expecting a story from them, so they are generally very motivated.
• The entire project is focused on an important life lesson that every student can benefit from.

We know this is a memorable activity for students, since this year our older group remembered the stories that were written for them when they were third graders. It was very encouraging to hear that! 

As for that important life lesson I referred to, we use Donald Miller's definition of "story". He says a story is a person who wants something and overcomes obstacles to get it. Here's how we use that in Part 1 of the project.

Introducing the Project to the Younger Students

I meet for about 15 - 20 minutes with the younger class as the first step in this process. Getting this opportunity, and sharing an opportunity with the class through it, is a highlight of my school year. This time it was a 5th grade group. I take them through a short presentation that covers this outline.

1. I remind them of my role in the district (Instructional Tech) and how excited I am to see technology opening doors of opportunity for students.
2. I tell them we are always working to improve an experimental project, and we need their help. It will involve older students writing stories for them.
3. I share one example of a former student who followed her dream of writing. We featured her in a video a few years ago, so I have pictures of her working on her computer. There are always a few students who are familiar with her story, since this student's mother teaches in the district.
4. I tell students that they all have gifts that they can use to help others. That's what school is about--discovering and using those gifts.
5. I also talk about challenges we have to deal with. I get personal, with some examples of why I was afraid to go into teaching at one time. I share how my wife overcame abuse, eventually becoming a caring person who has been honored for her volunteer work. This gets pretty serious, but believe me, the class is with me at this point. (The ones who thought I was just the tech guy who fixed Chromebooks are usually surprised by my passion for learning and success.)
6. At that point, I introduce a short survey they will fill out, so older students will have something to write about.

The Survey

I created this survey as a Google Form, but you could do it on paper fairly easily. Below are the questions I ask. This is a trimmed down list from what we used in the past, since we were trying to sharpen the focus for the writers in the next stage.

1. Are you a boy or girl?
2. What name would you like to have in the story? Think of a nickname instead of your real name.
3. Who lives with you? (Please don't use names, just say things like, "My mom, 2 brothers and my grandma.") 
4. What is your favorite activity when you have free time?
5. What kind of stories do you like? You can pick more than one.
• Exciting
• Funny
• Mystery
• Spooky
• Happy
• Silly
6. What is your gift that you could use to help other people? (If you aren't sure, you can write down a gift you'd like to use to help others.)
7. What is one challenge or "wall" in your life that's hard?

Notice that we do not let them use their real names. I collect their Google account usernames with the Form, so I know who wrote each one. If you use a paper survey, I suggest having students identify themselves by a number. It's important for privacy that the older students have no way of knowing who the student is they're writing for.

The classroom teacher and I work with students if they have questions as they complete the survey. Afterward, I go through the responses and refer any to the teacher if they deal with serious issues. As you can imagine, students are open and some are facing very difficult challenges in life. I usually have to reword a few of them, so it doesn't seem to daunting for the older students who will be writing for them.

I use Autocrat to compile the responses into the format you see below. Those will be printed and handed out to the writers.

Continuing the Project and Thoughts on Learning

I'll explain how we kick this off for the older students in my next post. For now, I will just say this project started out amazing this time around. Then it turned into a bit of a nightmare! I almost abandoned it, with hopes of trying again in the next semester. A rise in quarantines and other issues in the district made it clear we were nowhere near "back to normal". Pushing through challenges was the theme of this project and very much our experience with it.

On that note, I want to return to the message I shared with the 5th graders:  They have a gift they need to use, and they'll have to overcome challenges to do it. I really believe that's the message we need to be telling students. It's what we have to help them do in our classes. Somehow school becomes way too much about standards. Maybe teachers would say that they know it's about the kids and their success, but I wonder if that's the message our students hear. 

Sure, there's an emphasis now on relationships. "They won't care how much we know until...." But what do we mean by relationships? Too often it looks like we're just trying to be everyone's friend. I suggest it's about getting close enough to our students to build trust, and knowing them enough to speak about their gifts and challenges. Students need to see school as being about their lives. Particularly, how it helps them identify strengths and succeed despite their obstacles.

That can make learning an exciting story they'll want to share.

Quick Image Effects Without Green Screen

Who needs a green screen for image effects?Here's a simple process for making fun composite images using Google Slides and remove.bg. This can come in handy for making comics. (I've written about the comic creation process in many posts such as this one.)

The short video below shows you exactly how I do it on an iPad. Any phone or tablet should make this easy and then you can use another device to edit the slides (and possibly add the comic elements.) Here are the steps:

1. Go to remove.bg.
2. Tap the Select a Photo button and choose the option to take a photo.
3. The site will automatically remove the background. I've had great results so far! Copy the image that has no background.
4. Paste it into a slide using the Google Slides app. 

Ideally you'll have some other background you're pasting into. Those slides can all be set up ahead of time as needed either on the same device or a computer.

 You can watch the process here:

When Older Students Write Stories for Younger Students

Do you have a dream project? I've been able to do a few in my career. Here is one that I've done three times now, expanding on it each time. I'll repeat it again soon with another group of students. It has been so successful this year that I believe it will become a regular event in our district. I'm still tweaking many aspects, but I'm excited to share it with you.

Overall Goals

I wanted to make a project that would get younger students excited about reading. I designed a simple routine that requires older students to write short stories for and about younger students. After doing it a few times now, I've found these additional benefits.

• It's very engaging for older students. Even the most unmotivated students write a story.
• We have good conversations about what makes an inspiring story.
• We relate the important theme of finding our gifts and overcoming obstacles to our own lives.
• It can make use of as much or as little tech as the teachers want.
• There are many options for extending the learning.

As you read this lesson idea, keep in mind I have the advantage of working in any building in our district. If you're a classroom teacher doing this project, just think of another teacher you could work with and what each of your roles would be in the activity.

I usually work with an elementary teacher and a middle school teacher, so I'll use that in my explanation. The steps below are usually separate class periods, but but I try to do the first few in consecutive days. The goal is to get the students writing right away. The whole project takes two to three weeks, mostly because the middle school class spends 5 - 7 class periods writing their stories. 

Step 1:  What Makes a Good Story?

I take one class period with a middle school class. I explain that we will be writing stories for elementary students and that requires us to find what makes a good story. Through examples and discussion, we build up to a definition I have written about before, based on Donald Miller's books. He explains that every good story is about...

• A character...
• Who wants something...
• And overcomes conflict to get it.

We look for this pattern in movies and books we like. I also have them (in groups) read one-page biographies of famous people who did something good after overcoming obstacles. I'm still tweaking this part, but some of these people have been Helen Keller, Ben Carson, Louie Zamparini and Phiona Mutesi. We sum up those biographies in terms of the conflict the person overcome and what good they offered the world after that.

By the end of the class, I show them some of the slides I will share with the elementary students. Of course, as I talk about what i will tell the younger ones, I'm really trying to reach them too. I explain:

• I want students to use technology to discover and use their gifts. And we all have a gift.
• We also all have obstacles we face in life. I have referred to these as "walls" or "challenges".
• If we learn to overcome those obstacles, we can discover and use our gifts.

Summing it up, I explain that their stories will be based on how the younger students want to help others (their gifts) and what challenges they face. I explain that we will ask the younger students some questions in a Google Form and I take suggestions from the class about what to ask. 

As you can imagine, I have no problem getting ideas from the class. By now the students are always excited to learn about the younger students.

While the list of suggested questions varies each time, for the most part we get the same types of questions. I always include a few of my own to sharpen the focus of the survey. I'll give examples below. 

And last of all, I take a picture of the class before I leave. The younger students love to see who is writing for them.

Step 2:  Meeting the Younger Students

I usually meet with third grade classes and I try to make this part take about 20 - 30 minutes. It's always such a pleasure to talk with younger students and see their excitement. As I told the older students I would, I begin by explaining my job and how tech can help us discover and share our gifts with others. I talk about one student I worked with a few years ago who started writing and selling her own books on Amazon. 

I explain that we all have gifts that the world needs us to use. I also talk about walls we face in life. I explain how I was voted "most shy" when I was in school and how hard ti was to get in front of a class. I also talk about my wife. She faced abuse as a child, but as an adult has helped many homeless people in our community. 

Then, before I set them loose on the survey, we go through each question that I and the class came up with. 

Speaking of the survey, one big challenge is to include what the middle school students wanted to ask without getting too much information. If I come back to the middle school with too much information, the students try to include everything. Their stories turn into long lists of random events, each revealing some tidbit the young student put on his or her survey.

I want the older students to feel they contributed to the survey, but there are really just a few key things we need to do this right.

The surveys usually are something like this:

• What nickname do you want us to use for you? (We don't use their real names.)
• Are you a boy or a girl?
• Who lives with you? (I explain they don't have to list names, but just things like "two brothers, my grandma", etc.)
• What do you like to do in your free time?
• What is one gift you have that you think you could use to help others? (We talk about some examples, but I have to be careful here or they mostly just tell me things I listed as an example!)
• What is one challenge you face in life?

I use Google Forms for this survey, since it's easier to compile the results in the next step. 

As with the older students, I try to take a picture of this class as they take the surveys. It really inspires the older students to start writing! (Actually, if I have the chance I take a picture of the class before I even meet with the older students. Starting the whole discussion off with the photo puts it in context.)

Step 3:  Compiling the Survey Results

I use Autocrat to compile the students' survey results into a single document. That Google Sheets add-on can be a little intimidating at first, but when it compiles 25 or so surveys in about a minute, it's well worth the investment of setup time.

This is an example of one student's responses compiled in
a table. Notice his "gift" is walking dogs!

I made my template for Autocrat so that it puts each student's answers in a table. I print those, then work with the classroom teacher to decide how we will assign the younger students to the older students. It depends a lot on class size, but so far we have always combined two younger students for each story. Most students will end up in two stories. Sometimes the older students work individually and sometimes we put them in groups.

Note that attendance can be a complicating factor as  you wait for all survey results to be in. You will want all younger students to be represented in the stories, but we've had cases where a student was absent for several days and we had to start writing before we had the results. This requires flexibility. While I haven't had to do it yet, there are times I just moved along with the process and I planned to write a story myself for any student who turned in a survey very late.

Be aware that the younger students do not always understand what I meant by their "gift" and a "challenge". Sometimes they are very literal. Many times instead of writing a significant life challenge, they will write something like doing wheelies on their bike. It's understandable and middle school students often get a kick out of how they interpret the questions! 

Often their challenge will be a school subject they find difficult. We end up with a lot of stories about learning math! Sometimes they are a lot more serious, like dealing with bullying. One time a student even said her challenge in life was dealing with the loss of her mother. Those things can be difficult, but handled gently, they make an important learning experience for all involved.

Step 4:  Starting the Stories

Each page of the story template has space
for an image and some text.

A lot of the details of the writing process are completely up to the classroom teacher, so I am not very involved with this part. I do come in the first day and give some examples of how I would use a student's survey results in a story. I also show the class the simple template we use.

The length of the stories and how long the project takes are all up to the teacher.

A few things to note:

• The teacher I've worked with the most has them write an outline and then a draft, both on paper first. Once approved, they start writing on the Google Slides template.
• While we haven't mastered this yet, we use some guiding questions to help them plan a story that focuses on the students' gifts and the challenges they want to overcome. All the other details they find on the survey results are meant to flesh out that story, not distract from it. 
• None of our students have purposely included inappropriate content, but the teacher and I have redirected a few things here and there. As you would imagine, you will want to have at least a couple points in the process before they turn them in where you can read their stories in detail.
• When the writers are working in pairs, we have one student open the template in Classroom, then share that with his or her partner. So the one student actually never has to use Classroom for the assignment. This is just a simple way for us to monitor their work throughout, as we have access to the stories in Classroom. (And it lets us easily provide the template.)
  
• I come back at a later date and show them  examples of title pages. I don't go into great detail on the features, but I point out how to add Word Art, gradient fills and drop shadows. I don't start with this, because it will distract some of them from the writing.
• As I mentioned earlier, every student has written a story so far in this project. I always see a couple students who are obviously tough cases. I've been warned by the teacher that they might not complete a story. So far no one has dared to make their assigned student go without a story. 

Step 5:  Editing and Compiling the Stories

I have been working with a middle school elective class most often on this. While we've been happy with the students' engagement and effort, stories submitted by middle schoolers are rarely ready to go straight to the younger students. Here's what I do to edit them and prepare the files for the younger students.

I share the stories with the younger
students on a Google Site.

• I open the Drive folder from Classroom and I make a copy of all the completed files. I do this so the teacher can grade the students' stories exactly as they were submitted.
• I then drag those copies into a new folder and share that so everyone in our school can view it if they have the link.
• I read each story carefully and make corrections to spelling, grammar and punctuation. I change some words for young readers if necessary.
• I change the name of the story so it matches what the writers put on the title page and I also include the nicknames of the students it is written to. For example, a story might be The Day at the Park for Anna and Chloe.
• Last of all, I create a Google Site for the project and I add a link from that site to each story. I usually use pictures I've taken to decorate it too, so it's inviting to the younger students. I link to that page from the website the students see when they sign into Chromebooks.
• Last of all, I tell the elementary teacher that the stories are ready.

Step 6:  Students Read Their Stories and Respond

As anyone would expect, it's an exciting time in the classroom when the students read their stories. There's no doubt my goal of hooking them with stories written for and about them has been accomplished. They read their stories as well as stories for their classmates. 

At this point there are many other options to continue the project. One teacher had her class write handwritten thank-you notes back to the middle school students. Another teacher wanted to have the classes meet up through a Google Hangout. Even though the schools are only about eight miles apart and some of the students even knew each other, both classes absolutely loved it.

That teacher also had her students (with their hearty agreement) write stories back to the middle schoolers. We gave a quick paper/pencil survey to the older students. The elementary teacher invited me to join them during their writing hour each day for a week. I taught them some basics of using Google Slides and they had a wonderful time making their stories.

I also have a follow-up reflection survey I like to give the older students. It encourages them to consider their interests in writing stories. Very importantly, it also asks them if the project has helped them think of their own gifts and challenges in life. I'm still perfecting this stage of the project, but I believe the reflection is essential to solidify the most beneficial lessons.

_______________

So that's my dream project. I look forward to developing it more each time we do it. I'll be glad to hear what you'd add to it or what you like best.

Authentic Audience and Authentic Engagement - Interactive Stories Using Free Google Apps

I already wrote a lot this summer about the most exciting, creative project I've been involved with in a long time. I worked with some students to create a story one short piece at a time. What made it amazing was we'd publish the story on the school website, then let the readers complete surveys to tell us what should happen in the next chapter.

This gives the students experience with writing for an engaged, authentic audience. Everyone involved was excited to find out what happens next in the story!

We told our story in comic form, using my favorite method of combining real life photos with comic elements. Of course, it will be much easier to create the stories if they're written as prose rather than comics. I'm calling them interactive stories and I will outline the process below. (There's even a 10-page ebook with tips at the link at the very end of this post.)

We actually ran into a snag in the middle of our comic project, so I resorted to some written chapters just to keep the story going. That gave me some experience with what I'm about to describe.

The Flow of the Project

• Explain the project to the students - This includes the very important aspect of telling them what course content you expect to see in the story. They need to know what they are supposed to learn from it.
• Write the first chapter - Students (the Storytellers) would begin by writing a short chapter to kick things off. It just has to be long enough to introduce some characters and make a cliffhanger that will hook the Readers. I suggest using Google Docs for this, since it's easy to share in a later step.
• Create a short survey - Using Google Forms, the Storytellers create a survey with three to five questions that will help them decide what happens next. We embed the link to the survey right in our story, so anyone who reads it can easily find it. See the link at the end of this post for lots of tips about making good surveys.
• Publish the story - We put a shareable link to our story on our school website. The Readers would find it there easily, read it and complete the survey.
• Make the next chapter - The real learning happens here! Combining the lesson goals, the Storytellers' ideas and the input from the Readers, the Storytellers have to plan and write the next chapter.

That process continues with another survey, publishing the new chapter, getting feedback and so on. As it comes to a conclusion (probably after several weeks) the Storytellers probably will request less and less feedback. 

If doing the story as a comic sounds even better (which I think it can be!) I created this ebook for the process using comics and it includes a ton of tips for getting started and working through the project. 

While it can be so much simpler to have students write the story in Google Docs, much of that ebook will till be helpful. The link below takes you to a free, shortened version that will help with these written stories.

Some tips specific to this written process are:

• Use a fairly large font with generous spacing. Dense text is not fun to read on a screen.
• Even with large fonts and spacing, try to keep the chapters to less than two pages. Your Readers might go for longer passages, but we found many wouldn't bother reading longer chapters.
• Make sure you set up Google Forms so the responses are not anonymous. This is very important if you ask for open ended comments. As the teacher, you might choose to manage the survey responses.

I summed up the Gathering Feedback section of my ebook into a much shorter PDF. You can find it here:

Getting and Using Reader Input for Interactive Writing Projects

If you do this project with a class, I'd love to hear about the results! Please send me an email and let me know how it goes. Include a link to the story too!

Our Collaborative Comic Story

Last fall I wrote about an interactive story experiment I started with some students a our middle school. They enjoyed our usual Google Slides comics assignment, so we decided to start an ongoing story based on input from the rest of the school.

We started the comic in September and worked on it regularly through October. Then classes changed and I got busy with other projects. It took a lot of effort to finish it, but I'm happy with the results.

You can read the complete story here. I added plenty of notes throughout, so you can get an idea of the work that went into it.

We ended up telling the story in a variety of ways, using photos, drawings and even prose.

Throughout the project I tried to faithfully incorporate ideas from the students who followed along and gave their feedback through Google Forms.



In the final weeks of school, I reunited with the girls who started it and we brought in the additional characters. We had one last photo session. It was a hectic end to the school year, but I managed to complete the final chapter and publish it on the very last day of school.

This would be an excellent addition to a Digital Media class. The skills involved went far beyond just familiarity with Google Slides.

As with any of the comic projects I've written about, you could publish the final product in a variety of ways.

Making a Choose Your Own Adventure Story with Google Slides

Update 6/26/2019:  I just posted an updated lesson plan for this on Teachers Pay Teachers for $2. It includes several improvements I made this past school year. My goal was to make a lesson you could assign in Google Classroom and the students wouldn't need any help from you to complete it.

As I mentioned last week, I'm teaching a class called Learning Through Gaming. In the survey I gave the class the first day, many students indicated they wanted to make games. To give them a taste of creating a game, I had them create a Choose Your Own Adventure story using Google Slides.

Here's a document based very closely on the directions we gave our students.

The document contains all directions and a link to this very basic sample story I made. I also included a link to Eric Curts' excellent example. (If you're not familiar with Eric's amazing site, Ctrl Alt Achieve, be sure to check it out. Like so many of his posts, he has the definitive guide on Choose Your Own Adventure stories for class.)

A few other things to note about this assignment:

• I put a video tutorial in the later stages of the document that shows how to create the links. 
• Students will probably want to get started on the links right away. As you'll see, I emphasize planning first.
• As Eric says on his blog, his story was written and illustrated by middle school students. Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books many of us loved as children, the endings sometimes involve your death. Keep this in mind if assigning this to younger students.
• The example stories I link to are published to the web. That means they open in full screen. I didn't include directions for that for the students. In their case, they start the story by clicking the Present button in Google Slides. 
• Like many of our activities at the middle school level, I will be posting the students' stories on our school website. The school will vote on their favorites and the winning authors will get a prize.

Introduction to Video Editing Assignment Using WeVideo

I created a project last week for our middle school Computers class that introduces students to video editing. We use the education version of WeVideo in our district, so the project is based on that application. If you use another editor, you might still find the video clips and the assignment document to be useful.

For a final product, the students will create a 20-25 second commercial. This will require them to edit several short clips that I provide below and also make use of transitions, titles and music.

The Video Clips

To make sure this project only focuses on editing (leaving out all the work of recording), I compiled and trimmed out several short clips of free videos from Pixabay. Each clip shows rides and people at a carnival or amusement park. You can see those video clips in this Google Drive folder.

If you are using my directions exactly as I did, you'd want to make copies of those videos and upload them to a folder in your WeVideo Media. See this video for more information.

The Project Directions

Click here to get a copy of directions for the project as a Google Doc. It contains these things:

• Step by step directions
• Links to two videos that take students through the editing and finishing process
• The list of requirements for their commercial

Note that two links are left out on the document because you would have to provide those to your students on your WeVideo account. Or you might use a different editor. In that case you'd have to modify those steps explaining how to get started.

If you do use WeVideo, you will want to set the project up similarly to what I did, including adding some links to the document. Here are the steps I used:

• I copied the link from WeVideo that would allow students to add themselves as members to my account. That link needs to be pasted into in Step 4 of your document. There are several ways to add students to your account, but doing it this way worked best for this group I was working with. See this article from WeVideo for more information.
• I created a project in WeVideo called Carnival Commercial and copied the link to it so students could add access the project. See this article from WeVideo to learn about project types. I chose the Shared option and I copied the link from the lower left of that Project screen (see the picture below). That link needs to be pasted into Step 5 of the directions. 

• Finally, I shared those video clips I uploaded to my WeVideo media with anyone in that shared project.

After you do that to finish your version of the directions, share it with your students (possibly through Google Classroom) and they should be able to work through the project to completion.

___________________________

A couple notes about WeVideo:

• Students under the age of 13 should not use the free version of WeVideo. It is not COPPA compliant. If you don't use the educational version, you also won't have all the features referred to above.
• We have had a lot of success with WeVideo at our middle school and high school. However, we do find the audio is sometimes too quiet on clips we record. It won't matter in this project if you use the clips I provided, since they have no audio. I have contacted tech support about this, but no satisfactory solution was offered. 

Another Fun Middle School Computers Lesson - Making Comics with Google Slides

I've been posting some of the creative projects we used in our middle school Computers class. (See this post on simple podcasts and this one on animation.)

Those of you who regularly follow my work will be very familiar with the basics of this one -- Comics with Google Slides!

When we did this in class, the excitement level went through the roof! Many students in my district have learned this process already, so some took their own pictures instead of using the ones provided in the directions. You can modify those as necessary for your class.

Click here to get a copy of the Google Doc that contains the directions for students. It links to this sample comic.

Those directions take students through the process of creating a comic. It uses some of my resources that you can find on my Comics page.

Also, this video tutorial is referenced in the directions. It shows the basic process.

And in case you missed the header image above, remember you can get my free ebook about making comics like this by joining my monthly newsletter list. Please click here to sign up.

Fun Animation Project with Chromebooks

This simple animation project from our middle school Computers class proved to be the most engaging one we've done so far. I'll post all the videos, the directions and some tips below so you can easily adapt it for your class.

We used the Stop Motion Animator app on Chromebooks. (They finally released an update for the app after a bug had made the previous version unusable for several months.)

Students had a ton of fun with this project! They watched my simple tutorial (below) and were making animated videos in no time. A few groups didn't want to stop at the end of class!

You can see in the photo that our students used Lenovo Chromebooks with the reversible camera. It allows them to easily capture images on the table in front of the device. If you have Chromebooks with cameras that only face the user, it's a little more challenging to get pictures of objects on the table and see the screen at the same time. (Here's a blog I came across that shows how one teacher addressed this problem.)

Here are the simple example videos that I created for the project:

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3

And here is the short tutorial that shows how to use the app:

This document contains all the directions and links to the above video files.

And here are a few tips and things to consider:

• I didn't mention in the video that the spacebar is the shortcut key for capturing a frame and that the Undo button will delete the last frame of the animation.
• In my tutorial I neglected to emphasize the importance of slight movements of the object from frame to frame. I also didn't state that it looks best if the camera stays in the same place. Consequently, some students made a very choppy series of images. It sort of hinted at action, but I wouldn't call it an animation.
• We had a little trouble with the app when we tried to load a previously saved video or when we were recording audio. Usually restarting the app or the Chromebook solved it.
• You'll notice the directions refer to a contest for the best animation. I selected five videos from those submitted and posted them on our school's homepage. Students could vote (using a Google Form) for their favorite. Here's the winning video, created by one student who won a snack and soft drink for his efforts.

I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as ours did! If they create videos you'd like to share, I'd love to see them and show them to our class.

The Updated 10 Ways to Show Off the Learning Beyond the Classroom

I first made this list in the summer of 2015. With each year of experience behind me and changes with the tools I'll keep updating this. Most updates were made in 2016, but a few have been added in July, 2017.

New items and information are clearly noted below.

When teachers and students show off the best things they learned, perceptions change and the culture changes. I want to make sure my district is known as a place where important learning happens every day.

But a lot of teachers in my district like hands-on, physical projects. Just how many art exhibits and science fairs can you do a year?

So I compiled this list so even those paintings done with real paint and the science experiment made of food can be shown off to the world.

I made this for the teachers I work with daily, so please keep in mind:

• It is a tool for awareness, not a how-to guide. Teachers in my district would contact me for one on one help. Since most of you won't have that option, I added links below to many of my Tech Project Packs. They were designed to help teachers quickly incorporate tech into their projects. I wrote about them all on this blog here.
• Most classrooms in my district use laptops or Chromebooks. I didn't include options for tablets with most of the ideas.

1) Live broadcasts of student presentations - Use The Cube. 

• You can broadcast to the internet easily with an iPhone or iPad. 
• Someone from your school will have to sign up and create an admin account at the site.
• Share the link to your broadcast with parents or to the community beforehand so anyone can watch live. 
• The recording can be left online, so people can watch it later if you want.
• When using live video, be sure you have parent permission to post online and remember not to identify students by first and last name.
• New information:
• I actually haven't used The Cube for a couple years now, since I wasn't involved with any live broadcasts in my district. It appears that service still works as described here, but now the two social media options below might be better.
• I have used Periscope for some personal projects and I love its simplicity.
• And of course Facebook Live is a very popular way to go now.
• Update 2017: If I do live announcements now, I'll use YouTube Live.

2) Websites and Blogs - A simple site or blog (created by you or the students themselves) is the starting point for sharing all the other types of project presentations listed below.

• Any final product, even if it’s has no tech involved, can be posted online by way of pictures and text. 
• For websites, Google Sites is a good, simple option. I made this tutorial for my district for making a website with Google Sites.
• For blogs, use Blogger. Here’s a tutorial I made for creating a new one.
• New information:
• Google Sites is going to be updated in a big way soon, but at this time the above resource is still relevant.
• I also recommend checking out Adobe Spark Pages as a great option for making a single web page. My tutorial for that excellent, simple tool is here.
• And here's my Tech Project Pack for blogs.
• Update 2017: The new Google Sites is a a great, simple way to create a website. See this post for some tips.

3) A PDF ebook - Within seconds anything students make in Google Docs or Slides can be turned into a PDF. From there it can be posted on any blog or website so anyone can open or download it like an ebook.

• With the file open, go to the File menu and select the option to Download as PDF.
• Once the PDF is downloaded, upload it to Drive again and share it as needed.
• New information: This tutorial is specifically about making a comic, but it does show the process of downloading a PDF from Google Slides.

4) InfoPics - If he didn’t invent this simple concept, Tony Vincent is the one who named it and he sings its praises. This really is just a process of adding notes or other text to pictures that are related to a topic. 

• Here's Tony’s blog post about it (with examples).
• It would be very easy for students to make these and share the images on a website or blog.The pictures could also be shared by a teacher or a parent on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.
• The device you like to use will dictate the tools, but I’d suggest Google Drawings for computers or Chromebooks. Pixlr.com is a good tool on many devices if you want to add more effects to your pictures.
• New information:
• Update 2017: I used to recommend Adobe Spark as the first tool to check out for this. They call the pictures with text "Posts". Here's a tutorial about using it. It's still a great tool, but students under the age of 13 cannot sign up for an account without lying about their age.
• My Tech Project Pack for Infopics has tutorials for all the tools listed here.

5) Infographics - Students can create infographic images to show facts in a concise, visually appealing way.

• Finished graphics can be posted on social media or websites and blogs.
• Piktochart is a great tool for this.
• Users can log in on Piktochart with their Google accounts.
• Here’s a good article from Matt Smith with ideas for Piktochart in many subjects.
• New information:
• They have added a presentation option to Piktochart. Now with the click of a button the infographic can be used as a more traditional slideshow for live presentations.
• Here's my Tech Project Pack for infographics.

6) Audio Recordings (podcasts) - Students can create audio recordings and share them online in a variety of ways. These can be completed much faster than a video project. Here are a few details.

• Here’s a simple example of an interview between two students.
• On a PC with a microphone (or a laptop) Audacity is the program to use for recording.
• On a Chromebook you can try SoundCloud for recording (if editing isn’t necessary) or SoundTrap. Both work with Google accounts.
• Finished mp3 or wav files can be uploaded to SoundCloud so people can listen to them and even add comments.
• New information: Here's my Tech Project Pack for audio recordings.

7) Virtual books on Flipsnack - This site is a great tool that turns any PDF into a fun virtual book. 

• Important Note: I found out if students sign in using a Google Apps for Education account it uses the first and last name in the URLs. This is not a good practice. See the link to my new tutorial below about changing the username so it doesn't include student names.
• I usually create the PDF in Google Slides or Google Docs first, then upload to Flipsnack.
• Here’s an example I use for a comic assignment.
• Users can sign into Flipsnack with their Google accounts.
• Free Flipsnack accounts are limited to three virtual books at a time.
• New information: Here's an updated video tutorial on turning a Google Slides presentation into a Flipsnack. Be sure to watch the part that shows how to change the username in Flipsnack.

8) Screen Recordings - Think of these as somewhat informal recordings of something the students show on the screen. 

• These are great for tutorials or presentations.
• Here’s an example from a teacher who has his students use this method a lot.
• They’re informal because editing is usually not part of the process. Students need to practice before recording!
• On a computer with a mic, use Screencast-o-Matic.
• Final results can be uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube for sharing as necessary.
• New information: Update 2017: I used to highly recommend the SnagIt for this, but it is no longer available. I use Screencastify. Here is a recent post about how I create these.

9) Digital slideshows - These are a series of pictures combined into a video by using an editing program.

• These are a step up from screen recordings because you can (and should) edit them.
• Students can add audio. It might be just background music or they can narrate the slideshow.
• With narration, these become presentations that present themselves.
• They make a good introduction to video production, but don’t require as much time.
• New information:
• Forget everything you read from my blog about previous methods for this! I now recommend Adobe Spark Videos as the best tool. See this video tutorial for an example and how-to tips.
• Update 2017: I still like Adobe Spark for video, but we had problems using it on Chromebooks. Also, students under the age of 13 cannot sign up for an account without lying about their age.

10) Videos - Producing a good video is the pinnacle of technology integration in most classes.

• Good videos require several technology skills and a deep understanding of class content. 
• There is a huge range of possibilities for complexity. Don’t just tell students they can “make a video”! Know the options and set guidelines that are appropriate for your students.
• Here are my tips for teachers and students for any video project.
• New information:
• I'm in the process up updating some resources for these projects. Honestly, I've found they take a long time and I have been encouraging the digital slideshows over full videos. I will say I now prefer the paid version of WeVideo for the editor. Note that the free version is not COPPA and FERPA compliant.
• I did post about two video projects we did this year. One was a team building challenge and the other was designed to introduce students to iMovie on an iPad.