Charla O'Sullivan, high school Pyramid teacher at GTJHS, recently poised the question to her students, "What difference could one person make?" She knew she wanted to motivate and engage her students to think outside of the box for the finished product, so she looked to the iPad app iMovie to help her accomplish this task.
After showing her students a finished iMovie trailer that she made as an example, the students were immediately hooked, although a bit hesitant, as to whether they could create a product that looked so professional and polished.
Mrs. O'Sullivan assured them that the process was easier than it looked. Once she walked them through choosing a theme and adding media, the students were given time to create their trailers. When they were finished, they had the opportunity to view all the trailers and peer score them based on a rubric. "My students found the assignment extremely motivating and enjoyed competing to see who could create the best product," said Mrs. O'Sullivan.
Mrs. O'Sullivan plans on using iMovie again with future projects, especially seeing how well the students responded to the technology. "The only thing I would do differently is tie their final product to a written follow-up," Mrs. O'Sullivan noted.
Two student examples can be viewed below:
After showing her students a finished iMovie trailer that she made as an example, the students were immediately hooked, although a bit hesitant, as to whether they could create a product that looked so professional and polished.
Mrs. O'Sullivan assured them that the process was easier than it looked. Once she walked them through choosing a theme and adding media, the students were given time to create their trailers. When they were finished, they had the opportunity to view all the trailers and peer score them based on a rubric. "My students found the assignment extremely motivating and enjoyed competing to see who could create the best product," said Mrs. O'Sullivan.
Mrs. O'Sullivan plans on using iMovie again with future projects, especially seeing how well the students responded to the technology. "The only thing I would do differently is tie their final product to a written follow-up," Mrs. O'Sullivan noted.
Two student examples can be viewed below: