Need ideas on how to incorporate Photostory into the classroom?
Hands on Projects
1) What Connects These Images?
Find 10 images and or video that are all related to an upcoming topic. Create a quick movie and have students guess what the topic will be. Each part of the Photo Story should have a narrated clue that helps them guess the topic. Consider combining all the pictures into an AutoCollage for the last slide.
Alternatively, you can take close up photos of a mystery object and have the students guess what it will be.
Examples:
· A country
· A novel (book)
· An era in history
· A math concept
· An animal
2) Step-by-Step Directions
Create a digital story that focuses on a specific set of steps or stages in a particular process. The process can be relatively simple or complex, and it can be natural, social, mechanical, artistic, or any combination of these. For example, students could research and present:
· The steps in making a simple food.
· The path from growing wheat to the bread on our tables, or from cows producing milk to the milk we drink.
· The life cycle of a fly or a forest.
· The water treatment process.
· The recycling process.
· The manufacturing of a plastic toy or an airplane.
· The creation of a sculpture or a painting.
Sequencing skills are highlighted in all levels of this project; understanding complex systems is highlighted in the higher levels. Telling digital story, with its focus on a beginning, a middle, and an end, reinforces sequencing skills, and it also helps students retain sequences they have learned.
Example: How to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (http://it.seattleschools.org/BEXlevy/activities/photostory/photo-story-3-examples/)
3) Write a Story
“Writing” a digital story is a great way to help kids overcome their fear of writing and to reinforce in them the notion of writing as a process and revision as a necessity. Having students write a narrative together is a fun way to teach collaboration and to reinforce the elements of good storytelling, since they’ll have to discuss what works and what doesn’t in the story line, the tone, and the dialogue. Also, part of the group can write, while others can illustrate.
Basic (1-2 class sessions)
Write a story and pull photos from approved web sites to illustrate it. Students can choose to use all photographs or all famous works of art to give unity to their presentation. Give a dramatic reading of the story in class, in the school library, or even in other classrooms.
More challenging (2-3 class sessions)
Write a longer story and draw or paint your own illustrations (which you scan or use a digital camera to take photos). Give a dramatic reading of the story in class, in the school library, or even in other classrooms.
Expert (3-4 sessions)
Write a story in chapters and illustrate it yourselves. Students can decide whether to write all the chapters together or to agree on a story line and then assign the different chapters to individual group members. Or they can decide that half the group will write the story and the other half will edit it. They can then discuss the edits together as a group before revising the story. When the story has been completed, they record a voiceover narration of it and integrate music into their presentation. They post it on a web site or school portal.
Alternative challenges for these projects (to help students understand the power of images, the power of words, the nature of good storytelling, and the diversity of ability) include:
· Students save the audio version of their story separately, locate a similar or younger class at a school for blind students, and share their story with them, making sure that the audio version tells the whole story.
· Students set themselves the challenge of “writing” and telling a story in pictures and words on the slides alone, with no audio voices or music, and then share this with students in a class at a school for the hearing impaired.
4) Let Me Introduce You
Perspective learning and interviewing skills are highlighted in this project. Instead of each student making a self-portrait, they each have to present themselves to a classmate or group of classmates, who must “see” them and then present them to the class. This is a very good community-building exercise at any time and especially at the beginning of the school year.
Basic (2-3 class sessions).
Students work in pairs to take photos of one another, interview one another, and create a movie that introduces someone in the group. They use photos that the other student has brought in, along with quotes and information from the interview as accompanying text. The teacher may give students a list of interview questions as a script to follow or as a starting point.
More challenging (3-4 class sessions).
Students write their own interview questions. They record the interview as they engage the interviewee about a passion of theirs (a sport or hobby or favorite place, for example) and focus on the family and cultural background of the subject. They use voiceover narration and perhaps audio clips from the recorded interview.
Expert (4-6 sessions).
Students work in groups to create a group portrait of each individual student. Each student takes his or her own photos of the subject, capturing a different aspect of them, and interviews them about a different aspect of their life: family, culture, interests, friends, or values. They then work together to edit and organize all the collected material into a group “multiple perspective into one” view of their classmate.
5) Who Was…?
Introduction to the life and work of one famous person that the group agrees changed the course of history – a Greek philosopher, a president, a scientist, an assassin (such as the one who killed Abraham Lincoln), or a social justice or human rights pioneer (such as Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, or Cesar Chavez).
Basic (2-3 class sessions)
Write a simple script with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and use web clips and researched text to create a movie.
More challenging (3-4 class sessions)
Add more effects, transitions, music, and photos of your own. Include audio clips of each person in the group narrating why and how they believe this person changed the course of history.
Expert (4-6 sessions)
Research as a group, write a script of group members playing themselves or different people in history interviewing this famous person (played by one group member), and film it. Edit, refine, and share.
6) A Day in My Life
a. Pick an interesting day, and bring your camera with you wherever you go. Plan on taking more pictures than you will need for your movie. That way, you'll have plenty of pictures to choose from. For example, if you want to make a one-minute movie and show each picture for about five seconds, you will need at least 12 pictures for the movie. Shoot at least 30 pictures to make sure you have enough to choose from. You can also take short video clips (30 seconds each).
1) What Connects These Images?
Find 10 images and or video that are all related to an upcoming topic. Create a quick movie and have students guess what the topic will be. Each part of the Photo Story should have a narrated clue that helps them guess the topic. Consider combining all the pictures into an AutoCollage for the last slide.
Alternatively, you can take close up photos of a mystery object and have the students guess what it will be.
Examples:
· A country
· A novel (book)
· An era in history
· A math concept
· An animal
2) Step-by-Step Directions
Create a digital story that focuses on a specific set of steps or stages in a particular process. The process can be relatively simple or complex, and it can be natural, social, mechanical, artistic, or any combination of these. For example, students could research and present:
· The steps in making a simple food.
· The path from growing wheat to the bread on our tables, or from cows producing milk to the milk we drink.
· The life cycle of a fly or a forest.
· The water treatment process.
· The recycling process.
· The manufacturing of a plastic toy or an airplane.
· The creation of a sculpture or a painting.
Sequencing skills are highlighted in all levels of this project; understanding complex systems is highlighted in the higher levels. Telling digital story, with its focus on a beginning, a middle, and an end, reinforces sequencing skills, and it also helps students retain sequences they have learned.
Example: How to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (http://it.seattleschools.org/BEXlevy/activities/photostory/photo-story-3-examples/)
3) Write a Story
“Writing” a digital story is a great way to help kids overcome their fear of writing and to reinforce in them the notion of writing as a process and revision as a necessity. Having students write a narrative together is a fun way to teach collaboration and to reinforce the elements of good storytelling, since they’ll have to discuss what works and what doesn’t in the story line, the tone, and the dialogue. Also, part of the group can write, while others can illustrate.
Basic (1-2 class sessions)
Write a story and pull photos from approved web sites to illustrate it. Students can choose to use all photographs or all famous works of art to give unity to their presentation. Give a dramatic reading of the story in class, in the school library, or even in other classrooms.
More challenging (2-3 class sessions)
Write a longer story and draw or paint your own illustrations (which you scan or use a digital camera to take photos). Give a dramatic reading of the story in class, in the school library, or even in other classrooms.
Expert (3-4 sessions)
Write a story in chapters and illustrate it yourselves. Students can decide whether to write all the chapters together or to agree on a story line and then assign the different chapters to individual group members. Or they can decide that half the group will write the story and the other half will edit it. They can then discuss the edits together as a group before revising the story. When the story has been completed, they record a voiceover narration of it and integrate music into their presentation. They post it on a web site or school portal.
Alternative challenges for these projects (to help students understand the power of images, the power of words, the nature of good storytelling, and the diversity of ability) include:
· Students save the audio version of their story separately, locate a similar or younger class at a school for blind students, and share their story with them, making sure that the audio version tells the whole story.
· Students set themselves the challenge of “writing” and telling a story in pictures and words on the slides alone, with no audio voices or music, and then share this with students in a class at a school for the hearing impaired.
4) Let Me Introduce You
Perspective learning and interviewing skills are highlighted in this project. Instead of each student making a self-portrait, they each have to present themselves to a classmate or group of classmates, who must “see” them and then present them to the class. This is a very good community-building exercise at any time and especially at the beginning of the school year.
Basic (2-3 class sessions).
Students work in pairs to take photos of one another, interview one another, and create a movie that introduces someone in the group. They use photos that the other student has brought in, along with quotes and information from the interview as accompanying text. The teacher may give students a list of interview questions as a script to follow or as a starting point.
More challenging (3-4 class sessions).
Students write their own interview questions. They record the interview as they engage the interviewee about a passion of theirs (a sport or hobby or favorite place, for example) and focus on the family and cultural background of the subject. They use voiceover narration and perhaps audio clips from the recorded interview.
Expert (4-6 sessions).
Students work in groups to create a group portrait of each individual student. Each student takes his or her own photos of the subject, capturing a different aspect of them, and interviews them about a different aspect of their life: family, culture, interests, friends, or values. They then work together to edit and organize all the collected material into a group “multiple perspective into one” view of their classmate.
5) Who Was…?
Introduction to the life and work of one famous person that the group agrees changed the course of history – a Greek philosopher, a president, a scientist, an assassin (such as the one who killed Abraham Lincoln), or a social justice or human rights pioneer (such as Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, or Cesar Chavez).
Basic (2-3 class sessions)
Write a simple script with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and use web clips and researched text to create a movie.
More challenging (3-4 class sessions)
Add more effects, transitions, music, and photos of your own. Include audio clips of each person in the group narrating why and how they believe this person changed the course of history.
Expert (4-6 sessions)
Research as a group, write a script of group members playing themselves or different people in history interviewing this famous person (played by one group member), and film it. Edit, refine, and share.
6) A Day in My Life
a. Pick an interesting day, and bring your camera with you wherever you go. Plan on taking more pictures than you will need for your movie. That way, you'll have plenty of pictures to choose from. For example, if you want to make a one-minute movie and show each picture for about five seconds, you will need at least 12 pictures for the movie. Shoot at least 30 pictures to make sure you have enough to choose from. You can also take short video clips (30 seconds each).