Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Video Book Reviews

Green screen backgrounds
can become anything!
     Second grade teacher Mrs. Marceau was looking for a way to use technology to present her students' opinion writing pieces. Book reviews. We focused on using video. Our conversation about book review videos sparked Mrs. Marceau's memory of the classic Reading Rainbow book reviews. So we decided to recreate them. I set up the green screen on the wall in the computer lab. Then the students wrote a shortened version of their book review. One that was easier to read on camera.

The closer the teleprompter is to the
camera lens, the better the student's
eye contact with the camera.

Then Emily Sun, my SHS senior options student, transferred the short text onto a web site, which turned our iPad into a teleprompter. One by one, students stepped in front of the camcorder and read from the teleprompter. It can be a nerve wracking experience for any adult, let alone 8 year olds, but each student performed admirably with their pre-production work as well as with their on-camera Reading Rainbow performance. We recorded each video and uploaded them for display on the class blog. It was hard work, but like all tough jobs, gratifying.

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