Lesson 2: Create to Learn

1. A brief description of the #2 lesson plan

This lesson shows teachers how to implement a public service announcement style project to introduce students to the idea of creating to learn. First, students work in small groups to research a topic about a controversial issue. Students used Diigo and the immersive reader to independently research their topic and share their findings digitally with their group.  Students work collaboratively to develop a point of view from their research. Students then use their research to develop persuasive video to share with an audience of their peers. 

2. The technology and resources involved

The technology will vary at different stages of the project. Creating media happens in stages. Each stage identifies possible technologies for engaging students in the process of creating to learn in the steps to follow. A mobile device and/or computer, a headset or earbuds with a microphone, and  image as well as video editing apps are involved. 

3. What skills, knowledge, and pedagogy are required of teachers 

The educator is the student and will need to be proficient with image and video editing basics as well as cooperative learning techniqes to support students working in small groups. The educator will also need to be familiar with the research process to lead students through the process of drafting a research question, creating a search strategy, and using mel.org's data bases to find relavent information. The education should also know the basics of copyright and fair use. A useful resource to share with students can be found here. 

4. What prior skills and knowledge are required of students (both general and specific, think of Bloom's taxonomy)

The educator is expected to have basic technology proficiency skills. Key skills for implementing projects that ask students to create a digital artifact using original and/or remixing the work of others include:​
  • editing digital images (upload, download, crop, resize, recolor)
  • editing video (trim, cut, separate audio, insert effects, add sound)
  • copyright, creative commons, fair use, public domain
  • In classrooms with limited devices, understanding how to use Airdrop can be helpful. Students can work in small groups and record and edit on their own device. Content from personal devices can then be airdropped to an ipad or Macbook where another student puts together the final product.

​5. What are students asked to do exactly

The educator explores the different stages of creating to learn. At each stage several tools are introduced as well as classroom management recommendations and teaching strategies to implement a project that engages students in the process of creating a digital artifact.  It is assumed the educator will be stepping through the  this resources on their own. 
Teachers review resources (video, tools, tutorials) and consider the reflective questions as they begin to think about applying each step to their professional practice. The 30,000 view of the process is provided as well as a more detailed explanation written to the "student."
  1. Brainstorming
  2. ​Research
  3. Proposal
  4. Storyboarding
  5. Recording
  6. Peer Critique
  7. Sharing ​​
Brainstorming
Visual learning tools are helpful at this stage because they have features that make it easy to arrange ideas into clusters and/or connect ideas to show relationships and/or processes. For an in depth look at the different types of visual organizers teachers and students can use for brainstorming and research, check out The Ultimate List of Graphic Organizers for Teachers and Students from creately. The list of tools below can be used with students of all ages. *Tool does not require an account to use
Research
​Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is an eResource Gale's editorial team curates around popular controversial issues. Select "Browse Issues" to view all topics. A topic page begins with an overview essay that explains the controversy surrounding the topic. The curated resources for each topic are organized into subcategories. 
  • Featured Viewpoints: Viewpoint essays and opinion pieces (curated by Gale's editorial team)
  • Images, Videos, and Audio: Multimedia content 
  • Magazines and News: International news sources are updated daily. This includes premium sources that would require a subscription to access through a basic internet search. Articles are updated daily to provide a source for recent news.
  • Academic Journals: Access scholarly and peer-reviewed publications under Academic Journals. ​
  • Statistics, Primary Sources, and Websites: Graphs, charts, infographics, and websites provides additional content to help students analyze a topic quickly. 

To Google or Gale?
Beyond providing complex issues for students to grapple with and draw their own conclusions, the affordances of using a database such as Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints compared to search engines such as Google, Bing, and Duck, Duck, Go can not be understated.  The Gale databases include tools students encounter on high stakes assessments. Students can practice using the tools in a low stakes environment. When the stakes are high the tools will be automatic and the student can focus on performing their best. 

Gale Tools
  • highlighter
  • read aloud
  • translation
  • dictionary
  • Sticky note

Save to Drive provides a way for students to collect and organize information. Check out how middle school students are using the feature for researching passion projects. 
​
Additional Tools
Annotate the web     Insert Learning, Kami,  *Annotator Tool from Thinkport Education
Annotate Video         Playposit, EdPuzzle
Proposal
Students draft a project proposal at this stage of the process. They have completed their research, synthesized ideas, and developed a viewpoint that answers their driving question. The project proposal guides students through the process of meeting ISTE student standard six -  Creative Communicator. If you are just getting started with the ISTE Standards for Students, view the Creative Communicator standard in action by watching the Youtube playlist below. 

Purpose for Viewing: What are the benefits of having students draft a project proposal? Which indicators could potentially be met by incorporating a project proposal like this one in the classroom?
​

​Possible Steps for Students
  1. Distribute a project proposal to each student to complete.
  2. Share with students how the project proposal will be used to determine next steps.
  3. Remind students to frequently revisit the goal and guidelines for the project as they work.
  4. Use a variety of formative assessment techniques to monitor student progress and inform instruction throughout this process.
​
Storyboarding
A completed storyboard should leave no question unanswered. Storyboarding can take many forms. The resources provided can easily be adapted for use in a variety of tools and mediums. The story frames help guide students to develop messages that follow common story structures. A filmshots lossary can provide an idea bank for students that choose to create video. A classroom set film shot glossaries with depictions of various shots  can be helpful for students to have as a reference.

Storyboard That
​​Canva
from Boords Educreations
Adobe Spark
TIP: Download and save to computer before using fillable form to prevent losing work. 
Educreations and Adobe Spark fillable storyboards by Kate Grunow are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Project Work Days
It's important to communicate expectations clearly and hold students accountable for having work completed within the time allotted. Loss of instructional time is a common concern when teachers are thinking about having students create media messages in the classroom. Consider how the strategies below support productive project work days.
  • Students complete a Project Work Day Action Plan in advance. In the plan students set a goal for the day, identify the resources needed to accomplish the goal, and list the steps they will take on the upcoming project work day. The purpose of developing a plan is twofold--students learn how to budget their time to achieve a goal and begin their work day with direction. 
  • Make the Project Work Day Action plan the price of admission on project work days. In other words, students provide evidence of their completed plan to get in the door. 
  • Prompt students to document their progress and adjust their plans at the end of a project work day. Students can snap a picture with their smart phone, or highlight parts of the plan they were not able to complete. 
  • Prompt students to continuously adjust their plans based on what they have accomplished and the time that remains to meet their deadline.

As teachers we want our students to be successful so we create detailed project description handouts and support resources in anticipation of the student behaviors and questions we expect to see. How often do the students who need this level of detail read the details? A point to ponder-- helping is not always helping. When we always do the planning for our students we rob them of opportunities to learn how to do it for themselves. Which approach will prepare students for life after k12?

Peer Critique
​PBL Works editorial team defines critique protocols as "structured processes that guide students in giving and receiving high quality feedback." Engaging students in peer critique improves the quality of student work produced. Facilitating a Gallery Walk is one way to engage students in peer critique. To participate in a Gallery Walk students display drafts around the classroom for viewing. Students are then prompted to walk to various locations in the room and leave sticky note suggestions for their peers. Online adaptations might include the use of a Padlet, media album, discussion board, and/or the use of breakout rooms. For more ideas on how to engage students in peer critique check out Critique Protocols: TIPS for Remote and Hybrid Classrooms from PBL Works. Peer Critique tools and protocols can also be adapted to showcase student work in small groups. 

​6. What are the procedures of the project

In a face to face training learning how to use video editing software and/apps would be provided using a strategy that works well or teaching any new application to students. Any time educators can experience a lesson as their students would they practice empathy and for many teachers new teaching tools participating in the act before facilitating it helps them understand the process as a whole.  
​
Strategy: Teach One to Teach the Group
Note: This strategy makes it possible to teach a class of 35 students how to use iMovie in one hour with seven devices. 
  1. Divide the class into equal groups of 5-6 students
  2. Instruct each group to count off so that each student has an assigned number
  3. The instructor asks students to drop all of their recording clips in a new project in iMovie while the 1's are at the front of the room. This is so they have something to do while the ones are at the front of the room.
  4. The instructor calls the one's up to the front of the room wile the rest of the group remains at their table and picks out a theme for their project. The one's report to the front of the room. The instructor teaches those students one iMovie skill.
  5. The one's return to their table to teach the skill they learned to their group.
  6. While the one's are teaching the group, the two's are called to the front of the room. The instructor teaches the two's one iMovie skill at the front of the room.
  7. The two's return to their table to teacher the skill to their group.
The process repeats for each number remaining. The instructor circulates at the end to answer questions for groups that need to see something one more time. The thinking behind this strategy is that every student can remember one thing, but when we teach students how to use a tool all at once they forget most of what was said by the time they begin their work. Students can remember one thing and together are able to use iMovie to edit their project on the next project work day. The following skills can be taught in this order in a 50 minute class and provide students with the necessary editing skills to work in the imovie app. 

     1's - Trim
     2's - Cut
     3's - Transitions
     4's - Audio
     5's - Effects
​
Consider teaching students how to export videos the day they need to. It can be helpful to elect a team caption for each group that can be called up to the front of the classroom to take directions and report back to the group or handle tasks that the whole class may not need to pause and listen to. 

​7. What are the advantages of the project  

Students have an opportunity to develop project management skills that will serve them well in the future. Specific skills students work on include time management, backwards design, speaking and listening skills, goal setting, and collaboration. 

8. What are the disadvantages of the project 

Loss of instructional time is a common concern when teachers are thinking about having students create media messages in the classroom. Without strategies and proper planning behavior issues will undoubtedly arise. Recording also requires space for students to spread out.  

9. What types of effective instructional strategies are included 

As mentioned previously, an effective strategy for teaching a new tool is to teach one student who then teaches the group. In Using Technology With Classroom Instruction that Works Marzano identifies nine categories of instruction and explains how to use different technologies apply the categories in practice. Several strategies outlined in this lesson draw on the UT CITW framework. Specifically, the following research-based strategies appear in this lesson:

Step: Brainstorming
CITW Strategy: Non-linguistic Representations

Step: Research
CITW Strategy: Cues Summarizing Note Taking; Identifying Similarities and Differences

Step: Project Proposal & Conferencing
CITW Strategy - Questions, and Advance Organizers; Providing Feedback

Step: Project Work Day Action Plan
CITW Strategy: Setting Objectives; Reinforcing Effort; Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers

Step: Peer Critique
CITW Strategy: Providing Feedback

Step: Share
CITW Strategy: Providing Feedback and Recognition

​10. What are the possibilities that innovation can be transferred to other teachers, subject content, and different school settings?

There is a high probability of this innovation being transferred to other teachers, subject content, and different school settings as I've provided a great deal of choice for educators to interact with in terms of content,  process, product. Technologies are device agnostic with google and office 365 single sign in options in some cases, and templates are provided for the educator to customize based on their needs and setting. 
References
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Richardson, W. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Ferriter, W. M., Garry, A., & Ebook Central - College Complete. (2010). Teaching the igeneration: 5 easy ways to introduce essential skills with web 2.0 tools. Solution Tree Press.

Tucker, C. (2018, August 24) InsertLearning: Transform Any Web Page into an Interactive Lesson. Dr. Caitlin Tucker. mhttps://catlintucker.com/2018/04/insertlearning/
Common Sense Media. (n.d.) What is media literacy, and why is it important.  https://www.commonsensemedia.org/news-and-media-literacy/what-is-media-literacy-and-why-is-it-important

ISTE. (n.d.). Playlists [ISTE channel]. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6aVN_9hcQEGwvJdR-0FHjCAv1dbmlMRe