These Documentaries Are KILLER!

We are led by example. 

Think about it: Have you ever... Put together a puzzle without first looking at the cover to see what it's supposed to look like once complete? Made a craft or home improvement project without first looking up inspiration or instructions on Google or Pinterest? Saw a movie without watching the trailer or reading the synopsis? The answer is mostly likely no, as we are driven by seeing something that we can connect with.

Because of this need for inspiration to draw from and even deviate from, it is often challenging to ask our students to create - the highest level of Bloom's - without giving them any sort of frame of reference. Couple that with asking students to use a new tech tool, conduct a research project on an unknown individual, and apply taught curricular concepts to a new creation may feel daunting for even our traditionally higher performing students. 

Recognizing all of these factors, Becky Ainsworth - Forensics Science teacher at Byron Nelson High School, created multiple resources to set her students up for success. Students in this upper level class were tasked with creating a mini-documentary that detailed the forensic psychology of an infamous serial killer, and were to present the information in a video format using Adobe Spark to make it view like a true documentary. 

Click to view Mrs. Ainsworth's Spark Project Instructions.

In previous years, students presented this content in a traditional format by standing in front of the class and retelling their information. This type of presentation lacked student engagement, was time consuming, and the success of a exemplar product was confined to that class periods' limited audience. To elevate this experience, Becky then replaced the traditional presentation format with the documentary style project requirement. With any first year project, there aren't a bank of examples to pull from, so it was a genius idea that Mrs. Ainsworth created and delivered the project instructions using the exact tool, Adobe Spark Video, she was asking students to use. Additional relevant information, including required content and the grading rubric, were showcased on a traditional document project outline.

Next, students were empowered with full creative freedom to add content from any reliable source (with a minimum of at least 3) as they conducted their own research. The documentary is a visual, video presentation, so the main premise requires a series of photos and videos that have a voice-over to tell the story using very little, if any, text on screen. Students used sites such as Pixabay to find free stock photo and video clips, as well as truly realistic clips that depicted the actual serial killer in photo or video. Check out these top two mini-documentary creations:

Ian Brady: As told by Lauren

Jeffrey Dahmer: As told by Kai and Tony

Once video creation was complete within Adobe Spark, students downloaded their videos and then uploaded them onto a collaborative YouTube Playlist that would house projects for all Forensic Science students at BNHS. By uploading to this platform, students were able to share their creation beyond the walls of their class period and could in turn view documentaries created by students studying the same content in a completely different class period. Publishing to YouTube allowed students to have a broader audience, made the presentation format more engaging as students got to watch multiple mini-documentaries, and created a wealth of examples to draw from for the following school year. Since Mrs. Ainsworth's classes in all had 57 videos on their Playlist, Mrs. Ainsworth plans to pick the top exemplars, as well as non-examples, from this collaborative playlist to make a new, shortened, and focused playlist to support next year's students as they, too, begin this exciting creative project.

This project meets ISTE Student Standard of being a Knowledge Constructor (3) in which students

• 3a: Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
• 3b: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
• 3c: Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

"If I could learn about anything in the world, I would learn about...."

Walking into Mrs. Dwyer’s first grade classroom to find they were working on their passion projects, made my heart smile! First graders planning, researching, and creating a product to show off their learning about their self-selected passion is a dream come true. Passion projects are a way of investing in each child by naturally differentiating because the whole process and product is about them.

Read more to find out what Mrs. Dwyer, a teacher at Schluter Elementary had to say about launching passion projects in 1st grade:

I was determined to bring passion projects to life despite the differences in age and independence. It was important to me to engage them in relevant work that inspired them. I never want to limit my students, especially their beliefs about themselves. Back in October, I finally got brave enough to voice my vision aloud to one of my mentors, Liz Smith, GATES teacher. She came alongside me, helped me launch the project and pitch it to my kids to get their buy-in. We got down on the floor together and conferred with kids, to understand their passion, listen to them, and help them struggle to find their voice.

Time was always a constraint. I put two 15-30 minute blocks of time on the calendar each week to work on passion projects, and I accepted that life happens. If it didn’t work one day, one week or even one month, we just picked up where we left off when we could. Mrs. Smith pushed in the classroom when she could, and a few times we would divide and conquer. I would teach small groups while she conferred. Overall, we maintained flexibility.

In the planning process, students chose how they would share their learning and what product they would create. When we finally got to that stage, it got even more fun. It was also a dance, going back and forth between guiding and allowing student-independence. For example, one student would decide on making a video. The next student automatically wanted a video to be like a peer. We had to spend time talking about purpose and audience to help kids understand that a video may not be the best fit for every project. I thought I would get tears, but I did not. I think they felt so empowered, they would nod and say, “Maybe on my next project.”

There were a few projects where we had to get parent involvement in order for it to be a success for the student. Talk about engagement! I actually received an email from a parent, thanking me for the project because she saw her daughter light up in the process. Media was following her around with cameras thinking she was a big time YouTuber. I ran into another family at the indoor soccer fields, and it was awesome because I “caught” my student working on his passion. He was so proud! Another student, who wanted to learn all about ballet, came back to school in January excited because her mom agreed to sign her up for ballet class.

It fills me with so much joy to see how far my kids have come in this process. The difficult parts for me of managing 20 individual projects, scaffolding, and differentiating for each child, and mostly understanding exactly what they wanted to be the outcome of their work, were more than worth it. It was a definite growing experience for me as an educator. We can’t wait to share the finished products at EXPO and Open House. We are hopeful to get another project in before the end of the year now that we, as a class, have more skills and practice!

As you can see, Mrs. Dwyer and her students both gained substantial knowledge during this experience. Schluter Elementary set a goal at the beginning of the year as a campus for each student to take ownership of their learning process in planning, monitoring, and reflecting on individual and/or collective work in order to meet their highest potential. This learning definitely showcases the students ownership of their learning process and what high potential they each have. Check out all of Mrs. Dwyer’s students learning here.

"IT'S ALIVE!" Bringing Critical Thought to Life with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Victor was a learner. He had a passion for acquiring new information and using it to innovate and create. In Mary Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein, the title character, Victor Frankenstein, stated that “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn...” In the story, Victor exposed an unchecked curiosity for learning as well as his own tragic flaw. Although learning is generally a positive process, understanding how acquisition of valuable information goes together with personal and societal ethics is something that a learner must fully grasp when encountering content, if they intend to apply it successfully. Through critical thinking and discourse, fostered by student choice and individualized learning opportunities, students are able to think differently about a text and draw conclusions about its relevance to their current world.

The type of critical thinking required to comprehend and analyze encountered information and its connection to real life areas of advancement is an absolute necessity that ninth grade ELA students experience as they encounter Shelley’s text in Pre-AP/GT English courses at Eaton High School. These students explore, consider, and discuss the “moral liability” of “knowledge” and “progress” as a part of a problem based learning opportunity that allows for student choice while also facilitating real world connections to the text. As part of this project, students in ninth grade Pre-AP/GT English are presented with the driving question of “Does knowledge or progress ever become a moral liability?” They are asked to utilize resources and processes of their choosing to explore both sides of an area of advancement and then choose varied platforms and tools in which to communicate their findings in ways that answer that driving question. The findings are curated into a “Live Binder” that is shared with peers and other school and community members.

Students are given a wide variety of options for how to present up to date research in ways that not only answer the given problem but also present both sides or an issue and advocate for a perspective that has been developed through meticulous research and and discussion. Some students choose to use WeVideo or YouTube to help create and edit videos in the format of interviews or commercials, while others use similar tools to create podcasts or radio shows. Some prefer approaching their topics through graphic design with visual advertisements in Canva, or written argument in journal or blog entries using Blogger or Smore. Whatever the platform, a truly beneficial part of this experience comes in when a student is given the freedom to choose a tool or resource that they are confident in using and that communicates their voice effectively while helping to share their knowledge with the community around them.

As students develop argumentation, research, and independent communication skills throughout this project, they are able to display those over the course of a week set aside for formally sharing findings with the school community. While presenting their inventive and relevant creations, these students confidently defend their research and conclusions in a dissertation style setting, which is not only challenging but truly impressive to witness. It is in a forum such as this where it becomes apparent that our students are not only being given the freedom to explore content and required texts but they are also being provided opportunities to develop their own viewpoints on critical societal issues while shaping an ethical compass of their own, all while being able to connect it to their reading.

Victor Frankenstein also said, “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” However, what Victor was lacking was a true understanding of what to do with that information, which students in our freshman Pre-AP/GT English classes are acquiring and applying through research into their own opinions, in-depth analysis, and critical discourse. These invaluable learning experiences are things that will help to not only develop lifelong learners but also facilitate learning that encourages an approach to new discoveries with a critical eye and solid ethical grounding.

Giving Students the "Keys" to Engage

Many adults falsely assume that the current generation of students is lacking any sort of work ethic, loyalty, or desire for learning independence. Some mistakenly stereotype an entire generation of students as full of apathy and an inability to think critically or engage with a world outside of social media. What many fail to see is that we are educating a generation of individuals who may have more intrinsic motivation than we realize. The challenge we face is not how to teach students these qualities but to find ways to bring them out in our students and give them opportunities to apply the necessary thinking to content as they learn to grow and develop the skills we desire to see.

In her 2011 BarnardCollege commencement address, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, encouraged graduates to, “…find something that stirs your passion, a job that matters to you and matters to others. It is the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. It's also a very clear path to happiness.” The students we work with each and every day have a real desire to do just that. A 2017Harvard Business Review article quoted one student as saying, “I would rather make nothing and love going to work every day than make a ton of money and hate going to work every day.” This mentality seems more common among current students and when classroom teachers create purposeful opportunities for those students to help guide them through curriculum, we allow for true “student-driven” instruction that puts the learner behind the wheel and dials into passions, in turn, fueling that intrinsic motivation for learning. Many times, observing the work of academy students at Northwest ISD is the ultimate example of student-driven instruction and is an incredible opportunity for students to spark passions and develop innovative ideas that they are encouraged to pursue as part of academic course work.

In his first year at Eaton High School, Canaan, a Business Management and Entrepreneurship Academy student, was brainstorming for a Junior Achievement Company idea and had a desire to do something that had a “real effect on the world” or solved a real-world problem. He also happened to read an article about human sugar intake and how it was linked to diabetes, cancer, and other health problems. As Canaan continued his research, he watched a documentary on the topic, which spurred him to begin tracking his own sugar intake for about a week. He started tracking it on paper and saw that his own sugar intake far exceeded the amount recommended. His research supported that this was not uncommon and Canaan's very startling discovery prompted him to think about how important is was for people to understand and be aware of this issue. Through his research and continued tracking, Canaan’s interest in this area grew and he wondered if there was an easier way for people to track their own sugar intake. He found few apps and tools online to help and even researched some of the major personal health trackers. While looking at some of the more widely used digital trackers, he found that their primary function was to count calories and fat and that most of them grossly underestimated grams of sugar in foods he consumed. Canaan knew there must be a way to create something to meet this increasing need and started looking for courses at school that would help him pursue this new found interest.

Canaan eventually signed up for William Gilbert’s web applications course where he could acquire basic knowledge for coding and building apps on his own. Mr. Gilbert recalled Canaan approaching him about one of the course assignments and asking to incorporate his ideas for sugar tracking. Mr. Gilbert said that “He changed the assignment when he came to me about his research and asked me to allow him to do something different and more complicated.” Gilbert allowed Canaan the opportunity to pursue his area of interest and Canaan turned it into Bloom, an app for sugar intake tracking. 

Canaan has since continued to update and work on his app and has an entire notebook, or journal, for ideas he plans to incorporate. He did say that he was a bit disappointed that there were only so many courses he could fit into his schedule to advance his desire to code and develop apps. However, Canaan continues to record suggestions from classmates and gathers outside feedback to help him continue developing ideas for evolving his app. He plans to develop this web based application that can also be accessed from a computer or a smart phone and wants to incorporate a variety of convenient features in the future to help with more accurate tracking of sugar intake.

Without the opportunity provided in our BME academy to creatively think about societal needs and possible business ventures and without the willingness of Mr. Gilbert to hand over the “keys” to learning to his students, Canaan’s idea would not have come to fruition. It’s his personal drive to make a difference and the willingness of Canaan's teachers to facilitate and open up this opportunity that drove Canaan to conceptualize his "passion project" while also learning useful and relevant academic skills.

Mr. Gilbert’s web applications course also allowed three other innovative students an opportunity to develop tools that not only met a course requirement, but also addressed a need in the Eaton UIL community. Nate and two of his peers, Devon and Nate, are part of the Eaton UIL computer science team. While at competitions, they noticed that results were usually printed on a single 8½ x 11 sheet of paper and posted on a wall in the school cafeteria for a bunch of students to crowd around and try to decipher. They felt that this method of sharing competition results was much “more difficult than it should be” and they worked together to develop an app that works with current University InterscholasticLeague (UIL) event tabulation procedures for electronically communicating competition results. 

The app was deployed at an Eaton UIL competition last year and worked incredibly well for electronic dissemination of news updates and scores and efficiently communicated rounds and results to all students and coaches. Nate said that he liked how the app “alleviated a disconnect between scorers and competitors.” It worked so well that these students decided to add in speech event tabulation to the app for the 2018 Eaton UIL tournament. The feedback from their endeavor was all positive and noted how well these students served a legitimate need in the school community.

Another group of students who utilize passions and skills acquired through academic course study can be found in Eaton High School’s Book Club, sponsored by the EHS Library Media Center. Crystal and Jasmine are prominent book club members and say they joined book club because they school helped them to acquire a love for reading and they wanted to connect with friends who also loved to read. Jasmine, specifically, appreciated that Mrs. Sarah Thomasson took an interest in her, as a new student who was previously home-schooled, and showed her that she could reach out to others in the group by joining book club and getting involved with the YouTube channel, called "ISBN Thinking," produced by its members.

The channel was started after members students, who had an interest in other online book reviews, realized that they had all the skills and resources necessary to produce something similar, and according to Crystal, “We knew we could do it better.” The students worked with Mrs. Thomasson to utilize library resources for recording of online book talks and originally used a back room in the EHS library for producing and editing of their videos, which they learned to do with the knowledge gained in several of their classes and with the help of Mrs. Thomasson. The EHS Book Club meets during lunch shifts or Eagle Time to film and they have produced video reviews of books available through the Eaton High School Library. These students also make an effort to cover all of the North Texas “Battle of the Books” texts and involve all twenty-two members of book club in reviewing books and filming talks.

The group is currently not posting new videos because they are in need of a new location for filming and hope to find a suitable and accessible location at EHS very soon as they have plans to increase filming on a more regular basis and to organize the group with a set schedule and structure that they believe will provide added online and library traffic. These students love being able to share their own passions for reading, critical analysis, and video production through this very relevant educational outlet that is meant to strike a love for reading in other EHS students.

Obviously, there are an innumerable amount of opportunities for students at NISD to find and pursue individual passions through academic study. Allowing students to take control of those opportunities and push themselves forward are what will empower and motivate them to positively engage with and change their community. These students are part of a generation described by many adjectives but apathetic, disengaged, and lazy should not be part of them. This generation is motivated to go above and beyond in pursuit of things that are important to improving the world around them if educators will only help them to engage in content in ways that interest them. With an amazing wealth of tools to help students access those opportunities and fuel the desire to do more than consume technology and resources they can create in ways that will permanently benefit the world.

Do You Know Your Brain?

Can you name all the parts of the brain and their functions? No worries, Mrs. Smith's 5th Grade GATES class at Schluter Elementary has you covered. Students embarked on a cerebral adventure in which they created original work to showcase their knowledge of the brain. Students could choose any digital tool, and their resulting products reflect each student's passion for learning.

"We made a song about the brain parts as a parody of the song Heathens. We went on YouTube and found background music. We kept on thinking of things that would fit in, if the words went with the song. We alternated between our lyrics and the rhythm of the music to make sure they matched. I don't think we would have been able to do this project without technology. We had fun and we learned more about the brain by making the song."
~Luke & Christian 

 

"We needed to find a way to teach people about the brain, in a more fun format. We chose to do a parody of YMCA. You have to find research, a lot of beforehand research. We used a notebook to write lyrics and multiple devices. It is easy to decide on the lyrics by finding the lyrics to the original song online and as you go along, you change out the words for what you want it to say. Then you get a device to record. We used a piano version of the music, which felt slower than the original version."
~Brandon & Trevor

Powtoon Link (Brylee)

Powtoon Link (KiKi)

"The purpose of this project was to explain what we've learned about the brain and our growth. Working with Powtoon was hard at first, but we liked it because you can express it in different ways, how you feel about it. We learned more about the brain from doing this project because you have to write it out and research and really have to think about it and plan it out a bunch. I shared it with my parents and they were amazed and proud of me because they liked how we expressed it different ways." ~Brylee & Kendall

"I've used Google Slides before; for each slide, I chose what went together. If we didn't have technology, I probably would have made a poster. I prefer Google Slides instead of a poster because it is neat and organized. If we didn't do the project, I wouldn't have wanted to learn more about the brain." ~Lucy 

"I did a Smore and I wanted to use it differently than I have before. When you share a Smore you can look and see where it went and who saw it, all over the world. For Smore, you can look more about what you're working on, which you can't do with a poster. We didn't go full-on in class about the brain, so this project let us go in more detail and learn more." ~McKenzi

These student products not only teach others about parts of the brain, they also showcase how these future-ready students are empowered learners, innovative designers, and creative communicators, standards described by the International Society for Technology in Education.

Remixing the Retake

When students do not perform as well as they would have liked on their first attempt of an assessment, they can request a "reteach-retake" for another opportunity to learn the content and demonstrate their understanding. Traditionally, quiz and test retakes are modified forms of the original assessments, either on paper or as a Moodle quiz. As future ready creative communicators, we want students to (1) choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication and (2) create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations (ISTE Student Standards 6a & 6b). What if students were given the option to decide how they demonstrate their learning, using any tool available?

Math students at Eaton HS are taking this approach. Instead of repeating the assessment in a similar format as the original assessment, students are utilizing technology to demonstrate their learning, given the grading rubric and a deadline. These constraints dictate the destination; students decide their own path how they get there, with great success.

Student quiz retake sample 1:

"My mom recorded the video as I talked through it and showed what I was doing. The video retakes makes it easier because you don't have to be at school to do it; you can do it anywhere. I feel like I learned it better than a paper retake because I was able to explain it; to explain it you have to know what you're doing." ~Algebra II student

Student quiz retake sample 2:

"We didn't have to do every single problem, so we worked them together. Each student separated their own problems in a box and worked through the problems and answers. We used the drawing tool to insert boxes and lines, including a number line. I felt like I understood the problems better than when I do a normal quiz retake because we helped each other work though the problems."
~Algebra II Student

Student quiz retake sample 3:

"You get your paper test back and all the questions you got wrong are marked wrong. So I went to the sketchpad website with a stylus and wrote the problem I got wrong, showed how to work the problem, and showed the right answer at the bottom. At the same time, I recorded myself speaking through the Chromebook what I did wrong, why I got it wrong, and how to do it correctly. So I know in the future how to do it correctly." ~Algebra II Student

Using their choice of technology to demonstrate their understanding in a different way has resulted in increased engagement and understanding, meanwhile building skills students need to become creative communicators.

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Tools used in the student samples above:

• Phone camera + YouTube (sample 1)
• Google Drawings (sample 2)
• Sketchpad+Screencastify (sample 3)

Other resources:

• Grading rubric used by the teacher
• NISD Secondary Grading Guidelines (including reteach-retake guidelines)
• Tools that Make IT Click: searchable database of NISD-vetted tools for students and educators

Claymation Creations

From creating their own set, modeling their characters, and writing their scripts, 5th grade students at Cox Elementary got to experience what it is like to create a claymation short film.  Using the Stop Motion app, students were able to capture picture by picture each action in their story.  

Mallory, Kaylea, and Paige's group truly enjoyed this project.  "We started with the idea of creating our set in space," mentioned Mallory.  "This was a crazy idea, but Mrs. Ascher helped direct us to some tools that we had in the art room that could help. Paige added, "We learned  how to make a background that looked realistic.  We used shiny stars and made a planet out of a 

plastic ball and pipe cleaners.  We used glitter, so with the black light, everything appeared to be glowing in space." The team agreed that planning an entire story requires organization, time, and attention to detail. They team had 304 pictures to put into their film. 

Kaylea points out, "The most challenging part of this project was moving the pictures just the right amount so that that movie was smooth and not choppy."  The group agreed that planning the script and assigning roles was important to getting things done on time.  "We helped each other think of new ideas to add on to our story.  Two people worked on the background, while the other worked on props and organizing the pictures," stated Mallory. This project required much communication and collaboration.

In art, these students were introduced to several famous paintings. They decided to include The Mona Lisa, Starry Night, and Dancing Lady in their film. "These are paintings in our classroom and we’ve talked about them as a class," said Paige. "This is why we decide to have our characters talk about each of these in space. We wanted to do space to be different and think outside the box." Overall, these students and the entire class learned not only about story creation, but organization, communication, and how to publish entertaining work for a target audience. In fact, it's not just the students at Cox Elementary that felt this project had impact. The University of Southern California featured this project in the Toolkit for Digitally-Literate Teachers.

Students create virtual backstage pass to "Cinderella" musical

If you had a virtual backstage pass to your favorite theatrical production where you could see the cast and crew preparing in the weeks leading up to the event, would you feel a deeper connection to the performance? 

Northwest High School fine arts performed Rogers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella" last month. Students involved in the production collaborated together to produce and publish a series of videos as part of a backstage vlog (video blog) to connect the audience to the performers. Prior to the performance date, the students captured video footage of the cast and crew as they prepared for the event. Other students also contributed their backstage footage, so the vlog included many aspects of the massive preparation that goes into a musical, including set production, choral practice, choreography practice, short interviews with the cast and crew, and much more.

Each week, Emma and Kaylon, students who spearheaded the vlog, collected videos during the week and edited the videos over the weekend to post on YouTube. They posted five videos total, giving five weeks of backstage access, all the way up to three days before the performance began. To gain exposure, the videos were advertised on social media and included in the "Cinderella" playbill via QR Codes. According to Emma and Kaylon, the feedback they received from people about the videos was positive, especially since "most people don't realize how much work we actually do backstage, they just usually see the final product." This gave the audience a deeper connection to the performance by seeing all the hard work being done in preparation. Additionally, making the videos allowed the entire cast and crew to interact on a deeper level as well, giving a more meaningful experience as they worked together to produce "Cinderella".

Click on the video below to see an example:

Link to all 5 videos: Cinderella NHS YouTube channel

Link to Cinderella Playbill