As I wrote last week, in this entry, I’m going to write about a wonderful programme that helped me a lot during my teaching practices at the Secondary School! Do you remember that I wrote about them? The topic of the unit I taught was CINEMA, so I had to use movies, and the students had to MAKE one; tehir task was to create a silent film. And here comes my helper: Windows Movie Maker. This is a programme you can download – it ’s very easy and safe to do it – and once you have installed it in your computer, it allows you to edit some videos that you have downloaded from YouTube, for example; or create them by using photos, images, and homemade videos.
It’s very simple to use it, and is not that time-consuming, you just select the images or videos, add them in the project that is created by the programme, if you want, you can put it some music or songs, and you can also add tittles and credits; once you’ve done this, you just save it as a project of Movie Maker or you save it for the computer, and that’s it! YOU’VE CREATED A VIDEO!!
My students used it to create their movies, and they did it just in one lesson!!
IThe making of a silent movie allowed the students to tell a story which was thought, planned, created, and written by them. Besides, they didn't fell threatened about having to speak in another language, in this case English, which was quite difficult to them - they were beginners, and they speak almost nothing in English. They had to narrate each scene using the Simple Past Tense - the Grammar content I had to teach them.
By doing this task, the students had to write, analyse, and re-write the story in order to make a coherent description of their movies. This gave them the possibility to reflect about the language, and particularly about the past tense.
In addition, being able to create a movie and to be part of it, provided the students a great sense of self-confidence. They were really proud of their works. They also had a great time doing it. So, think about using Movie Maker as a powerful tool for motivating your students.
Although it is a bit demanding for a teacher to fulfil this task with his/her students, it becomes easy if you have a good plan to carry out. Besides, it is really rewarding, the final work is great!
Here you can see one of their movies. (You might find this video a bit shocking, but it was the group decision to make an action film about drug-dealers. However, this topic gave us the possibility to reflect on drug-dealing and about drug-consumption).
Hope you like it!
It’s very simple to use it, and is not that time-consuming, you just select the images or videos, add them in the project that is created by the programme, if you want, you can put it some music or songs, and you can also add tittles and credits; once you’ve done this, you just save it as a project of Movie Maker or you save it for the computer, and that’s it! YOU’VE CREATED A VIDEO!!
My students used it to create their movies, and they did it just in one lesson!!
IThe making of a silent movie allowed the students to tell a story which was thought, planned, created, and written by them. Besides, they didn't fell threatened about having to speak in another language, in this case English, which was quite difficult to them - they were beginners, and they speak almost nothing in English. They had to narrate each scene using the Simple Past Tense - the Grammar content I had to teach them.
By doing this task, the students had to write, analyse, and re-write the story in order to make a coherent description of their movies. This gave them the possibility to reflect about the language, and particularly about the past tense.
In addition, being able to create a movie and to be part of it, provided the students a great sense of self-confidence. They were really proud of their works. They also had a great time doing it. So, think about using Movie Maker as a powerful tool for motivating your students.
Although it is a bit demanding for a teacher to fulfil this task with his/her students, it becomes easy if you have a good plan to carry out. Besides, it is really rewarding, the final work is great!
Here you can see one of their movies. (You might find this video a bit shocking, but it was the group decision to make an action film about drug-dealers. However, this topic gave us the possibility to reflect on drug-dealing and about drug-consumption).
Hope you like it!
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