Storyline Online, iMovie Style!

Accelerated reading teacher, Mrs. P wanted to create her own version of the popular website, Storyline Online using iMovie.  Fifth grade students met once a week after school to work on the project. They were given weekly assignments, so they could learn the next iMovie feature the following week. They started by choosing a book and taking pictures of the illustrations using their teacher's iPad. Pictures were uploaded to the student's laptop and were stored & edited using iPhoto. (Uploading Photos from iPad to Laptop) Next, students practiced their fluency by reading their stories aloud, while recording themselves in iMovie. (They practiced several times before actually recording.) Students focused on using inflection in their voices, and paid close attention to where they were recording.  (What does the background look like? Is there enough light? Will there be unplanned noises while I record?)

Once students had their pictures and their story recording in iMovie, they began putting the movie together. They used the iMovie Picture in Picture Effect, so you could see their face as they read the story, while also being able to see the illustrations. They used photo effects like Ken Burns to zoom in or out of the illustration. Students were taught how to Add a Voice Over in iMovie and how to Add Music for their stories. They used ducking to raise or lower their voice or the music so the listener could hear what the reader intended. Finally, students previewed their movies full screen, exported, and submitted to Mrs. P via Air Drop. 

Mrs. P plans to post all the videos on one website, to share with primary students in the school district. This project is at the Modification stage on the SAMR model, because multiple applications were used to create the movie. This project could not be duplicated without technology. The task (read a book with fluency & inflection) was transformed by having students record themselves reading a story & creating a movie for a bigger audience, primary students. 

Example:

The Night Before Christmas, written by Clement Clarke Moore, illustrated by John Steven Gurney, read by Shannon Soger.