These project lessons occur every Wednesday and provide an opportunity to combine the advanced and remedial classes in each grade. Normally, each grade is divided into higher and lower ability cohorts, but once a week we bring each grade together as one class to prevent an unhealthy elitism between the groups. Grades 3-4 work on live performance projects, while grades 5-6 work on Youtuber projects. The group projects provide an opportunity to mix and mingle the students so that they have a chance to discover their own talents and appreciate other schoolmates' individual talents.
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The projects in previous years never reached fruition because COVID sent students into distance learning. This year students are making good progress and most will produce a final performance by semester's end.
Grade 3-4 Puppet Show
Grade 3-4 Puppet Show
Students will plan, rehearse, and perform a puppet show as a group project. The group project will take one semester to complete. Each grade will be responsible for planning and performing 1 children's picture book using paper & stick puppets. Third graders will perform Brown Bear, Brown Bear and fourth graders will perform The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The groups in each grade level will compete for best performance as determined by scoring rubrics similar to those used in the county wide English contests.
Students will need to learn basic elements of stage performance and prop design. This project will combine English Language Arts, Performance Arts and Visual Arts.
The picture slides above show 3rd and 4th grade students in the process of producing their puppet shows. Students do their own art work (paper-stick puppets), all students rehearse the story so that narrators can read well and puppeteers know their cues to work the puppets. Third graders made much better progress than 4th graders, as they are now in the stages of filming, meanwhile 4th graders are still making puppets and rehearsing. Videos below show some of the 3rd graders' rehearsal performances and first takes. Classmates give feedback to the performers and then the performers try again. Peer feedback is one the most crucial steps, otherwise students will disregard teachers' feedback as mere nagging. Also, students need to witness the same shortcomings in other classmate groups and vocalize the feedback to them in order to internalize the same feedback for themselves. Currently, one 3rd grade group is satisfied with their performance and will let teachers upload the video to Facebook for the parents to see. The other groups have decided that they can do better and will try again.
Grade 5-6 Dubbing/ voiceover
Grade 5-6 Dubbing/ voiceover
Last year's food Youtuber project progressed very slowly before it was ended by distance learning. Despite learning how to cook the foods and also practicing performances as dry-runs outside of a kitchen, students were reticent to finalize their efforts with an actual cooking show. This year we have adjusted our goal posts and asked students to dub over short videos. Students work in pairs to write their scripts, rehearse, and record, and then lay the new soundtrack onto a silent video clip. Students also learn to source sound effects and music soundtracks and cut and splice them into the dub-over. This year's project has been much more successful than last year's project since 1) students work in pairs so there is less chance of "freeloading" inside a group 2) students don't need to "act" or perform directly in front of a camera, so procrastination from performance anxiety is reduced.
The picture slides above show 5th and 6th grade students in the process of producing their videos. Students wrote their own scripts that were inspired by the original video clips. Some pairs rewrote a script very close to the original and some pairs wrote a very different scenario. The students then rehearsed their lines and recorded a track onto a completely mute video clip. They used a video editing APP called InShot for mobile devices to lay the new soundtrack on the video footage. They also sourced sound effects and music to lay on top. All sounds, music and voices that you hear in the students' work has been sourced, inserted, and edited by the students themselves. Sixth graders made much better progress than 5th graders, but now almost all students are ahead of schedule and have started working on a second video. The picture slides also show students receiving extensive and detailed guidance from the teachers about performative and technical aspects of their videos. Videos below are the students' work. These videos will be posted to Facebook for the parents to watch and comment on. Best videos will win a yet-to-be-determined reward or certificate of recognition.
6th grade
6th grade
Sasa & Chris
Sasa & Chris
6th grade
6th grade
Nico & Lucy
Nico & Lucy
6th grade
6th grade
Leo & Shelly
Leo & Shelly
6th grade
6th grade
Kane & Penny
Kane & Penny
6th grade
6th grade
Jack & Nick
Jack & Nick
6th grade
6th grade
Hank & Andy
Hank & Andy
6th grade
6th grade
Bill & Jerry
Bill & Jerry
You might notice varying degrees of effort and skill in vocal performance and editing among the student pairs. Overall, the Kangaroo Fight video was the number one choice, but the Doritos (Pigs Fly) and Zootopia DMV scene were also popular. Our hope for next year is that the students will have enough self-confidence to make videos as talents in front of the camera.
5th grade
5th grade
Vivian & Ben
Vivian & Ben
5th grade
5th grade
Peter & Jenny
Peter & Jenny
5th grade
5th grade
Kelly & John
Kelly & John
5th grade
5th grade
Judy & Kevin
Judy & Kevin
5th grade
5th grade
Joy & Mark
Joy & Mark
5th grade
5th grade
Jeff & Amy
Jeff & Amy
5th grade
5th grade
Jasper & Louis
Jasper & Louis
5th grade
5th grade
Iris & Bruce
Iris & Bruce
5th grade
5th grade
Grace & Henry
Grace & Henry
5th grade
5th grade
Emily & Tony
Emily & Tony
5th grade
5th grade
Amanda & Paul
Amanda & Paul
5th grade
5th grade
Andy & Mia
Andy & Mia
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