History

Using digital video (DV) to help bring history to life.

Summary

Children can use digital video to investigate what life was like for children in World War II. They can film interviews with people who were alive at the time and act out and video dramas based on their research. Children can also include archive material, such as film, pictures and sound recordings. Work will be burnt to CD-Rom and displayed on the Internet.

Aims

* Research aspects of life during World War II in a local context from source materials and interviews.

* Present historical results in format relevant to predicted audience.

* Understand the way life has changed over time.

* Organise, plan, edit and evaluate an audio visual presentation.

Soft skills

* Increase ability to co-operate and collaborate with others.

* Improve analytical skills by sorting information.

* Develop thinking skills by compiling and structuring presentation.

Interactions

Children will work as whole class until the end session which will be lead by the class teacher. Most work will be completed in groups of three to four. Teacher support will be available throughout. Children will interact with interviewees before filming and during shoot.

Situations

In class for most activities and staff room for interviews. The Web and school library will be used for research.

Teaching sessions

1.Show a video of the home front to children and then discuss the different aspects that could be investigated such as: rationing, evacuees, work on the land, prisoners of war, school and air raids.

2.Divide children into groups to research one aspect each collecting information from books, the Web, video, etc.

3.Plan questions for interviewees and discuss interview techniques.

4.Interviews on video.

5.Collate and edit video to include source materials.

6.Present videos to class and on the Web.

Assessment and evaluation Assessment will be based on the pupils’ plans, movies and presentations. Assessment will concentrate on the pupils’ understanding of history, their ICT skills and their oral skills.

Equipment

* Books

* Videos

* Video player

* DV camera

* DV capable computer

* Blank DV tapes

Poetry

Using DV to show how poetry can reflect feelings about our surroundings.

Summary

Pupils can be given the raw material to study poetry in a way that allows them to express the way that a poem makes them feel. A folder can be produced that contains video clips, poetry text, sound tracks of the poetry being read and still pictures. Pupils are asked to combine these to reflect their understanding of the poetry. This is then developed to provide a template for the pupils’ own poetry.

Aims

* Introduce children to traditional poetry in Welsh and English.

* Allow children to express the meaning of the poetry through digital video.

* Provide a springboard for children creating their own poetry accompanied by sound, moving pictures, music and images.

Situations

This will take place in the classroom initially and the local environment around the school to allow pupils to collect their own video material.

Interactions

The pupils will work in pairs to compile the provided material to meet their own interpretation of the poem. After this pupils will change partners to create their own poems based on the same theme.

Teacher support will be available throughout with particular input at the beginning of the session where the poem is discussed and when the pupils are creating their own poetry. All pairs will present their poems via iMovie to the class and on the Internet.

Teaching sessions

1. Pupils will: study the text.

2. Listen to the poem.

3. Look at the visual material.

4. Use a planning sheet to arrange material.

5. Use iMovie to assemble the multimedia presentation of the poem.

6. Create their own poems and material.

Assessment and evaluation

Pupils will be assessed on their compilation of the provided material and on their own poetry against the defined assessment rubric, which concentrates on ICT, orally and writing. Pupils will also be assessed by their peers against defined criteria. Pupils will be encouraged to evaluate their own performance.

Equipment and materials

* Text of poem in English and Welsh (Rich Text Format)

* DV camera

* Computer

* Video editing software

* Planning Sheet

* Video clips

* Still pictures

* Narration of poem in English, Northern Welsh and Southern Welsh

* Sound effects

* Copyright-free music for backing

Science investigation

Using DV to show how is music made.

Summary

Pupils can investigate music by filming different musical instruments being played and relating the amount of vibration to pitch and volume. The video clips will be used to measure the amount of vibration the musical instruments make and how this relates to the different sounds they make. As the clips can be slowed down and frames frozen, accurate measurements can be made of vibrations and frequency.

Aims

* Determine the relationship between vibration and sound.

* Give pupils the opportunities to use fair testing.

* Investigate the relationship of size of vibration and frequency of vibration.

Situations

Discuss the overall topic of music and how music is made as a whole class - brainstorm. Work in groups in a quiet area so that musical instruments can be recorded properly. Presentation to whole class and to wider audience via the Internet as QuickTime movies can be embedded into Web pages easily downloaded via dial-up connections.

Interactions

The activity is teacher-led to begin with as a whole-class activity. Pupils collaborate in small group work at planning and video stage supported by the teacher throughout. Groups present to whole class as group.

Taskssession 1. Plan which instrument to investigate.

2. Plan for fair test.

3. Film investigation.

4. Edit film for analysis of results.

5. Prepare presentation of results.

6. Present to class.

Assessment and evaluation

Pupils will be assessed on their planning and results as represented by their presentation and resulting movie against the defined assessment rubric, which concentrates on ICT, science and oracy. Pupils will also be assessed by their peers against defined criteria. Pupils will be encouraged to evaluate their own performance.

Equipment

* Musical instruments

* DV Camera

* Tape measures and squared paper

* Computer to edit video

* Large screen or data projector