Rockin' Multimedia Magazine
Rockin' Multimedia Magazine
Rockin' Multimedia Magazine
The main purpose of the school magazine is to start a conversation amongst the staff, students, parents and community about the educational efforts and accomplishments of The Auburn School through the student’s perspective. The students will develop skills in photojournalism, photo editing, writing and magazine layouts.
Keywords
Art Integration, Comiclife.com, Magazine, SLiderocket.com Grades
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 >12 Objectives:
1. Create captions about school photos. (writing)
2. Create a magazine page using the “slide book” template. (comprehension)
3. Collaborate with peers in developing design ideas. (social cooperation)
4. Articulate ideas clearly, listen to other ideas and appropriate socialize with peers according to their personal social goals and needs. (social appropriateness)
5. Edit and crop pictures in order to fit the scale of a page. (organization)
6. Manipulate page layouts to effectively fit and organize photos and text on a page. (organization)
Materials:
• Computers, Mac computer
• Comiclife.com
• Sliderocket.com
• School photos
• Video clips
• Thumb drive
Lesson Files
- Rockin_Mulitmedia_Magazine_Rubric.pdfDownload
Tahara Robinson
About the author
Student at Full Sail University
Art Integration teacher in Silver Spring, MD.
Procedure:
Step One: Students will choose school wide photos of extra curricular activities, class time, etc. and write brief captions of the photos.
Step Two: The students will create a few of these photos in comic life demonstrating some of the skills they have learned during first quarter. This magazine will be based on this year’s first quarter accomplishments.
Step Three: As the instructor I will do a demo of the platform they will use to create the magazine using Sliderocket. I will show the students how to setup an account and have them navigate through the site, playing with the tools to become familiar with its ability.
Step Four: The students will create sections and each of them will work on a separate section adding the material and photos form comic life as demonstrated in the example below.
Step Five: Students will choose video clips they would like to import into their magazine section.
Step Six: Once the students have completed their section they will combine their pages and use screen flow to record what they have created.
Step Seven: the students will then take the screen flow product and create the finish project using iMovie.
Assessment:
Students will be allowed to have complete creative freedom as long as they can demonstrate the following criteria of this project:
1. Basic knowledge and comprehension of the website.
2. Proper spelling and grammar for captions.
3. Evenly distributed collaboration with peers demonstrating appropriate social conduct.
4. Demonstrate knowledge of organization. I want students to feel as if they are free to make mistakes. My students suffer from high levels of anxiety and I want them to feel as free to make mistakes, learn and create. Having high expectations of an intense rubric may deter them from being interested in the project.
Technology:
For this RILS, I have chosen to work with two Web tools and two Mac computer tools. The first tool the students will utilize is http://comiclife.com/, designing photos and captions in a comic book format. The second application is using the new tool http://www.sliderocket.com/ where each pair will work on a page/category to create for the magazine. They will collaborate with each other on the art direction and content. The third platform students will use is screen flow where they will record the page they created. The last tool they will use is iMovie where they will import all of the video footage to create the final piece of their media magazine.
Reflection:
Pre - Reflection:
As the instructor I will take notes as I go along with this project. The students will have five minutes at the end of class to reflect on their work as individuals and partners by writing a journal entry. I would also ask the students to reflect on me, communicating to me what worked for them or didn’t, what was unclear and what they may need extra help with.
Post – Reflection: Student Evaluation
My students’ grasped the concept and the directions of this project better than I anticipated. Since working with students’ on the spectrum, it is common to have to rearrange lesson plans to fit differentiated learning styles. However, the way my class is grouped, they were all on the same page (no pun intended) with creating this magazine. I evaluated my students’ success in creating very informative, creative and well written captions for their selected pictures. They listened well to the instructions and were able to demonstrate comprehension by operating comiclife.com and Sliderocket.com. My students’ exhibited the ability to meet their social goals by collaborating with their partner and sharing ideas to arrive at a consensus for a design. They kept the organization of the layouts operable and with out confusion. As I walked around to each group, very seldom did they ask for my assistance in manipulating photos and page layouts. They took the initiative to utilize trial and error to learn the tools of the website.
Suggestions
As mentioned in the video, I would have preferred to purchase a package in order to fully utilize this program and give students the opportunity to have individual time with the platform. If the students had more individual time with the program, it may have developed more opinions and ideas for design, which could have established a higher expectation for my students and their social interactions. Although their social relations met the prospects of their personal goals, they seemed to breeze through this lesson meeting by the objectives. If the students had individual time to generate personal connections, likes and dislikes and design ideas to share, coming to a consensus with their partner may have been more of a challenge. This type of challenge is ideal for my students’ to experience.
Inquire
At the end of class I asked the students’ to evaluate their work, the work of their peers and me as their teacher. The students’ were able to effectively share their ideas with each other such as, with what worked and which seemed to be more of a challenge. They wished they were able to use the Sliderocket.com application separately. They shared with me that they hoped to use this program instead of PowerPoint for their next assignments. They enjoyed the lesson and also expressed how they felt supported with me walking around to each of them to view their work and give personal attention.
Conclusion
These programs fit well with my personal mission as an art integration teacher. It allows me to utilize yet another enjoyable and effective application for students to learn and create with. Programs such as http://comiclife.com/ and Sliderocket.com allow students to show what they have learned in class in a less conventional fashion such as using a piece of paper and pencil. They are able to bring creativity to their assignments and take ownership of their work, which I believe creates the optimal learning environment.
Audience:
Student body, Teaching Staff, Parents and School Wide Community
Making Connections:
• Previous knowledge: Students at The Auburn School are already familiar with Power Point. Introducing them to a more advance application of Power Point will allow them to enhance their creative and organizational skills.
• Relevance: This information is relevant to students who either have mastered the use of Microsoft Power Point application or need more of a challenge and/or for those to find another alternative to creating presentations. Having more visual options as Sliderocket does, students may find it easier or more engaging to operate. This project is also relevant to the students’ social learning skills as it allows them to make choices, share ideas and perspectives and have a sense of ownership.
• Audience: The students will make connections based on what makes a good communicator. They will connect with their peers by using their personal strategies and goals for social communication. The students; will make connections with the parents and staff by communicating what they have learned and by demonstrating their skills. They will focus on what starts a good conversation and keeps the momentum. Students will connect their perspectives to the views of the teacher and staff and their parents. Students will compare and contrast the perspectives of their target audience, The Auburn Community. Their magazine will be publicized on the school website and sent out as an email to the parents and The Auburn Community.
Comments
Hi Tahara,
This is a great idea for an interactive and collaborative lesson plan. I really like giving the students a chance to be seen and heard within their community. At the school I teach, we recently started sending out congratulatory emails to students who performed at a very high standard and we saw the results right away. Students took pride in what they were doing when they knew their efforts would be recognized. I think this innovative lesson plan you created offers the opportunity for students to actively choose what they want to do with the content and be recognized for it.
I can see how the use of Comic Life as well as Sliderocket would be novel and interactive for students as well as provoking a sense of curiosity for the teachers in terms of what the students will create. I also thought it was great insight on your part to have the students use two different platforms to create the final project. I’d call that synthesis for sure.
You did a great job with the audio in your video. Your voice over level was clear and easy to interpret. The music you choose added a sense of fun and energy that directly related to the appeal of this lesson plan.
One area of concern I had was related to the pace and pairing of some of the visual content. The images were very relevant yet at certain points the pace the images changed didn’t always allow the viewer to absorb the content. This didn’t happen throughout the video, only occasionally. You might consider use a couple images fewer to spread out the timing better. One other thought I had related to narration combined with text. I read about a concept called split attention affect. When speaking (or narrating) combines with text, it can split the attention of the viewer. On the other hand an image combined with speaking does not cause this problem. You might want to consider minimizing narration on scenes that have important text for the viewer to read. It all depends on what you consider the primary focus.
This is an excellent idea I’m sure others will benefit from. It was great that you added advice about purchasing a version of Sliderocket that helped eliminate a particular problem you experienced. Thanks for sharing.