Communicating learning using Movie Maker

Tags: English | Learning languages | Multimedia – video | Primary | Upper primary |

Students from Melville Intermediate prepared and learnt their individual mihi in te reo Māori, then created videos to share their learning using Movie Maker.

Teaching and learning

Teachers at Melville Intermediate School in Hamilton acknowledged the importance of supporting literacy by engaging students with multiple opportunities to create meaning through speaking, writing and presenting. They believed success of these opportunities relied on the selection of authentic, engaging contexts. The context for this snapshot focused on mihi.

Creating a Mihi

• A school-wide expectation at Melville Intermediate was that every student would learn and perform a mihi for their portfolio. See Ka Mau te Wehi for support material.

• Exemplars were shared and criteria for mihi established.
• Students created and shared their mihi with a peer.
• Students were given the option of sharing their mihi with a wider audience through video.
• Staff with expertise in tikanga Māori supported colleagues to explore the cultural appropriateness of these practices.

Capturing the mihi on video and editing the footage using Movie Maker

The teacher chose Movie Maker as a tool to capture and edit video footage. The class explored the characteristics of a quality video clip as part of the literacy planning process.

Planning steps included:

• A peer captured footage of the student sharing their mihi.
• Students worked in pairs within a set time to edit their footage including:
  • deleting inappropriate footage
  • adding relevant text and
  • inserting credits of origin.

Although most students were familiar with Movie Maker a student expert provided support where needed. Throughout the process students repeatedly referred to the previously explored characteristics of a quality video clip and used it for self-review.

Teacher reflections

• The students became:
  • more aware of the importance of audience and are becoming more reflective in their work
  • more empowered, confident, and motivated in other curriculum areas through receiving feedback from sources other than their teacher
  • more engaged and motivated, particularly the diverse learners. This was evident from students’ written feedback.
• Incidental learning, particularly in relation to geography, was generated through regular checks on the origin of visitors to the blog.
• Connections between the home and school increased as students who had their work posted to the blog shared it with their whānau and encouraged them to leave a comment.

Next steps

Read these snapshots to find out how Blogger and Skype were used and incorporated.