Spotlight on Strategies (SOS)    

Educators everywhere have used video in their classroom at one time or another. I've been teaching so long that I even remember using reel-to-reel video and having to splice it when it breaks! I got really high tech when every teacher in Florida was given a laser disk player for their classroom with disks as large as turntable records. No matter what the device, video is a proven attention-getter for students. Why is it that as soon as you put a video on, students go into zombie mode? Their eyes glaze over, they're lips are sealed and they actually seem to be paying attention. Are they really learning? Can video truly be a tool for research, understanding and inquiry? In this "tuesdays" I would like to explore some of the best practices I have seen that give teachers the ability to effectively utilize video in the classroom.

As most of you know, I am so grateful to be part of the Discovery Education Professional Development team and one of our most precious resources is available to everyone whether your school subscribes to Discovery or not. As a public service from the DEN (Discovery Educator Network) the absolute best sharing of instructional strategies is made available at SOS - Spotlight on Strategies. Jannita and Genny faithfully compile current strategies, best practices, tips and tricks from teachers in the field that have student-proofed them for success. One of my favorites is Table Top Texting that I used with an 8^th grade Haitian-Creole ESOL class. While studying the Holocaust, we showed them a video interview of a grandmother who was a survivor telling her granddaughter her story. Instead of having the students take notes, we had them recreate the conversation as texts on paper. It was quite a success because the students took it to another level by passing the conversations to more students than just their neighbors. They were challenged to stay on topic at first, but after clarifying the guidelines, their focus was sharp. The SOS website is FREE and a great resource to share with teachers at all levels and for all subjects.

One of the most important encouragements I can give you with video is a non-example. Never ask students to take notes while watching a video. We are all guilty of it, but think about it for a minute. Can you take notes while a video is running? Does it help you to pay attention while you are writing down information? There's a time and a place for note-taking, but it's not the initial viewing of a video. Instead, try playing the video the first time without the sound. Natural curiosity is tickled. Asking about what they think the video is going to be about can form a unique KWL chart. One of our teachers in Miami turns her projector off the first time and only allows the students to hear the narration! Effective learning from video happens with multiple viewing and deeper investigations. One of the best side effects of returning to video many times for information is to help students recognize the need to return to text multiple times. I encourage you to dig into some of the SOS - Spotlight on Strategies for exciting new ways to use digital media. Be sure to take the idea and make it work for your students.

How do teach your students to return to video in a valuable manner? My favorite strategy came about through a year of coaching. It's an example of a collaborative effort to help students learn effectively as it began as a debate activity. A few teachers and I liked it, but tweaked it to be a group activity that leads to an individual responsibility. As it became a graphic organizer, we called it, "Can You Make Sense of It All?" until one day I was in one of my teacher's ESE class and he said, "Please take out your Video 4 Square sheet." Bingo, that was the perfect name because students need to fill out 4 squares about the video they have watched.

I recommend that you introduce Video 4 Square with the whole group first. Typically, I will play a short segment of a video silently then gather their wonderings. Next, we will watch the same segment with the sound and narration to fill in the misconceptions and confirm the understanding. The video has been play twice at this point. These are the steps for the Video 4 Square graphic organizer:

Square 1: In the first square (as a whole group) we replay the video from the beginning to find 5 key words. Students watch the video as I watch them. If they think they've heard a key word, they raise both arms (as in "touchdown!") If I have enough students agree, I pause the video and we discuss why the word is important to the understanding of the video or not. The process continues until we have at least 5 key words. (Warning 3^rd grade teachers - they want to have 20 or more!)

Square 2: For the second square, all students silently write what they believe is the main idea of the video. They have now seen the video 3 times and generally have a good idea of framing the main idea.

Square 3: We return to video again to find evidence of the main ideas. The video is played again from the beginning and paused if there are a majority "touchdown" signals. We find only two supporting details/evidence of what the video is about and write them in the third square.

Square 4: Finally, the students are asked to write a summary of the video using the five key words, their main idea and the evidence collected.

This single graphic organizer is one of the most effective ways to see if a student is learning from video and not just appearing to understand the video. I've created a generic copy of the Video 4 Square graphic organizer for you that you can put your own header, logo or banner on. If you are a Discovery Education user, you can keyword search Video 4 Square for more information. Please feel free to share and let us know how you effectively use video in the classroom.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth......"

Table Top Texting 

ipadio   

LiveBinders 

Doceri 

NASA's Image Gallery 

Popplet 

Zoey's Room
Finance in the Classroom
Fotopedia 

The Common Good Forecaster  

Google Earth 

UJAM 

Symbaloo.edu 

Google Science Fair 

Stossel in the Classroom
Word Sift 

Lee Kolbert