Activity Four: Teacher Created Photo Movies

Now that you know how to create a photo movie, you need to find areas within your curriculum that will benefit from visual augmentation.  How do you decide what content would be best served by a photo movie?

One way to begin is to look over your curriculum for topics or areas in which you are lacking information, visuals, or engaging activities.  A photo movie might be just the activity to fill in for what you have been lacking. 

For example, in teaching a history unit about the local community one year I found that we did not have a textbook, video, or any engaging material to help the students connect with the content.  In years past, teachers used a typed account of the history of the area that had probably been intended for adults, not third graders.  I came across an archive of old photos at the local library that depicted different locations in town from over 100 years ago. After getting permission to use the old images, I decided to find the same locations and take photos of what they look like today.  I created a photo movie of then and now photos that the students love to watch.  The visual comparison of places with which they are familiar is really powerful.

Click to View Photo Movie Example (Teacher-Created for a Social Studies Unit)

**One of the great advantages of using technology such as PhotoStory is that once you have created the file, it is easy to access, use year after year, and update.

Here are some ways that educators have used teacher-created photo movies in the classroom:

-as an anticipatory set
-to introduce vocabulary
-identification of images
-timeline
-documentary
-background information
-comparison of images/concepts
-digital storytelling (See Resources Page for informational link)
-make a music video about an educational topic to grab student interest
-present a problem-solving situation
-create a movie to introduce yourself to the class
-commemorate a special event or school year
-showcase work that your class has completed on a specific project
-communicate with parents or others outside of the classroom

Take a moment to look over your curriculum.  Which content areas or units would most benefit from the use of a photo movie?  Make a list of topics on which you might focus a photo movie.  Once you have a list of topics, decide how you would use a photo movie to support teaching and learning?  How would you design the photo movie to best meet the needs of your students?

Choose one topic and gather images to support the teaching of the topic.  Draft the narration that you might use in the photo movie. Once you have created a photo movie to use in your classroom, try it! Use the rubric below to evaluate your photo movie.

Rubric for
Teacher Created Photo Movies

You are now ready to move on to Activity Five:   Student Created Photo Movies.