Tech Challenge #4: A Novel Review in Texts

Today's Tech Tool: The camera phone.

My students just finished reading Lord of the Flies, and I needed a hands-on way to review the students for their test for those who read the book and for those who admittedly did not read the book. It took a little bit of prep time, but I came up with a review that took groups of students around the campus to act out scenes from the book.

The Goal:
Student groups will act out an assigned chapter of the novel. They will use props and costumes to pose in a picture representing an important scene from their chapter. Students are to text their picture with a caption that summarizes the major conflict to the teacher which will later be gathered into a slideshow to use as a novel review.


The Day Before:
Come up with a location on campus for each chapter.
Print out directions, chapter summaries, and clipart of different props.
Assemble an envelope for each chapter to give to the groups.

Beginning of Class: 
Divide students into groups. (I had each class act out 4-5 of the chapters.)
Appoint one group member to be the prop-master.
Appoint a group member to read the chapter summary to the group.
Appoint one group member with a camera phone to direct and take the picture.

End of Class:
A celly text is sent out to the students to return to class.
The pictures are shown on the screen, and the group members are to explain what happened in their assigned chapter.

Extender:
Upload the photos and their captions to www.animoto.com  to create a slideshow of the student's summary of the book.

***Unfortunately I haven't included any of the students pictures or our amazing animoto video to share for privacy purposes. However, I have included a few pictures I snapped around the room. The first image is a shot of the intro to our animoto video. Animoto's website had the perfect video template of a beach scene for our Lord of the Flies summary.

Alternate Tech Tool:
My original lesson plan was to use the GPS coordinates and iPad/iPhone apps to send students to specific locations to give the project a geo-caching twist.

Pros:
This activity gets the students up and moving instead of being stuck in their desks all day.
The students get to live through the events of the book and better internalize the plot.
100% Participation

Cons:
It takes more prep time than usual!
The teacher cannot be everywhere at once to monitor student behavior across campus.



Do you facilitate a similar project in your classroom? How have camera phones worked in your curriculum?