I was looking up different techniques for digital
storytelling using PowerPoint when I came across this cool video onYouTube. I liked the spinning effect and
thought it could be used for an animated acrostic.
I talked a teacher friend of mine into doing it with her
class (4th grade) during their colonial unit and they turned out pretty good (the ones that
finished). The hardest part was getting the kids to pre-make the acrostic! If
you click on the video above you will watch a 6 minute tutorial on how to make
the effect happen (or you can click on THIS LINK to go directly to my YouTube
video).
I tried something new with this class. Normally we go
through all the steps together but I wanted to see if students could follow a
detailed tutorial so I could just be there for support. I made a 9 minute video
and told them that if they followed all the steps they could do this project. I
had maybe a total of five students in the class who finished with little or no
help from me. All the rest could not, or did not, want to follow the video
tutorial. In hindsight I should have done the first part (saving and typing)
whole group and then as students finished they would watch a shorter video on
how to add the animations. I think 9 minutes was too long for many of the
students and they didn't get the concept to pause the video after each section.
I did a similar tutorial with another class and changed it
to a 2 minute video and the kids did much better with that (different project
but the concept was the same).
Anyway….if you are looking for a slightly different take on
a PowerPoint you might want to try this technique. It can be done in any subject area. This one modeled use in a Social Studies class but I've also done it with a science class using the word "Light."
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