Giving Voice to Their Vision: Students Narrate a Video Segment

When students write a script and narrate over a video segment, they synthesize and express their knowledge on the topic. Getting a good video segment for students to narrate is relatively easy with Discovery Education, but there are other sources available as well that will be included at the end of this post. When searching on Discovery, be sure to select the Editable segments and use the Citation provided by the segment. Teachers should model legal use and proper citation of all sources, as well as expect their students to do the same.

This activity is easily differentiated for age, computer access, computer platform, and more. With sixth grade students, you might want to let them hear the original narration, but with older students, you might want to provide an already muted segment. If the students have frequent access to technology, they can find their own segment. If time and access is an issue, you can select a few for them to use. Free video editing software is provided with the two common operating systems — Windows XP has Windows MovieMaker and Macintosh has iMovie.

I’ve been sharing this idea and others with teachers in our region, especially since the Connecticut State Department of Education is currently providing the DE Science for Middle Schools to teachers. On Saturday, May 22, 2010, I enjoyed the day with other Discovery Educators at the New England Day of Discovery, and presented a short hands-on workshop on the activity. If you want more information and specific instructions, please see the eastconnTOT wikispace.