The learn@UW quiz had questions at the end having to do with one of the lesson plans - "Narrating without a Narrator". Elizabeth had the class listen to an episode from "Adventures in Odyssey", a radio drama for kids. Students had to listen to the scene and tell what was going on based on sound effects, dialogue, and other clues in the scene, since there wasn't a person narrating the entire scene. Afterwards, Elizabeth transitioned into some other examples, including a battle scene from the Chronicles of Narnia and another Adventures in Odyssey example story in which the kids get a rather eccentric substitute teacher.
After this, Paul and AJ took over with the live performances! The class was given 10 minutes before break to brainstorm and talk about what they were going to do . . . and then, when the Exploration section began, so did the live performances! Paul took each group to the conference room in the other tower to record, while Elizabeth and AJ hooked up the computers to skype the recording computer and record the performance on audacity. Everything ran smoothly - the groups got set up and then performed. The first group did a fun scene about a robbery in a walmart with really amazingly convincing emotions (including screams!), Jose's group did a creative story in which the characters, fruit and vegetables in a bowl, debated the values of vegetables vs fruit, and Michelle's group did a funny story about being in a movie theatre and talking too much - great sound effects girls! Overall, Paul and Elizabeth were VERY impressed and really enjoyed seeing the students creativity. But the day wasn't over yet! The students soon pressure Elizabeth and Paul to go do their own live performance! They grudgingly complied - Paul ended up coming up with a great story about a guy getting hit by a car as a woman is walking past. He wouldn't accept medical attention even though two of his limbs had fallen off :P Go Paul! Everyone seemed to enjoy it (Jaylah declared she would buy it if it were on itunes) but unfortunately it was the one performance that didn't record!
A taste of what the audactiy recordings looked like :) After the live performances, Elizabeth and Paul led a discussion on them - what went well, what didn't. Elizabeth made the connection that in the future, when everyone has more time, the projects will be even better because the students will be able to go over lines again and again and have separate tracks in Vegas for editing. From there, she showed the students a BTW she had done a few weeks ago with a friend. She explained to the class how she had a separate track for each individual sound effect (fire crackling in the back, a door slamming, etc) and that she had each of these tracks named. Michelle knew right away that the 'crunching' noise at the beginning was supposed to be snow and imagined that the whooshing noise was wind in the woods by a cabin. That was exactly what Elizabeth was going for, though other students thought it was crunching leaves. Overall, the class talked about using creativity - about the fact that it isn't necessary to have snow in order to have a snow-like sound!
Afterwards, Paul discussed Theme, Story Arc, and Concept with the students. He used the example of Spiderman to point out where the exposition (beginning and setting) and climax (for Spiderman for instance, the climactic scene is when Mary Jane is held captive by the Green Goblin and Spidey comes to save her and fight him). He also talked about the Concept in stories like the Pirates of the Carribean - the concept being "the golden age of pirates". He explained how, if one has such a theme, it would be anachronistic to have, say, a cell phone appear in the movie. All these amazing storytelling techniques will give the class a good vocabulary to discuss their stories.
During the certification section, the students were released to play around with the H2 and H4 and record a short scene. Paul and Elizabeth had a few scripts they could use (one from the Princess Bride and the other that Paul had written) though most groups decided to use their own ideas. Elizabeth took one group off into a conference room where they practiced their scene (in a Mexican restaurant with two people who only speak English and can't understand the menu and another person who only speaks French!) and Paul took another group to the recording studio with an H2.
Soon after, the whole class gathered back in 3139 to blog about the day - Paul and Elizabeth emphasized getting everyone invited to the blogs! And it seemed to work! Hurray! Another successful day of ITA!!
Afterwards, Paul discussed Theme, Story Arc, and Concept with the students. He used the example of Spiderman to point out where the exposition (beginning and setting) and climax (for Spiderman for instance, the climactic scene is when Mary Jane is held captive by the Green Goblin and Spidey comes to save her and fight him). He also talked about the Concept in stories like the Pirates of the Carribean - the concept being "the golden age of pirates". He explained how, if one has such a theme, it would be anachronistic to have, say, a cell phone appear in the movie. All these amazing storytelling techniques will give the class a good vocabulary to discuss their stories.
During the certification section, the students were released to play around with the H2 and H4 and record a short scene. Paul and Elizabeth had a few scripts they could use (one from the Princess Bride and the other that Paul had written) though most groups decided to use their own ideas. Elizabeth took one group off into a conference room where they practiced their scene (in a Mexican restaurant with two people who only speak English and can't understand the menu and another person who only speaks French!) and Paul took another group to the recording studio with an H2.
Soon after, the whole class gathered back in 3139 to blog about the day - Paul and Elizabeth emphasized getting everyone invited to the blogs! And it seemed to work! Hurray! Another successful day of ITA!!
No comments:
Post a Comment