RSA Style Videos Using a Green Screen

The great Aristotle once said, "There can be no words without pictures."

 
There is a growing trend online and in media regarding the use of images and pictures in resources.  According to research this is a positive trend.  There is much support for how we are "hard wired" for reading information that includes pictures to support text.  Did you know:

-we use more than 50% of our brain for image processing
-it only takes us 0.01 seconds to scan a room to determine what is going on
-people follow directions and instructions much better when pictures and text are used
-speeches that incorporate images are more persuasive than those that do not

Dan Roam, in his book titled Blah, Blah, Blah: What to do when words don't work,  writes  about how words alone are not sufficient to engage listeners.  He encourages presenters, business people, and educators to use images to deliver and reinforce ideas.  According to Dan, ideas will be more memorable and our information will be more engaging when we use images to support our information. 




I have already written about how teachers might incorporate image usage into their lessons to motivate and engage learners using RSA Animate videos.  If you have not read this blog, you can access it here.

RSA Animate videos could be taken to a more advanced level with your students using green screen technology.  Here is a sample of one I quickly created with the help of my daughter.





How is this done?  Instead of having students draw out their RSA Animate on a white board or paper, students could write and video record the drawing or their images on green or blue paper as seen in the picture on the left.  When finished, the video file can be imported into a program that has green screen or chroma key functionality like I-movie or Adobe Premier Elements 11.  You can find two tutorials on how to do this here:

a) Green Screening using Adobe Premier Elements 11-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEzg-WIHL-4
b) Green Screening using I-movie-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q64NAQsoUZg

As you can see in the tutorials, you can swap out the green/blue background for any image or video you want.  This allows students to come up with a variety of options.  Drawing RSA Animate on a green/blue background and then using green screen software enables students to enhance their videos and create original and professional RSA Animate video.

Give it a try and let me know how it turned out!

Implications of Using Formative vs Summative Assessment Labels

My goal in writing this article is to underpin potential changes in assessment and marking practices as they pertain to using the language and semantics surrounding the terms formative and summative assessment.  In today's classrooms students will often ask this question when an assignment is being assigned and explained, "Is this going to be a formative or summative assessment?"  Which for some students really means, "Is this going to count for marks or is it just practice?"  Should we be transparent with our students in regards to our assessment intentions?  What impact does pre-determining our assessment intentions have on student attitude, engagement and achievement?

As an avid runner, I was intrigued by the debate over the semantics used my many when it comes to the terms "jogging" and “running”.    To some they mean the same thing.  When one looks up definitions of these two words most use speed as a way to differentiate a jog from a run.  According to Wikipedia, “Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace.”  Since most of the definitions are subjective, I believe it is up to each individual to decide if their pace warrants the title of a "run" or a "jog".  As long as your pace keeps you motivated, the term you choose is just a minor detail.  Should this hold true for assessing student work?

Since the landmark study by Black and Wiliam (1998) about the benefits of formative assessment, there has been a plethora of schools that have adopted assessment policies and practices that differentiate between formative and summative assessment in the classroom.  Is this new assessment language necessary at the onset of giving an assignment?  Why pre-determine what our assessment intentions? 


Research has shown that many schools struggle with establishing clear operational definitions, guidelines and procedures for implementing formative and summative assessments anyways.  According to Dunn and Mulvenon (2009), “Definitions of formative and summative assessment are plentiful, resulting in multiple and sometimes conflicting understandings.  And in part because of these varying definitions and views, practices labeled as formative assessment in schools today vary widely.” Although any assessment may be designed, packaged and labeled as a formative or summative assessment, it is the actual methodology, data analysis, and use of the results that determine whether an assessment is formative or summative.  It is what a teacher does with the data afterward that helps delineate which type of assessment you are using.  Summative data is used to make a judgment about a student and is often finite and counts toward a report card mark.  However, formative data is only used to help inform students, teachers and parents about their recent performance level.  It is my belief that good teachers will provide feedback and information to students regardless of whether it is formative or summative.  




In my school formative assessment is thought to guide students and teachers by providing valuable and timely feedback regarding where the student is at, on a given set of standards, and where they need to go.  Formative assessment is thought of as “practice” and summative assessment is more like “the game” situation because the score has more impact on the student's grade.   My question is, do teachers need to predetermine their intention to students regarding what type of assessment (formative vs summative) will be used? On page 3 of my school’s assessment policy handbook it is clear that we should divulge this information,  "Students need to be told how assessment tasks are to be evaluated."  

This level of transparency may have motivational and achievement implications for students.  This open and transparent approach to assessment intentions has benefits and drawbacks. Some believe that when assignment are labeled formative or “practice” students are more relaxed and less stressed about the pressure associated with doing well because it does not count as much towards report card marks.  Furthermore, this high level of openness and transparency promotes an environment of trust and mutual respect amongst students and teachers.   Yet, an obvious drawback to pre-determining which type of assessment you will use is that students may put in less effort and therefore underachieve on formative tasks because they do not count for marks.  

When a runner heads out for exercise, I wonder if they decide in their mind whether they will "jog" or "run" that day?  As educators is it really necessary to consider ahead of time what our intentions may be for students?  We could divulge ahead of time whether we will formatively or summative assess student work or we could wait until after the assignment has been handed in before determining the nature of the feedback we will be providing.  Maybe there is a third choice?  According to Perkins (2008), "when learners feel that they have a choice about just where they focus their attention and just how they proceed, they are more likely to show intrinsic motivation."  Thus, what if we let students decide ahead of time what type of assessment they would like to use for a particular assignment: formative or summative?  It would be an interesting action research study to see if there is a difference in student attitude, engagement and/or achievement on assignments when posed with these three assessment scenarios: students are told ahead of time, students are not told until they hand in an assignment, and students are given a choice as to the type of assessment used. 

What are your experiences when it comes to pre-determining whether an assignment is formative or summative?

References


Black, P. and Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80 (2): 139-148. (Available online:http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm.)

Dunn, Karee E and Mulvenon, Sean W. (2009). A Critical Review of Research on Formative

Assessments:  The Limited Scientific Evidence of the Impact of Formative Assessments in Education. Practical Assessment Research & Evaluation, 14(7).  Available online: http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=14&n=7


"Jogging." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 May 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.


Perkins, David.  (2008).  Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles of Teaching Can Transform Education.   San Francisco, CA.  Jossey-Bass

Creating RSA Animate Style Videos

Over the last few years, I have been entertained and informed by RSAnimate videos.  You can view one here, 

Recently, I noticed a blog post  on twitter by @paulblogush titled, "How to Create RSA Animate Style Videos in your Class".  Paul's post was very informative and detailed.  His description is grounded in pedagogy and his step-by-step process makes it easy for teachers to replicate this teaching strategy.  You can view his entire blog post here, http://blogush.edublogs.org/2012/12/26/how-to-make-rsa-animate-style-videos-with-your-class/. 

After reading Paul's post, I was excited to try this myself before I implement it with my students.  I am currently taking a course/training by the International Baccalaureate Organization to become a workshop leader and consultant.  One of my assignments was to describe in brief the process a school might go through to be Authorized by the IBO.  I decided to create an RSA Animate video for this assignment.  Here is the process I went through:

1.  I read over all the documents to make sure I had a clear understanding of the information.
2.  I synthesized the information into a series of draft drawings, separating the drawings into only a few pages.
3.  I set up a handheld video camera on a tripod and focused it onto a white board.  Then, I drew a box on the white board so I knew what area I could draw on and still be in the camera's view.
4.  With my draft drawings close by, I pushed record on the video camera and began drawing out the pictures and words I needed to help tell my story.  This took a few attempts/trials.
5. I downloaded the video to my computer and imported it into Imovie.  In Imovie, I sped up the video by 400%.  The original video was 14 min and when sped up it was down to approximately 3 min.
6.  Then, I created a script and added audio narration to the sped up video.  This took a few attempts.
7.  Finally, I uploaded my creation to youtube so I could easily share it.

Here is my final product,

Some schools may not have access to a class set of white boards.  So, I also tried the same process with paper.  If you are using paper instead of white boards, you will have a bit more prep work.  I measured out and drew a rectangle on a large poster paper that was within the field of view of the video camera (sitting on a tripod).  Then, I pre-cut several rectangles that were the same size as this rectangle.  So, instead of erasing the area like I would on a white board, I just replaced the area with a new piece of paper that was the same size.  Here is an example of what it looked like when I used paper,




Now that I have explored this teaching/learning strategy myself, I am excited to implement it with my students.  RSA animate style videos are a creative and engaging way to allow students to synthesize and present information.  This strategy could be applicable to any subject, project or assignment.

Have you used RSA animate videos in your class?  What was your experience like?

Allowing Students to Redo Their Work

There is an old saying, "If first you don't suceed, try, try again."  How often do we translate this saying into practice when assessing student work?  My school has adopted a more progressive assessment policy in hopes that we embrace the premise that students in Middle School should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

In Ken O'Connor's book, A Repair Kit for Grading: Fifteen Fixes for Broken Grades, he talks about the importance of giving students the opportunity to redo work.  He challenges traditional assessment practices which are grounded in the notion that "what's done is done".

I have always believed in a more student friendly approach to assessment.  Over the last few years through reading books like Mr. O'Connor's and adopting new technological tools, I have made signficant strides towards allowing students to view many assessments as, "a work in progress."  In my Design Courses, work is mostly project based.  Students plan, create and reflect on their solutions/products using the Design Cycle.  I want them to realize that with this approach, there is aways opportunity to revisit a project and re-tool your work and way of thinking.  No work in Design Class is every really finished.  So students will sometimes go back and re-vist their Design Portfolios and make changes.  Here is a screencast demostrating how I organize and afford these types of opportunities for students.




If you would like to learn more about some of the tools I used in the screencast, here are some resources to consider:

1.  Google Docs- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FYgnM6ZeTk

2.  Google Drive- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzrixPhql54

3.  Kidblog.org - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KtWSaVdzkI

What are you thoughts, practices and processes when it comes to allowing students to redo assessed work? 

Building Stronger Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities have been around for a few years now and when adopted properly, they can create powerful and rich learning for teachers and more importantly help improve student learning.  This video clip from the Liberty Mutual Responsibility Project demonstrates how groups of people working together can have a positive impact on a community.



I spent that last 3 days at my school learning how to become a "Critical Friend" for other colleagues at my school.  Our training was provided by the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), http://www.nsrfharmony.org/. The hope is for our school to strengthen our Professional Learning Communities (PLC) by training a group of us  to be Critical Friends that might fascilitate rich conversations with other teachers or groups of teachers in the school as it pertains to improving student work, lesson planing or solving a pedgagical issue. 

What can a Critical Friend do to strengthen a PLC?   There are several stumbling blocks when it comes to whether a school's PLC is meeting it's objectives of improving student learning and building collegial relationships.  Rarely do PLC develop on their own.  Like any relationship, they may require deliberate effort on the part of the participants.  Critical Friends are trained to help intentionally foster openness to improvement, trust and respect, improve foundation in the knowledge and skills of teaching and support leadership.  The focus on making this happen is learning several "Protocols" that would guide a Critical Friend through a structured process.

The Protocol list provided by the NSRF is impressive and comprehensive.  There are activities that build trust and respect like the ZONE OF COMFORT.   There are also many Protocols that provide guidance and structure for Critical Friends as they work with teachers on improving their practice like EXAMINING STUDENT WORK. All the NSRF Protocols are available for Free at this link http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocol/a_z.html.

The 3 days of training was very valuable for me as I learn more about how I might strengthen my role at my school in fostering a robust Professional Learning Community.   I appreciated the structure that the Protocols provided in ensuring that conversations with other teachers are meaningful and productive.  Yet, I still am left unsure about how to deal with the reluctant teacher.  Would these Protocols be effective when you have a teacher in your PLC that isn't open or willing to grow and learn?  I still have 2 more days of training in February and I am looking forward to our facilitator addressing this very important issue.  

What has been your experience in dealing with teachers in your PLC's that aren't open to growth?  Do you have any ideas of strategies that might help me and others?

 

Some Thoughts on Assessment: "Is this going to count for marks?"

We have all had our undecided moments in the classroom.  Mine have often been around a common student question, "Mr. Frehlich, does this assignment count for marks?"  When I hear this I pause, and reflect.  If I say, "No", will my students put less effort/enthusiasm into the assignment or project?  Why have we conditioned students to ask this question?  Shouldn't learning be lifelong and therefore marks are irrelevant?

The reality of many middle school classrooms is that marks are relevant and they do act as a barometer for students to decide how much care, effort and detail they contribute to a project or assignment.  Yet, the philosophy of many schools is to create "life long learners", which has little to do with marks and other such rewards and incentives.  I recently watched this TED Talk, about a Marshmallow Challenge,which teaches us that incentives don't always translate into higher performance.




As a teacher for 19 years, I have often wished the students I taught were not so motivated by marks.  In many cases, it brings out the worst in their performance, as it creates extra stress.  As a science teacher, I often have design challenges in my own classroom similar to the one highlighted in the TED video.  In the past, each design challenge had a rubric or marking scheme that was discussed before students embarked on the challenge. Here is an example of a rubric we used for a design challenge to build a structure that cushioned the fall of a water balloon.

Evaluation (9 marks)

Criterion/Score	1	2	3
Performance	The balloon breaks each time and the landing pad is unstable	Balloon breaks once and the landing pad is mostly stable	Balloon does not break on both drops and the landing pad remains stable
Following Specifications	The student follows little to no design rules and procedures	The Student follows most design rules and procedures	The student follows all design rules and procedures
Evaluation and reflection	Little thought, care and effort has been put into the write up and more detail is needed	Some thought, care and effort has been put into the write up with some detail	Significant thought, care and effort has been put into the write up with great detail

In most cases I discuss, collaborate and build the rubric with the students so that the marking criterion is a democratic process.  However this year, it was different.  One student asked, "Mr. Frehlich, do we have to make this challenge worth marks?"  My heart skipped a beat, and I asked the student to repeat the question because I was sure I didn't hear her correctly.  She repeated, "Do we have to make it for marks?  I find it stressful when a mark is associated with these building challenges."  I took a deep breath and said, "No, every challenge doesn't always have to be for marks."  I then asked the rest of the class how they felt. Most agreed, marks often make the challenge more stressful.  So, we revamped the rubric above and changed the numbers into qualifiers like, "expert", "intermediate", and "beginner".  As the TED video suggests, when students are learning a new skill it is important to keep the stakes low.  In the end, the quality of the student structures were even better than when I had used a marking scheme.  Here is a sample of one of the finished structures;



It is time for a change.  There may be other reasons why students are asking this question, "Is this for marks?".   I should not always assume it is because they are looking for an opportunity to contribute less effort.

If you are interested in learning more about how some incentives might weaken our performance on certain tasks, please consider reading Daniel Pink's book, Drive. 

"You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take": Finding Guest Speakers with Twitter

Wayne Gretzky once said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  This holds true for anything you do in life.  If you are not will to try something, then you will never be successful.

Recently, I decided to take this courageous attitude on twitter.  Twitter is a powerful social media tool because you are able to follow and learn from some very famous and influential people.  Currently, my Grade 9 Science Class is studying water quality, and we watched the following episode from the Canadian Television Series, CBC Marketplace.



After watching this investigative report on water filtration systems, my class had many unanswered questions.  So I decided to tweet the host of the episode, Tom Harrington (@cbctom) and invite him to speak to my class about the episode and see if he would field some of our questions via Skype.  And,  much to my surprise, as I know media personal are very busy people, Tom responding to my tweet within minutes.  You can read our dialog below.

 

The interview with Tom Harrington was very informative. You can view some of the interview here.  Mr. Harrington spoke about how investigative journalists have the motto, “we afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.”  In other words, he feels he has a responsibility to speak for Canadians who don’t often have a voice in regard to consumer issues.  Some of the student questions he addressed were: “What do you like best about your investigative journalist position with CBC?” and “How has being an investigative journalist changed your view of Canada?”  

Tom Harrington, like Wayne Gretzky and other great Canadian’s, showed us the importance of going beyond our comfort zone.

 Implications for Educators

With a multitude of people now using twitter the possibilities of extending the walls of your classroom are endless.  Most celebrities/famous people have websites that will list their twitter account.  A teacher could tweet;

1.  the author of a book you are reading in class

2.  the singer/songwriter/composer of song you are doing in music

3.  a person that won a Noble Prize in science

4.  the inventor of a device or machine

5.  a famous artist or sculptor for art class

6.  a professor who is doing research on a topic you are studying

7.  an actor or screenwriter for drama class

8.  a famous athlete for PE class

My advice when making contact with these people is to keep it simple.  In truth most celebrities want to help out but they truly are busy.  So, invite them for an informal low-key event.  Once you have made initial contact, try and communicate more complicated details like time of interview, Skype Names, and other logistics by email.  Try not to involve large groups like the entire school, as this will formalize the event and involve more time for both you and the celebrity.  My Skype session with Tom Harrington will only be 30 minutes long in my own classroom with approximately 40 of my Grade 9 Science Students.  I will use my school laptop, projector, Skype and  Skype recording software like MP3 or Pamela.  Be sure to ask the person you are interviewing for permission to record your Skype session. 

So, what are you waiting for, take that shot!  Get out there and start tweeting!