Grade+7+Picture+Peace

Task Title : Picture  Peace! (Persuasive Writing with Photo Story)  : 7th grade English Language Arts  Abstract:  Students created a persuasive Photo Story commercial to convince peers to play their Peace Game. First, students developed an understanding of what a Peace game is, created a Peace game concept and actual game, wrote the directions to the Peace game, wrote a persuasive essay convincing a peer to play their Peace game, and finally, created a persuasive Photo Story commercial to convince peers to play their Peace Game.

Introduction:  The students were excited and motivated at the prospect of using a new technology to express themselves in the persuasive mode.  This Peace Game/Photo Story experience gave students an opportunity to extend their skills of persuasive writing, as well as verbal communication, collaboration, and cooperation in both a local and global context. The designing of both the Peace game and Photo Story commercial provided students with visual literacy talents the opportunity to excel. At the same time, those with verbal and/or written skills had opportunity to shine. It allowed all students to explore and further develop their technological skills, and that, unanimously was a motivating factor for this diverse group of students.  Lesson / Unit  · Lesson objective: Goals: Language Arts & Technology Objectives (follow) Student will: speak and write using standard language structures and diction appropriate to audience and task recognize the difference between use of standard and non-standard English in composing and revising written text demonstrate an understanding of visual literacy demonstrate understanding of the effective use of Photo Story

Objectives: Student will use persuasive writing mode to demonstrate understanding of: awareness of audience strong definitive language propaganda techniques point of view tone elaboration fluency voice proper mechanics usage spelling proof-reading editing Student will communicate a message using oral language with: clarity voice fluency Student will present work appropriate to: audience, purpose task

TECHNOLOGY goals Student will demonstrate competency to: locate, evaluate, and store photos from digital camera or online resource for access to group project appropriately use external microphone and headset add voice and manage appropriate volume in Photo Story add music and manage appropriate volume in Photo Story edit sound and photos after initial Photo Story draft control time limits established (30 – 45 seconds) save work as a “ wp3.” file save work as a “wmv” file” Students will work individually or in small groups to create a Peace Game, and then create a persuasive commercial to entice peers to play the Peace game. A Peace Game is cooperative, non-violent, and promotes peace by not having a “winner/loser” mentality. Students will study multicultural notions of peace and use global goals as the focus of game play. Students will select concepts such as world peace, environmental protection, “thinking globally and acting locally”, and expanding personal knowledge about the world and its people to help create harmony through understanding in a global society.
 * Task description:

Students will read 1 -2 quotes a day and respond in writing to multicultural quotes about Peace. Students will find commonalities and differences between and among cultures as related to the notion of peace, and assert personal perspectives and judgments as well.

Multicultural Peace Quotes Peace Game Rubric

Game formats: Students will create board games, physical activities, and/or inter-active webpage sites to play their game. Web research before and during game play is critical to many Peace Games. Students are responsible to make and or collect all necessary pieces for game play.

Game Directions: //Language arts//; Students will write game directions, being particularly aware of sequence and logic, specificity and detail, and fluency. They will keep audience, language and tone, fluency and elaboration, and strong definitive language as well as propaganda techniques in mind with the creation of their Photo Story commercial.

Heterogeneously grouped 7th grade language arts classroom with 12 computers available. Classes met in three 45 minute and one 90 minute blocks of time a week. Project timeframe: 2 weeks for game creation/ 1 -2 weeks for commercial writing and creation/ 3-4 classes to play, critique, and revise game/directions as needed
 * Context within which the work was produced

Word processing skills Scanning pictures Digital camera use and uploading to computer
 * Prior learning required:

Students had prior exposure to and knowledge of Windows Movie maker, Voicethreads, and Podcasting, which was helpful for student comfort with technology, but not necessary.

Whole class instruction via Smartboard: for peace concepts & Photo Story demonstrations/instruction Small group: Student selected partners /Game creation concept to product Whole class: sharing/playing Peace Games
 * Types of groupings used in this task:

Differentiation began with student-centered classroom; students self-selected topics, game format, game play rules, and grouping. Students worked individually or in small groups to develop Peace Game concepts. Many students were able to work independently on the Photo Story, but those who struggled were given small group or individual instruction via Smartboard or direct teacher instruction.
 * Any differentiated strategies used in this task:

 Curriculum Frameworks Connecticut PK- 8 English Language Art Curriculum Standards Student will: 4.2 speak and write using standard language structures and diction appropriate to audience and task 4.3 recognize the difference between use of standard and non-standard English in composing and revising written text

Students will: Write a persuasive commercial convincing peers to play their Peace Game, using the following persuasive writing guides (used throughout the year):

Awareness of Audience Elaboration Strategies Transitional Phrases

Strong Definitive language State of CT persuasive writing rubric

 National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS*S, 2007) Student will: 2a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. 2b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Students will: demonstrate understanding of the effective processes of Photo Story

 Students will receive an individual as well as group grade. The following assessment was used for group grade for the commercial – technology and content. The individual grade was based on daily teacher/ student conferences on progress, as well as casual observation of student competencies of the technology and content writing. Students also received feedback and constructive criticism from peers about the quality of the Peace Game via the Participants’ Critique sessions.

Participants' Critiques Peace Game Technology/Commercial Content   Student Work (files attached or embedded) The files below are examples of students’ Peace Games Commercials that they created in Photo Story. They are stored as Windows Media Video files. You will need Windows Media Player to view these files.

 The Charity Game Commercial Spreading the Wealth commercial

This project was a creative extension of persuasive writing that allowed for real world application and moved reluctant writers to enhance and build their persuasive writing/communication skills. It gave students with diverse intelligences the opportunity to communicate and collaborate in a media that provided both challenges and successes for students of all academic levels. It was an ideal situation for the integration of visual, verbal, and technological literacy.

For the most part, all students were familiar with how to upload photos and/or locate them online, and then save them to a common folder. Limited remediation was needed in that area. Students also had background with microphone/headset use, but it is still advisable that students practice with microphone use and volume levels. Unless all background noise can be eliminated, volume of recording is a variable to be addressed. Using the announcement “Quiet on the Set” did help to minimize background noise.

It was also critical that I, as teacher, had the opportunity to experiment with the Photo Story application before using it in classroom instruction. There are some idiosyncrasies in the program that are discovered only when in operation. For instance, once pictures are inserted into the picture line, it is critical to understand that the voice line is linked to specific pictures. The time frame a picture remains on screen is determined by the voice line. That being the case, if one decides to change the order of pictures, the story line would need to be re-recorder. Further, only one music line is available. Its placement in the strand is locked in, and the volume can be adjusted only as a whole – not frame by frame. It’s also important to realize that there are two ways to save work; as a working project (wp3) versus a finished project (wmv). I would highly recommend creating 2 folders at the start: one for “working projects” and one for “finished projects.” The final project format is used to create a “playlist.” This is what I used as an easy and efficient way to show all commercials to the classes, though I did rely on tech expert help to actually create the “playlist.” Access to knowledgeable tech personnel throughout the process is invaluable.

Overall, the students found this project interesting and exciting. Some did comment on Photo Story’s limitations as compared to Window Movie Maker, but overall, they liked the simplicity and ease of creating their commercial. They noted that the program limitations (as explained above) facilitated their own need to be creative to overcome the application’s restrictions. They enjoyed viewing their own and others’ commercials and were able to observe their own strengths and weaknesses in the persuasive genre. Such observations led to improved understanding and production of persuasive writing.

Resources : Computers with word processing, Photo Story application, Internet access, digital cameras, head phones, microphones, persuasive writing rubrics, assessment rubrics, multicultural Peace quotes, game rubrics, participant critique form,

 Free Photo Story download http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx

Click here for a //Word// document with the Picture Peace Assured Experience -