Before I arrived, more than 7 weeks ago...I know, I can't believe it either...the students had been reading Māori legends. The researched and read both texts and online which I
obviously had to do and catch up reading in my free time. A few were quite disturbing, as many legends are; but, others were quite interesting and made me eager to implement technology to enhance these stories.
The students drew out cartoon strips to recall what they remember from the legends demonstrating how they interpreted them. I thought it was quite interesting how some students might have chose the same legend to draw in their cartoon strips, but their pictures look vastly different. The key symbols were clear (sun, stars, New Zealand, lakes), however, some of the details and characters varied greatly.
Here are a few of the legends I, personally, thought were quite interesting...
After getting a better understanding of the legends the students are reading, I could decode some of their cartoon strips. I thought this was a perfect time to introduce Powtoon.
Powtoon is, essentially, a cartoon movie the students can create themselves. Many Powtoons go viral, as you might have seen one on Facebook or during a professional development course; but, in case you haven't, here's a quick video I played refreshing or introducing this online ~free~ program~
After watching this once, we watched it again and brainstormed a list of features this program allows us to utilize and include:
text bubbles, to incorporate dialogue
music and voice overs allowing to guide the video
characters / personalities
transitions between concepts
customization of characters, text, pictures, symbols, shapes, etc.
writing, with the hand writing out each letter
I then allowed the students to test out Powtoon and click around the different buttons to test out the video they saw with their own computer--something crucial to learning and implementing technology smoothly.
The students already had their cartoon strips of their legends drawn out (the draft), so I double checked them before granting permission to use the computers (Chromebooks) to log onto Powtoon (with their school email) and then create their Powtoon!
Next time I introduce a lesson using Powtoon, I think it will be more beneficial to recreate my own legend and specifically show them what I am expecting because the students were a little all over the place with their cartoons. I realized how important it is to provide them with the rubric before I send them off to work (which is different than my supervising teacher does). Overall, this was a fun and engaging lesson most of the students had never played with before. I learned a lot and the students did, too!
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