"Why I love the Tigard Library" by Ms. Jennie McCarthy

Act I: "Why I love the Tigard Library"

Act II: More than just books

Act III: Internet Access for Teens

"Editing with Youtube lesson plan" by Ms. Jennie McCarthy

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"Graphic Novels for Young Adults" by Nathan Shoutis

"Digital Storytelling" lesson plan by Nathan Shoutis

3 comments:

Nathan Shoutis said...: Jennie,

What I liked about Why I Love the Tigard Library:

-A fun and varied soundtrack kept the videos interesting and unique yet still connected as a whole.
-The movement of the shots—they had a nice dynamic movement that helped keep my interest.
-The third video (internet for teens) was my favorite—it told a more of a personal story, and still showed all the various resources for different clients of the library.

What I thought could use work:

-Act 1. Timings on different scenes, most notably, I thought the elevator segment was held too long (assume the reasoning was for the nice smile the girl gives), and the following segments on large print and hip authors went by too fast for me to read.
-Act 2. Would have liked to see more specific examples interspersed with the variety of offerings—just the spines blurring by wasn’t quite enough to sell me.
-Act 3. Maybe as a next step—give your character speaking roles, and add another level of depth. Also, maybe slightly more time could be spent on the actual teen only computers, since she finally found her place.

Video Editing For All:

-What grade level is this geared to (I assume younger kids)?
-I wondered what the content was, and what kind of videos the kids would create. Is there any more direction over what they are making?

Thanks for sharing,
Nathan; August 20, 2012 at 9:56 PM
Nathan said...: Michelle,

What I liked about Book Talk:

-Your reading voice and stage presence—its obvious you’ve spent some time reading aloud, and I think this talent comes across in the video.
-I liked the time used for each book, and wondered if it might be a series kind of thing—recommending a book every week with a quick video.

What I thought could use work:

-I like the settings you chose to shoot in, but the ambient background noise was pretty distracting.
-Maybe consider using your narration as B-roll (background roll)—cutting from the shot of you reading to other shots while keeping your narration as audio. I think this could be a way to add interest to the setting around you. For example, close-ups on the globe, or shots of the sky that aren’t reliant on a pan from you to the sky, or shots of a girl hugging a tree.

Book Review Video:

-“My hope is that they will be motivated to read by being able to make a video to post on the library website.” I’m not sure if I think this is the case—does interest in any activity like video creation translate to reading? I see the merits of each on their own, but I’m not sure if I see the connection or translation from one to the other.
-I was also wondering if two thirty-minute class periods was enough to cover the material in your lesson sequence segment?
-Also, what is the difference between 2. and 7. in the Lesson Sequence (video camera vs. video recorder)?

Thanks,
Nathan; August 20, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Nathan said...: Helen,

What I liked about Little White Rabbit:

-As I wrote with Michelle, I enjoyed your narration—it struck me as having a good deal of experience reading stories aloud. I think this worked well in your video.
-I enjoyed the use of puppets, and the homemade scene you created for them. Seemed like a good way to have animals become the cast (as with many children’s stories), and still keep things simple and manageable.
-I like the move zipping the goat from the door (had to go back and pause it to see how you did it).

What I thought could use work:

-I think sound effects and music could be added to the shaky puppets and the narrator vocal changes, and help deepen the mood you’ve started to set.
-The length was a bit long for my attention, especially once the pattern developed—since I read the description first, I already knew that an ant was going to come, and it was hard to be interested in who the other characters were. Shortening things up and condensing the action somehow might be of benefit.
-Occasionally the jerky tripod moves distracted me a little too much from the story (though in general the moves felt fine).

Video Assignment:

-Don’t have much to offer, other than seems like a good plan. Have you worked with those age groups and video before? I’d be curious what a third-fifth grader is turning in for that assignment.

Thanks,
Nathan; August 20, 2012 at 10:00 PM