suggestions to create derivative project

hi everyone,

I teach high school and I teach a lot of Latin and Greek roots to build vocabulary and I would like a more technical or interactive project to tie the lessons in a unit together.

I considered animoto, but I don't know how I would be able to have the prefix (and definition), root (and definition), suffix (and definition) and the derivative (and definition) to all flow together so it all builds. (I hope this makes sense).

The only other option I could think of is powerpoint and prezi. The kids aren't crazy about (creating) prezi projects and powerpoint is almost the same 'old anymore.

Any FREE 2.0 suggestions for high school students?

Thanks in advance,

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Permalink Reply by Andrea McKichan on October 16, 2011 at 3:55pm

I think Animoto could work well for this type of project. Students could take digital photos of the word parts and definitions and then some visual that could accompany the meaning. They could also get pictures online. Then they could upload them to animoto and have a fun slideshow of what they learned. Having an education account through animoto, each student or group could have their own username and password, so it would be easy for you to monitor progress. Also, you could video the words instead of taking stills and the kids could pronounce the words. When uploading these, you can choose for the music to get quieter and the sound from the video to come through.

Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by JL on October 16, 2011 at 5:19pm

Andrea,

I'm not that familiar with Animoto, so ...I /studens would be able to organize the word parts so they would be able to "become" the derivative? Is it possible to upload a student made audio discussing the words-instead of the music?

Thank you very much for your response! I'm still turning this idea in my head and I'm hoping other techies have additional ideas so my students can present a variet of projects for their skills and interests :)

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Permalink Reply by Andrea McKichan on October 16, 2011 at 6:33pm

When you upload the images to Animoto, it is really easy to put them in the order that you like. If you wanted the students to discuss the words, I believe you could use a program like audacity to do that. But, part of what makes Animoto fun is the music. Here is an example of a video I created from a Christmas Program at my school. I quieted the sound in parts so we could hear the kids sing. http://animoto.com/play/sK7mvXUM0fZfv1P69LXsAQ

If you want your students' voices to come through more than that, you could try Little Bird Tales. http://littlebirdtales.com/home/default/

This site allows students to write online stories and record sound onto the pages. It is very easy to use. Here is an example of a storybird (no sound) that a friend of mine wrote for her English classes. It might give you some ideas of how a story would look versus the video slideshow.

http://storybird.com/books/the-life-and-love-of-susie-subordinate-i...