Eighth grade honors students have recently finished reading, La Gran Aventura de Alejandro, a book that serves as an introduction to Spanish history and culture. The main character, Alejandro, is a thirteen-year old boy with “an adventurous spirit” and a vast imagination. While he is in Madrid, he receives the gift of a magic ring, which transports him through time and enables him to meet historical and literary personages.

As an extension of this theme, each honors student will create an original adventure for Alejandro in regional locales with characters of historical or contemporary merit. Each student will draw six drawings or take six digital photos and write a script with a minimum of three sentences describing what happened in each scene. The story will be written in the preterite tense. Each student will record his or her voice over the pictures, and add a music soundtrack. Each iMovie will have a title and credits in Spanish.

 

  1. The task will be explained to the students, and as a homework assignment, they will either draw or take their pictures. They will create a storyboard that includes placement of images, script, transitions, sound effects, title and credits.
  2. Students will meet four times in the CALC. The first time they will receive an iMovie tutorial. The second time they will scan their drawings or download their photos, create their movie project, import their scanned images or photos, begin to edit, create their title and credits slides. The third time they will continue editing their movie, add voiceovers, create transitions, apply Ken Burns effect, and add a music soundtrack. The fourth time they will add a voiceover or a musical soundtrack and complete their project.
  3. Projects will be downloaded to a digital video camera and copied onto a DVD.
  4. The DVD will be shown in class.

Drawings or Photos

(10 points)

Language Skills

(60 points)

Technology

(30 points)

Composition

Clarity

Script:

Accuracy of language

Length of sentences

Originality of story

Titles and credits:

All in Spanish

Accuracy of spelling

Accent marks

Voiceover:

Pronunciation

Intonation

Scanning or importing

IMovie:

Editing

Transitions

Ken Burns Effect

Sounds

Music

 

By completing this project, Spanish C Honors students will have written and practiced storytelling using preterite verb forms and vocabulary related to their locale. They will have practiced and refined their pronunciation of Spanish. They will have learned how to use the iMovie application to create a digital story.

 

This project designed and implemented by Debbie Mersky, teacher of world language at Germantown Academy. Technical assistance and web page design furnished by Carol Siwinski, Curricular Technology Specialist.
 
March, 2005