That's a Wrap! Video Production at Haltom Middle School

Haltom Middle School Theater students in Deanna Davis’ classes are wrapping up their final production of the year. Mrs. Davis longed for a new way to cover several of her content TEKS that would be engaging and allow students to show mastery of semester-long concepts. Deanna teamed up with her digital learning specialist to try to think of some ideas. To begin, they unpacked the TEKS that would be driving the lesson activities. In the next step, they discussed the different ways students could demonstrate their learning in a manner that would be engaging, personalized and would demonstrate mastery of the standards. The decision was made that the final production would be either a commercial or theater promo advertising the theater program to incoming 6th grade students. Student tasks were created using backward design; breaking down the tasks into each of the key stages of film production.
After careful consideration of the campus' available technology, it was decided that iPads would be the best tool for the job. Students worked collaboratively within their small groups, with the goal of creating a group production.

When it came to filming, Mrs. Davis added the element of green screen recording, which was very popular with the students. Smiles and giggles were abundant. When asked about green screening the students replied with comments such as: “it is really cool.”, “I really like it.”, and “how can I do this at home?”

Since the students already had iPad's, video production rolled brilliantly into iMovie. It was the perfect tool for the students to engage in authentic, creative work while covering the essential content. Students were also given the freedom to use their own devices and apps if they preferred. Based on the passion students had when discussing their projects you could feel their sense of ownership. Upon completion, the students turned their productions in via Google Classroom. Here are two of the promo videos that were used to help grow the Theater program.
Video 1 Video 2