The students had been researching Ellis Island in Social Studies and were finding out how it became a famous gateway for millions of immigrants entering the United States. They wanted to represent that information visually, so they took all that they learned in class and turned it into a news report. The script took some time to write but with Google Docs they could all collaborate on the same document at home or at school in order to get the job done.
When the script was finished, they were ready to record their video. I set up the green screen, put the iPad on a tripod, and gave the students some basics on what they would need to know in order to make a successful green screen movie on the iPad. They were up and running in no time and filmed their own video whenever they weren't all on screen at the same time! We used the Teleprompter Pro Lite app to scroll their script in front of them, just like the professionals do.
iMovie for iPad was something that all three of the students had some previous experience with, so it did not take them long to pick the news theme that they wanted and arrange their edited green screen clips in the correct order. After adding transitions, music, and some opening and closing titles, the project was ready to share with the world on the Center Point-Urbana Schools YouTube channel.
The final result can be seen in the video below, but with video production skills like these, I think you can safely predict a bright future for these hard-working 4th graders! :)
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