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November 2002
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Ann Arpin
Library Teacher - Fisher Elementary School, Walpole, MA
Last spring, AT&T Broadband invited educators across the country to apply for their Emerging Technologies grant awards. A total of 48 awards would be granted, divided into 16 $3,000 awards, 16 $2,000 awards, and 16 $1,000 awards. In addition, each award recipient would receive a digital video camera. Grade 4 teacher Diane Burnham approached me about brainstorming ideas for submission, and we came up with a Digital Portfolio project. In late August, AT&T notified us that we were selected to receive a 3rd place award, and last month, we were presented a check for $1,000 and a new digital video camera.
In this year-long project, students will produce a curriculum based news broadcast as a vehicle for chronicling what they learn at the completion of math, science, social studies, and reading units. In addition, special events held at the school throughout the year will be filmed and included as commercials. We started the project in late September by showing models of news shows, including CNN Students News and NickNews. A field trip to the WBZ TV news station gave students (and us) a behind the scenes look at how a news broadcast is produced. Students are now set up into groups responsible for one aspect of the news segment (writing, reporting, producing, editing and filming). Each of these groups will rotate, so by the end of the school year, each student group will be exposed to all aspects of production. Once the segments are filmed, we will use iMovie to edit the film, and the segments will be transferred to VHS. The final tape will be shown on Walpole's public access channel, giving the community a look at what goes on in a 4th grade classroom.
This is truly a collaborative, standards-based project using a constructivist approach to student learning through cooperative group activities, all aligned with the Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks. Diane and I meet frequently (many times "on the fly") to map out lessons and divide responsibilities. We co-teach lessons focused on developing good interview questions and writing with a purpose, in addition to content based research projects and activities within academic units. The principal and assistant principal have been extremely supportive, and Diane and I both work flexibly together to plan and adjust the project. Most importantly, the students are invested in the project, and have the opportunity to truly synthesize their learning by teaching others via this broadcast.
The project may be viewed on the MSLMA webpage as a part of the Collaborative Projects exhibit.