Touring the Caribbean using iMovie

Recently, my Spanish classes created videos using the green screen and iMovie. This project began with students researching and finding videos about six countries in the Caribbean to share with the class. All of the students viewed the videos, and we discussed why they chose the videos they wanted to share. This allowed them to understand the elements of a well-produced video. The dialogue in each video was in Spanish, so this was an excellent listening activity as well.

The students ranked their three favorite countries based on the videos viewed and information presented. Students also completed a self evaluation regarding their confidence in the areas of video production, script writing, pronunciation, and grammar. Groups were formed based on their country rankings and self evaluations. Each group had an expert in each area.

Throughout the video production process, students were expected to accomplish the following goals:

• Incorporate as much vocabulary as possible

• Use appropriate conditional verb tense

• Master the use of familiar singular commands

• Persuade the viewer to want to travel to the country

This project took four 45-minute class periods and one block period. The first class period was used for drafting the scripts and peer editing. Technology Integration Coordinator Rebekah Kinney joined us the second and third class periods to provide iMovie instruction and digital citizenship information.

Students learned the importance of completing a search looking for noncommercial use images, documenting resources, and how to use legal audio and songs. The students completed the filming during the block period, and the fourth 45-minute period was used to edit the videos. During viewing the videos in class, students wrote the grammar elements they heard in each video. These videos were used to listen for grammar structure in an assessment before the assessment. Each student received feedback and a grade based upon a production rubric for the videos.

I choose to use a green screen project because I realized how it engaged the students in the speaking part of learning another language. Also, the process of finding appropriate background photos from the countries of origin made students delve into the places we had been studying with a more critical eye about first, what the places looked like, and second, what one could do in the countries based on the geographical/climate features of each destination.

Enjoy viewing examples of the completed projects!