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Stop motion animation to promote literacy

Video Help

Duration: 4:21

Sue Martin uses stop motion animation with her students to promote narrative skills, particularly sequencing and retelling. After teaching them how, her students now work independently during reading time in the animation corner for about 10-15 minutes at a time. She encourages student self and peer reflection by asking questions at the end of each session. Parents provide positive feedback via the class blog.

Sue Martin – Teacher, Greenmeadows School:

When I went to the Learning@Schools conference last year and I saw someone using animation I thought, wow this is just a good idea to promote all those skills in literacy, particularly the narrative skills, the sequencing again, and of course using the storyboard and retelling. And I thought what better way to do this but to use animation. And because it’s so simple it’s easily manageable. Children can do it independently without me. Obviously I’ve got to teach them the skills but there’s only a few keys, tools on the computer to use, and, wow, it’s just using information technology and information literacy and interacting them, and using their prior knowledge, because they knew those fairy stories. So, I used the reading groups. So, I thought ideally in literacy, their particular reading group, that would be an easy way. So while I’m reading - the parent’s reading and at times I have a teacher aide in - one group can be going over to the animation corner, we call it the little studio, and can work away only for about 10-15 minutes at a time. They take turns and that has just worked brilliantly and it’s just been so independent.

Greenmeadows student, girl:

We’re doing our animation. We’re doing the bit where Jack’s mum is throwing the seed down.

Interviewer:

Ok, and how do you know when to take the photos?

Greenmeadows student, girl:

Because the person has moved it and the person has done Control D.

Interviewer:

Ok, what does Control D do?

Greenmeadows student, boy 1:

It makes more frames so it doesn’t go quicker, real quick.

Interviewer:

So what’s your job? Tell us what you’re doing this morning.

Greenmeadows student, boy 2:

I’m doing something where you get the rope and you put it down there, so we’re going to pretend to make the beanstalk grow up and up. And Upashna had a really good idea and she told us so that’s what we’re going to do.

Interviewer:

How do you know what bit to film each day?

Greenmeadows student, boy 1:

We have a storyboard so we know what we’re up to. If you forget you always look on the storyboard if you don’t remember.

Sue Martin – Teacher, Greenmeadows School:

After each time that they have had a go at animation we recap, we get their ideas, we retell, so their ideas are coming out, and I think for me that’s the key is that it is their ideas and their storytelling, and obviously with my questioning, “What do you think he said? Or she?”, “Where do you think they’re going?”. It’s my good questioning that helps them retell the story.

An important aspect of animation is the feedback, and making sure that it is ongoing, especially from me, so it’s important that at the end of each session I spend a few minutes with the group. We talk about, I ask questions, “Are you happy with that?”, “What does it look like?”, “How do you think you could be better?”. The children have just got so reflective and are critical. That self-reflection, that peer-reflection, at the start it used to be a lot of blame, but now it’s more “Ahhh, that was good”, so there’s a lot of that peer feedback and it’s really good to hear.

Another aspect of feedback which I think is really important is what comes from their own parents. Because a lot of this is going home parents are coming in and are keen to know what animation is all about so, particularly the group that’s finished, it’s gone home on disc. It’s gone home to parents and nannas, and overseas even. It’s on our blog, so that feedback has been very rewarding.

Tags: English, Primary, Multimedia – graphics/animation, Literacy, Community engagement, Digital literacy


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