Activity 6

Vlog – Video Blog

Grade level: 7^th through 10^th graders

Language objectives:

• Students will practice their oral skills
• Students will write a manuscript
• Students will film and compose a video blog  

Content objectives:

• Students will analyze a fictional character
• Students will imagine being in a fictional characters life

The activities cover at least two competence aims after year 10:

• Create, communicate and converse about own texts inspired by English literature, films and cultural forms of expression
• Select different digital resources and other aids and use them in an independent manner in own language learning
  (Udir, 2016) 

This is a creating activity with the power words compose, imagine and portray. It is an interdisciplinary activity between English and literacy. The activity is very easily adaptable because the teacher can change the fictional character to be more appropriate for the age group. More advanced students can also talk about a topic that concerns today's society instead of what a fictional character did that day. The video blog does not necessarily have to be posted on YouTube, this depends on the schools rules and if the students want to. Creating a video blog can be easier for some of the shy students, instead of making this a performance in front of the class. They can choose to sit alone while filming it, so that it is not so much pressure.  

Into: 

The into-activity will be the homework prior to this class, where the students will have read a novel or a short story. The students will then pick one of the main characters in the story and write down some key information about the characters personality.

Through:

The students will make a manuscript to preform in front of a computer camera. They are using computer cameras to make it more authentic to stereotypical video blogs. The video blog will be about their chosen fictional characters every day life, and made up problems. The students will have a lot of creative freedom to talk about what they think the character would want to talk about.

Beyond: 

In the beyond-activity the students will post their video blog, either on YouTube or send it as an email to the teacher. The teacher will choose some example to show the rest of the class.

The teacher can assess this activity by giving out some criteria on what should be included in the video, but that might also take away some of the creativity, and fun of making it.

Sources:

Utdanningsdirektoratet. (downloaded 15. October 2016). English subject curriculum.  http://www.udir.no/kl06/eng1-03/Hele/Kompetansemaal/kompetansemal-etter-10.-arstrinn/?lplang=eng