Spanish Childhood Memories

Process:
1. Students will decide on a scenario for their story (Christmas, birthday, other holiday, etc.) and create a story board that outlines the sequence of their story. Teachers will model the story board by showing their own. One suggested model is the Story Spine approach by Kenn Adams. An example is included below:

Instructions: Create an audio version of a letter to Santa. Imagine that at some point in your childhood you were “bad” so you did not get the gift you wanted for Christmas. Write a letter to Santa that explains what you liked to do as a child, the time you were bad, what toy you wanted and didn’t get, what you did to change your behavior afterwards and why you feel you deserve the gift now.
a. Title screen: Dear Santa
b. The Platform: When I was young… (Describe behavior, personality, favorite past times, etc. as a child)
c. The Catalyst: But on day… (Describe an inappropriate action/behavior that occurred once)
The Consequences: Because of that… (Describe the Christmas morning when you woke up and realized you did not get the toy that you wanted because of the earlier behavior. Could also include siblings, cousins, etc. that did get what they wanted)
d. The Climax: Until finally… (Talk about what changes you made to your behavior/attitude, chores you helped with, etc.)
The Resolution: Ever since then… (Talk about how those positive changes have affected and continue to affect your life now and justify why you deserve the toy that you wanted as a child)

2. Students will present their story board to the class or to small groups in order to receive feedback and suggestions on what parts of the story match the story line, what would enhance the story and/or what could be taken out because it does not support the story line.
3. Students meet with teacher individually to discuss and possibly make changes to original storyboard.
4. Students will write a script for their story.
5. Students will participate in peer editing activities with their script.
6. Students will re-evaluate their storyboard to create a story make that includes details on what types of images or video clips they can use to enhance their written letter. Students will describe scenes and how they will shoot them with a Flip Video Camera in detail. They will also describe how they might use still pictures taken from the video. An example is included below:

Example Storymap:
a. The Platform: When I was young…
In order to have the audio be in Spanish with me speaking but still use still photos and video of my son as the main character I am going to begin the video of, hopefully, my husband and I discovering a letter written by our son to Santa. I will then begin reading the letter which will explain how he has behaved throughout the year and what activities he has done that would deem him as “being good”.
**I am planning on using video at the beginning as we discover the letter and then switch to a video showing different angles of my son beginning to write is letter. I will switch then to still photographs that relate to what the audio is describing throughout most of the video.

b. The Catalyst: Do you remember the day I…?
In this section of the video, the letter to Santa will then begin to explain an inappropriate behavior that took place either last year.
**I will use a video of my son acting out the inappropriate behavior while I continue to read that portion of the letter.

c. The Consequences: Because of that…
The letter will then describe the Christmas morning when my son woke up and realized he did not get the toy that he really wanted that year because of the “bad” behavior. Depending on time, this section may also include a description of his cousins receiving all the gifts they had asked for while showing pictures of just the toys or them with the toys as my son realizes the consequence of his action(s).

d. The Climax: Until finally I changed my behavior…
This portion of the letter/video will explain the changes he made to his behavior and/or attitude while describing ways that he made up for the behavior through chores.
**I was considering using video in his section again as he performs the different chores but I am now thinking that still photos might be a better option to keep with the overall flow of the video.

e. The Resolution: Ever since then…
This section will conclude the letter to Santa by describing how those positive changes have changed his life and justify why he deserves the toy that he was denied during a previous Christmas. I will end with another video clip but this time of my son saying a simple phrase like “Please, Santa.” I am also considering adding a slide that would explain the moral of the story.

7. Students will use Flip Video cameras to record planned video clips.
8. Students will analyze the video feed that they recorded, decide what video clips and/or still pictures from video clips they will use to create their letter.
9. Students will transfer video files and picture files to Movie Maker.
10. Students will use Movie Maker to sequence video clips and pictures as well as add their prewritten script into the final product.
11. Students will use audacity to record an audio that they did not include in their video before adding the audio files to Movie Maker.
12. Students will show their videos during a “Feature Film” family night when parents and other family members will be invited into the classroom to watch the videos.