A Christmas Carol though the eyes of fifth graders and kindergarteners

Teachers: Sharon Godfrey, West End Elementary School, Fifth Grade
Rebecca Kelly, Second District Elementary School, Kindergarten
Students: approximately 35-40 combined students in both classes
Learning objectives:
Kindergarten and Fifth grade students will:
• Operate Flip cameras to film productions, classroom events, and weekly diaries.
• Understand the classic A Christmas Carol
• Dramatize, perform, film, and post their production of A Christmas Carol to the class timeline
• Examine and differentiate both performances through compare and contrast essays and video diaries.
• Evaluate a professionally produced A Christmas Carol and identify elements of story structure, character development, and dramatization common to their own productions.
• Defend and value the use of classic literature as a learning tool in conjunction with modern technology
Students in both classrooms will read or listen to A Christmas Carol. Both classroom will plan, direct, and perform a production of this classic tale. Students will be in charge of backgrounds, props, scripts and filming. Kindergarten students will keep weekly video diaries explaining the process as it unfolds. After filming is complete students will post their productions on the common Dipity timeline. Each class will view the other production. All students will identify common story elements, such as story structure, character development, vocabulary, and cause and effect. Fifth grade students will write compare and contrast essays, while kindergarten will explain elements using their video diaries and Venn diagrams.
All students will view a professional production of A Christmas Carol in order to evaluate the structural and literary differences. Students will then meet to discuss the final differences and the overall value of learning in a long distance, yet collaborative manner. This final meeting will be filmed and posted as the culminating scene.