MultiMedia Tools: Video

Lesson Idea Name: America in Pictures (and other media)

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): 5th grade
Content Standard Addressed: SS5H2 Describe U.S. involvement in World War I and post-World War I
America.

Technology Standard Addressed: 3. Knowledge Constructor Students critically curate a variety of resources
using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning
experiences for themselves and others.

Selected Technology Tool: Adobe Spark

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☒ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration:

☒ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice or Choice”
during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

☐ Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is student-
driven. Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study and determining the
technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher becomes more of a facilitator.
☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student work and
promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the school’s morning
newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an outside source.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Students will be using the program Adobe Spark, which has many
features designed to help make working on projects easier. There are different font options, and all of the
tools are simple to use. Adobe Spark takes creators step by step in creating their project, and even has a tool
to help creators find free pictures for their presentation to avoid any copyright issues. Adobe Spark also has
tutorials to help students navigate the program.
Lesson idea implementation: Students will be shown the teacher example that they will recognize from the
beginning of the unit. The teacher will spend 15 minutes explaining the project and giving students a quick
overview of how to use Adobe Spark. While students are working on their projects, the teacher will be
walking around and assisting students who need help. Students will be creating an Adobe Spark Presentation
that must include a short video clip, 8-10 pictures relevant to their subject, and they may also include voice
narration (this portion will have to be worked on carefully so that not all students are talking at the same time
making the recordings difficult to hear). Each student will be assigned a different portion of the unit to create
their presentation on, there may be some students creating presentations on the same topic (that is perfectly
fine however they may not work together unless specifically directed by the teacher). Students will create
their presentation, and then post a link to the completed presentation on a shared Google Document so that
these presentations can be used as review by any student in the class. This project will be graded, so students
must be sure to post a working link in the Google Document, so the teacher has access to the presentation to
be able to grade. This project will take place over two class days, and over all will take about an hour and a

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 MultiMedia Tools: Video
half to complete.
Importance of technology: A multimedia tool is important to this project because it allows students the
opportunity to see how these tools work, and since we are in the school environment there are many people
(teacher, technology specialist etc) who can help students if they have any trouble to prepare them for using
other technology in the future. Other technology could be used for this project, for instance students could
have been asked to film and edit their own video instead of adding a clip from an existing video. However, I
believe that by using Adobe Spark and having students incorporate both video and audio, they are learning
more about technology and they are gaining valuable skill building by learning how to navigate this program
to create their project.

Internet Safety and Student Privacy: With any project using the internet it is important to keep student
safety in mind. One great feature of Adobe Spark is that students can search for free pictures and not have to
worry about copyright issues. One way I will help keep students safe is by providing a list of sites that are safe
for them to visit to retrieve video clips for their project. I will also be sure to communicate to parents that
these projects the students are creating will not be uploaded to anywhere other than the shared Google
document used solely by other students in the class. Students will also be made aware that they are not to
download other people’s projects and use them for other classes.

Reflective Practice: The project that I designed as an example would be used as an introduction to the unit,
however this project was designed as an end of unit assignment for students. Because students may not be
familiar with Adobe Spark or similar technology, I feel as though having them create this project at the end of
the unit might make it a little less complicated. Students can apply knowledge that they have been learning,
and utilize completed chapter notes, and that way they will not be learning new material and a new program
at the same time.

SBooker, 2020