Creating a digital spoken text
Activities to help your pupils write and record a persuasive video text
CfE Levels 3, 4 and Senior Phase (Age 12-16)
Resource created by Scottish Book Trust
Contents
About this resource / Page 1What is a vlog? / Page 2
Activities / Page 2
Appendix 1 – looking at examples / Page 7
Appendix 2 – planning your video / Page 8
About this resource
This resource is designed to be used alongside our How to Start Vlogging video series: http://bit.ly/SBTVloggingSeries. This series, presented by Jean Menzies, is aimed first and foremost at teenagers who are interested in creating vlogs to share on the internet; however, their potential for developing writing and speaking skills in school is significant. This resource will explain how Jean’s video series can be used by teachers and librarians.
The writing and speaking skills required to create a digital spoken text such as a vlog are very similar to those required to do an individual talk – it’s a great chance to teach pupils how to structure an introduction, main body and conclusion, and also to help them improve their vocal expression. Accordingly, the pedagogical approach used in this resource is similar to the way you might approach an individual talk.
However, it’s important to remember that this is just one way you can use Jean’s videos! The ‘Top 5‘ format we’ve suggested in this resource is just one potential format – you could challenge pupils to come up with ‘how to’ informative videos, discursive videos about current events, or anything else that tests their writing and speaking skills.
What is a vlog?
Strictly speaking, a vlog is a video version of an internet blog. Instead of the content being written, a presenter speaks to camera about a topic which interests them. Jean Menzies’ YouTube channel is full of examples – Jean vlogs about literature, politics, studying and other topics: https://www.youtube.com/user/BookishThoughts
However, as Jean points out in the How to Start Vlogging series, the format can be differentiated. Pupils don’t have to appear in front of the camera – they can simply record a voiceover and use images and other footage to illustrate or enhance what they say. If you don’t want to focus on speaking skills, pupils can even use text in the video instead of speaking.
Vlogs can take many different forms, and you can encourage pupils to be creative! To keep this resource tightly focused, we’ve challenged pupils to come up with a ‘Top 5’ vlog – these are extremely popular and prevalent on the internet.
Activities
What makes a good Top 5 video? LIT 3-05a
By the end of this activity, pupils should:
· Begin to understand what makes an effective Top 5 video in terms of structure and features
As mentioned in the previous section, vlogs can take different forms. Here are a few good examples to share with your pupils:
· Jean Menzies’ Top 10 young adult books (a longer video, but the format will be clear from the first few minutes!): http://bit.ly/JeanTop10
· Top 5 Animated Children’s Movies of 2015, a great example of how a presenter doesn’t have to appear on screen: http://bit.ly/Top5Anim
Ask pupils to use the worksheet in Appendix 1 to make notes about the examples you’ve shown. They could discuss the videos in groups after watching, and feed back to the rest of the class. Alternatively, you could use the worksheet headings as areas to discuss with the whole class.
Coming up with content ENG 3-29a, LIT 3-25a
By the end of this activity, pupils should:
· Have come up with a topic for their video;
· Have come up with arguments to justify each item included in their video.
Explain to pupils that they are going to create their own top 5 video. Of course you may wish to differentiate the number of items included. Even one is fine, as this will still allow you to teach the skills needed to introduce a video, make an argument and write a conclusion.
Use the worksheet in Appendix 2 to help pupils make notes about their video. If you want to go into more detail about how to write an introduction and conclusion, use the activity below.
Introductions and conclusions ENG 3-29a
By the end of this activity, pupils should have an understanding of what goes in an introduction and conclusion, and how introductions and conclusions can be structured.
As an example, you can show pupils the video from Jean Menzies which they initially viewed in the first activity: http://bit.ly/JeanTop10. Below is an edited version of the introduction to the video:
If you’re using the editable Word version of this resource, you can edit this introduction to alter its complexity and depth. In its current guise it has three main elements:
· A clear statement about the topic of the video in the first sentence
· Some discussion of why Jean feels the topic is important
· A quick summary of what’s coming up in the video
Discuss the introduction text with your pupils to see if they can identify these three elements. This should hopefully make it easier for them to fill in the Introduction section of the worksheet in Appendix 2.
When you’re teaching how to write a conclusion, you can use parts of Jean’s conclusion to the video – an edited version is below:
Discuss this conclusion with pupils. There are several identifiable functions:
· A short reminder of what the video was about
· Several recommendations of things the audience can do after they’ve finished watching
Again, discuss this with pupils and see if they can identify these elements. There is scope to add more elements to a conclusion – for instance, additional thoughts about the young adult genre could be included, or a quote from a young adult fiction writer could be used to round off the video. See if pupils have any ideas about things that could be added.
This should now hopefully make it easier for them to fill in the Conclusion section of the worksheet in Appendix 2.
Planning LIT 3-25a, ENG 3-29a
By the end of this activity, pupils should have come up with aide memoire to help them perform their video; this could be a script or a series of prompt cards.
If you want pupils to create prompt cards rather than writing a full script for their talk, you could watch Jean’s top 10 young adult books video from the previous activity and show them this example flash card for the introduction:
Discuss these cards. Why do pupils think these particular bullet points have been noted down on the cards?
After this, they can start developing prompt cards for their own videos.
If you want pupils to write scripts, you can essentially approach this as writing a discursive essay – pupils can extend the notes they made in the previous activity into a full-blown script.
Developing speaking skills LIT 3-03a, LIT 3-09a
To help pupils develop confidence in speaking, and to help them judge intonation, there are a number of good resources on the Oracy Network website: https://www.esu.org/our-network/oracy-network/resources
Here are a few particularly useful ones:
· Just a Minute – pupils must speak about a topic without hesitating, deviating or repeating themselves: http://bit.ly/JustMinute
· If I ruled the world – a chance for everyone to get used to speaking in front of others and expressing personal opinions: http://bit.ly/IfRuledTheWorld
There are also some suggestions for developing projection and intonation skills in our Steven Camden learning resource: http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning/learning-resources/resource/steven-camden-learning-resources-character-creation-and-poetry
Filming and editing TCH 3-03a, TCH 3-04a
Hopefully the second video in Jean’s series, ‘Filming and Editing’, will give a comprehensive enough introduction to the technical aspects of putting together a video. However, if your pupils aren’t editing their footage using apps on their phone, there is plenty of good quality, free editing software that you can use. Try iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or the online editing platform at www.wevideo.com. There are lots of online tutorial videos for these platforms.
Appendix 1 – notes on example videos
Video / What do you think the main purpose of the video was? / How did the presenter try to persuade you of their arguments? / What did you like/dislike about the style of the videoJean Menzies’ top 10 young adult books
Top 5 animated films of 2015
Appendix 2 – planning a video
Title for my video:
Use the boxes below to make short notes about what you want to say in your video.