Timing is Everything

One inquiry question that I had was How do you use movie maker, and how can that be integrated into the elementary classroom. While I was searching for an answer, I didn't find much on creating movies by using movie maker, but I didn't find an article that explains when and why we should show movies at different times. It never crossed my mind that students would be more perceptive to a movie if it is shown at certain times in the class.

Debra Drury writes in an aritcle her experiences with showing movies in the class and how the students reacted to them. She teaches science in upper elementary school. Originally she would show movies as and introduction to a unit. After observing the students reactions she noticed that they didn't ask questions or get involved with the video that was shown. Some watched it and others didn't really care. When she realized that this technique wasn't working she decided to change the order of the lesson. Instead of showing the movie at the beginning of the lesson to introduce it, she showed it at the end to summarize it. Just by moving the video to different times in the class there was a huge difference in responses. She began to notice that the student were more interactive and payed more attention when it was show at the end of the lesson.

It is amazing how it can be just the little things that change the reactions of students. Every time I thought about how I would integrate a movie into the classroom it never crossed my mind that the timing of the movie would make a difference.

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