In the early stages of learning a language, learners have a limited range of vocabulary and it’s often difficult to find interesting and motivating ways to practise the few words and phrases they have learned. This was exactly the experience of teachers in St Mark’s, Irvine, and Radio Lingua Schools designed a workshop around providing an additional mode of practice for a group of primary 6 pupils who had just started learning Spanish.

The pupils participating in the workshop only had three Spanish lessons prior to taking part, but in this time they had managed to cover greetings, asking each other ¿cómo te llamas? (what is your name?) and dealing with ages. The workshop aimed to provide an additional opportunity to practise key words and phrases at this early stage of learning.

The first stage of the workshop involved the pupils working with Garageband on a file which included the various parts of a conversation, muddled up. This file had been prepared prior to the workshop, simply recording two voices on two different tracks of Garageband. The same process can easily be achieved in Audacity or other audio editors.

The pupils had to rearrange the recorded ‘regions’ on separate tracks of the Garageband file, making up a conversation between “Carlos” and “Isabel”. The pupils understood the words and phrases contained in the conversation immediately, so rearranging the phrases to make the correct conversation was a straightforward task.

Having completely rearranged the conversation, each pair played their audio file to the rest of the group. They then had to record their own version of the conversation, taking on the roles of “Carlos” and “Isabel” themselves and using the Vocal Transformer plugin in Garageband to make one voice in each group sound a bit more masculine!

The podcasts recorded by each pair can be found below. Just a reminder that in each case one of the voices has a Vocal Transformer filter applied!

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

This workshop will feature in a forthcoming episode of the Apple Distinguished Educator Learning Series, The Creative Classroom, which will feature ideas and tips for using iLife and iWork in the classroom. More information will be made available in the coming weeks.

This video was part of a pilot project involving children from St Mark’s Primary in Irvine who worked together to produce a news report featuring highlights from one month in school.

The pupils planned their work and wrote scripts using Pages. Pages was also used in full screen mode as an autocue, and all editing was done using iMovie 09.

Staff at St Mark’s Primary in Irvine (North Ayrshire) wanted to build stronger links with parents and the wider community and create an on-going media record of the activities in the school. Working with Radio Lingua Schools, they undertook a pilot project in which a group of primary 6 pupils planned and recorded a news report using iMovie with a view to enlarging the scope of the project in future months.

The project began with an initial workshop where the children involved learned how to create a basic news report using a studio anchor, voiceover and additional footage. They then planned the content of their pilot show to include information about whole-school events, activities of particular classes, and curricular developments. Each pupil was allocated a role in the production of their “Monthly Media Report”, and the group worked together to identify a filming schedule for the production day.

Part of the project involved CPD with teachers in the school, delivered by Radio Lingua Schools. This CPD focused on developing a culture of recording video footage during the day-to-day activities of the school. Teachers learned the value of recording a number of short clips on tripod which could subsequently be used as illustrative footage with a voiceover.

In preparation for the production day, the lead teacher in the school had organised filming of a number of activities. Having learned how television news reports work, the pupils decided which stories to include in their show, and carefully planned scripts and links based around their decisions.

The production day began with the finalisation of the scripts and links. The pupils edited their scripts using Pages and used the full screen function in order to display the text in the style of an autocue as the presenter spoke. The children were encouraged to plan the production around strict time limits, with “broadcast time” being 2:45pm. They filmed the studio materials and links first, then went “on location” in the primary 1 classroom to film an interview with two younger children. Finally, they filmed the “outside broadcast” material in the school grounds.

The final stage involved combining their newly recorded material with the footage previously shot by the teachers in the school. The children used iMovie to edit together their news report and learned to use the voiceover and titling/graphics functions of the application to enhance their show. Finally, they exported the movie and invited their head teacher to the “première” of their first news report.

The movie has been displayed on the television screen at the school entrance, so all parents and visitors to the school can watch it as they arrive. The school also plans to feature the movie on their website which is currently in development.

The lead teacher in the school now hopes to develop the work done in this initial pilot stage of the project and for the next news report will increase the size of the group in order that each of the original participants will work with another pupil, sharing their knowledge and skills. Radio Lingua Schools will continue to support the school through these developments.

This project was about sharing the work of each class in the school with other pupils and parents. Over time it is hoped that all classes will be featured in some way, and the enlarged production team will be responsible for planning future shows accordingly. Throughout the workshops the children involved were extremely focused on their task and worked together enthusiastically to produce the final product.

The pupils’ work can be seen in our media gallery:

• St Mark’s Media Monthly – May 2009

Teacher Clare Fallon coordinated the project at school level:

“The children thoroughly enjoyed working with Radio Lingua Schools. This project allowed them to use a variety of skills which they had acquired over their primary years but in an unusual and original way. The project encouraged the children to work independently and collaboratively, making decisions as a group and encouraging one another as they went along. They were amazed and so proud of their final movie and couldn’t wait to show it off at the next school assembly. The children now hope to work on their next project and will involve a group of children from the new primary six class.”

If you would like to find out more about running a Radio Lingua Schools workshop in your school, please visit our Workshops area.