ideas. The brainstorming sheets included these questions:
1. Where does the story take place?
2. Who are the characters in the
story?
3. What are some details about the
characters?
4. What is the problem in the story?
5. What is the solution?
6. What math question will be
asked in the end?
Step 3: Based on the long, rambling
tales students told, we realized the
groups still needed more focus. Our
goal was to create simple, one-minute
videos, not full-length motion pictures.
So on the morning of the third day, the
children in each group rotated through
stations to meet with one of us to write
short narratives that stemmed from
their brainstorming sheets.
Step 4: That afternoon, the groups
rotated stations to create storyboards
to plan each shot of their videos. We
jotted down their ideas on a storyboard template that we made by printing handouts from PowerPoint with
three blank slides per page. In the
boxes, we drew pictures of the shot,
and in the notes area, we wrote the
dialogue and notes for the actors.
To keep things focused, we limited
videos to six shots, although most ended up being a little longer. We feared
that this storyboard process would be
too difficult for the students, but we
discovered that thinking like video
directors seemed to come naturally to
many of them. The groups’ storyboards
included scenarios about getting the
correct amount of change when paying
for a teddy bear, dividing costs to pay
for a video game, and adding scores to
see which team got the most points in
a video game competition.
We also found that as the groups
worked their way through the planning process, their stories changed
from their earlier ideas. For example,
the children in the Green Group—who
created a story problem that involved
shopping for candy, a stuffed cat, and
baseball cards—changed some of the
items and prices from their original
plan. Considering that we wanted the
whole process to be as student driven
as possible, we tried to accommodate
these changes, although this ended up
becoming challenging during filming
when the script didn’t match the props
and needed to be changed on the fly.
With all the hard planning behind
them, the groups were now ready for
some real fun.
The Fun Part!
The fourth day of the project was
dedicated to rehearsal and filming.
We provided many of the props for
the videos (a toy cash register, money,
stuffed animals, etc.), but the students
created many other things to individualize their stories, including store
signs, video games, and price tags.
Much of the morning was spent making these props and practicing lines.
The class had several talks about the
importance of things like speaking
clearly and using “storyteller voices.”
The screenshots above are from the video
created by the Green Group. The video
begins with a shot of three friends in a
store. The camera then zooms in on three
items, with price tags, that the friends decide to buy: candy ($7), a stuffed cat ($9),
and baseball cards ($2). As the friends
walk toward the cash register, the camera
focuses on one of them dropping her
money. When the clerk asks the friends
how they will pay for the items, they realize the money is lost! The friends then
search and find the money. The next shot
is of them paying for the items. The video
ends with the narrator reading question-and-answer cards about how much all
the items cost. View the video at www.
elmgradeone.weebly.com/math-video-stories.html.
