Using Video Clips as Prompts for Conversation and Making Predictions

I was recently reminded of the importance of reading stories as a classroom exercise in terms of giving students the opportunity to make predictions about what will happen in the next part of the story to be read. The same can be done with video clips. The following three clips come from a car commercial. I play them in order for the whole class. The students work in groups. Each group has to make a prediction about what will happen next. I write the predictions on the board before showing the next clip. Try it yourself by watching the clips in order and making your own predictions.

Watch the first clip



What do you think will happen next? (Write your prediction down!)


Watch the second clip



Was your prediction accurate?
What do you think will happen next? (Write your prediction down!)


Watch the final clip



Was your prediction accurate?

Try it with your students! If your students are anything like my students you will have great discussions and they will enjoy the surprise endings, especially after the second second clip!

More from CLEAR-Use Viewpoint to easily create short videos

A second free application from the Rich Internet Applications suite of programs from the Center for Language Education And Research of Michigan State University is called Viewpoint. Viewpoint allows you to create simple videos (using your own webcam and microphone) completely from within your web browser. The completed video is saved in your CLEAR account and accessible via a URL or is associated with an "embed code" that you can place on your website, blog or wiki. You can also upload an existing video from YouTube, TeacherTube or from your own computer and it will be converted to a format that can be posted on a website.

There doesn't seem to be any editing capabilities once the video is made so have a good idea of what you want to say before you start recording! If you make a mistake, start the recording over.

Here's an example!



Click here for a quick video message that I posted on my class web page for the students to view when they get back to class.
If you already have an account at CLEAR or the Rich Internet Applications website, you don't need to create a new account.

Hello from TESOL 2008 in NYC

I'm pleased to report that my Pre-Conference Institute was well attended and well-received and that I've already been introduced to a new website that might be of interest to ESL teachers who like using Internet resources with their students. This website allows one to link to a YouTube or Google video and create a multiple choice quiz based on that video. It has promise, but of course, the major drawback is that most of the video sites are blocked by most school districts now including my own! It should work with TeacherTube but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. It's called ESLvideo and is at http://www.eslvideo.com if you want to experiment with it. Like I said, it has promise but will not be completely workable for many settings and contexts.

First video uploaded to Teacher Tube

I've obviously seen a few videos on Teacher Tube but I finally was able to successfully create one using Camtasia Studio software and upload it myself. This is a short training tutorial about how to create a link from one wiki page to another wiki page using pbwiki.




To view the same video directly on the Teacher Tube website click here!

The uploading process to Teacher Tube was quite easy. Recording using the Camtasia software was also easy. Figuring out how to export the video was more confusing and I'm still not sure if I selected the best settings for optimal file transfer and viewing on the website. I still need to experiment with that!

What did we do in class today? Watch a video and find out!

I've started a new experiment using short videos to tell absent students what the rest of us did in class on any given day. I now have a webcam and I've been making very short video clips announcing the assignments. I upload the video file to my wikipage and then put a link to the wikipage on my class pageflakes home page. I'm not sure that's the most efficient way to do this yet, but it seems to be workable. I'm going to introduce the class pageflakes page to my new group of students tomorrow. I'll keep you posted about their feedback. In the meantime, feel free to check out the first two video clips. You'll find the link in the left column under the calendar "flake."