“How do I write my own book?” ...
...“How do I illustrate my own book?”
...“How do I illustrate my own book?”
Samantha* and Sydney*, third and fourth grade students, began developing their questions for Genius Hour independently. It wasn’t long before they discovered that they shared a congruent focus. They teamed up and began brainstorming what it was that they could do to build their book project together.
After exploring their initial questions, they were led to several more:
A quality inquiry question will lead to several more questions that require students to consider the depth and scope of their project. Based on the answers they find to each of these questions, they may also make changes to the central question of their project. Since the project is of a passion-based nature, the student should continue to find motivation and interest in the answers that they discover.
After exploring their initial questions, they were led to several more:
- What should we write about? … We don’t have a topic yet.
- What kind of art do we want to create with our writing?
- What tools do we want to use to do the job?
- Are we building a real book?
- Or are we creating a digital book?
- Who is our audience?
A quality inquiry question will lead to several more questions that require students to consider the depth and scope of their project. Based on the answers they find to each of these questions, they may also make changes to the central question of their project. Since the project is of a passion-based nature, the student should continue to find motivation and interest in the answers that they discover.
Soon, Sydney and Samantha’s focus was on cartooning and graphic novels. They thought that maybe they would create a cartoon series together, but weren’t sure where to begin. Another thought that came to them was creating animated cartoons. Both of these considerations led to offshoots that could be viewed from the teacher perspective as “getting off track”.
What tools do I need to create basic or animated cartoons?
How is a cartoon animated and is it possible to create our own?
What tools do I need to create basic or animated cartoons?
How is a cartoon animated and is it possible to create our own?
As a way to connect students to outside resources, the teacher connected Sydney and Samantha, along with another group of girls, to a high school student who created a similar project. The students first started by watching a video of the story she created with iOS apps paired with iMovie. They followed by setting up a Skype call with the student-author, who answered their questions about her project, and explained what the younger students may need in order to complete their own.
Soon after, they decided on exactly what they wanted to do. They brought plasticine, googly eyes, string, and several plastic bags to school. They started building and sculpting small characters. And they knew exactly how they were going to capture and share their story.
Soon after, they decided on exactly what they wanted to do. They brought plasticine, googly eyes, string, and several plastic bags to school. They started building and sculpting small characters. And they knew exactly how they were going to capture and share their story.
Samantha and Sydney downloaded an app on Sydney’s iPad Mini called “Stop Motion Studio”. They had decided on creating a stop-motion animation movie with their claymation characters. This took an intense amount of discipline and teamwork by both members of the group, as hundreds of photos needed to be captured of the plasticine characters while the other partner moved them only centimetres at a time for each pose.
The project is now near completion and the girls will be sharing their stop-motion animation film and story beginning in their own classroom. Though not yet completed, they have expressed interested in posting this on the classroom YouTube account, on their classroom blogs, and through their classroom Twitter account. They do not yet know what response it may get from the public, what kind of commentary they will receive, but they are excited and proud to share their work with a global audience.
*Names changed for privacy reasons