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Science Program Name of Unit: Science & Technology for Stage 1: Picture It Unit Purpose & Focus: Provide

students the opportunities to use pictures, sounds and language to tell a story. Creating
multimedia presentations.

Learning Process Outcomes


This unit contributes to the following syllabus outcomes. Knowledge and Understandings Students will know and understand that: -there are different ways of communicating with others. -products can be created to fulfil specific purposes. Students will: -give examples of how people plan, to make in order to provide for their own and others needs. -show that equipment should be used with care and safety. Skills Students will be able to: - observe using all the senses - interpret data and explain their observations - combine a variety of materials and images to make simple models, drawings and structures. -choose classroom materials and tools appropriate to the activity

Values & Attitudes Students will: -work cooperatively in groups.


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-be curious about the natural and made environment. -gain satisfaction from their efforts to investigate, to design and make and to use technology

Content Strand Outcomes


Built Environments BE S1.1 Creates, modifies or models built environments to suit the needs of users. Information & Communication IC S1.2 Creates a range of information products and communicates using a variety of media. Products & Services PS S1.5 Grows, makes or processes some products using a range of techniques and materials.

Assessment:
Summative assessments and ongoing assessments will occur throughout the unit. Summative assessment Formal assessment will occur at the end of the unit.

Ongoing assessment will include: Observation of students and their contribution during class discussion. Work students do in their science workbooks. Students reflection on what they learnt at the end of each lesson in their science workbooks.
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These will help the teacher assess what the students were able to accomplish and if they are on track. If they are not making progress, the teacher can adjust the amount of time needed or possibly do an extra lesson on what the students are stuck on. If it is just one or two groups that are not progressing, the teacher can then conference with the students on what they need help on.

Modifications to meet students needs

Modifications will be made on a case by case situation. Students will be paired with someone they work well with and, by students academic level (a lower academic achiever with a higher academic achiever); and unmotivated students will be paired up with students who are motivated, responsible and good leaders.

Teaching & Learning Experiences

Teaching & Learning strategies Task: Students investigate how pictures can give us information. * Revise structure of a narrative i.e. orientation, complication, resolution. * Display and go through a variety of picture books. * Work with students to write a story for a picture book (e.g. NIKKIS WALK). As you go along discuss and point out examples of how students can use a book's illustrations or picture to write or tell a story i.e. the

Resources

Learning Environment

Evaluation

-Butcher paper, coloured textas, selection of picture books, sticky notes, sequence of picture worksheet

-Classroom

expressions on the characters face; elements of the setting; texture; colours creating moods; the size of the elements e.g. things that could seem far away; people; places etc. Brainstorm on butcher paper as discussion occurs. In the middle of the butcher paper write Picture It and draw a branch out and label image. Fill butcher up with ideas discussed throughout unit. * Provide students with sticky notes to come up with a story for and a picture book in pairs. Alternatively provide students with a sequence of picture to interpret into a story. Type in sequence of pictures telling a story and select for worksheet. * Optional activity: Have student explains how they would create a mood using only pictures or textures. Task: Student tells a story by looking at photos from a variety of sources i.e. magazines, internet, newspapers etc.

Revise the different elements to how a picture can tell a story. Show students different powerful pictures/photo from Google image. Discuss the stories each photo/pictures displays and what

-Newspaper, magazines, internet, whiteboard, computer, scissors,

-Classroom

elements contributes to the story.

glue

Look through magazines or newspaper as a class, and select different pictures. Cut them out and discuss as a class what story each picture depicts. Probe questions such as 1) How do you feel about the picture 2) What information does the picture give you? 3) Is this character like anyone you know? 4) What are the characters thinking or feeling?

Students independently search for a picture from a magazine or newspaper. They are then to cut and paste the picture into their science workbook and write a description of the story they think the picture depicts.

Task: Making a movie storyboard Activity 1 Tell students that most movies contain many different elements that all work together to help the audience understand the movies story. These elements include the images, the dialogue and the music and sound effects. Write these elements on -Butcher paper, texta, Charlie and the Chocolate factory movie clip, Charlie Chaplin or
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the board. Tell students you are going to play them a clip from a movie, and that they should think about how all of these elements are used to help tell the story. Tell them to look and listen specifically for; 1) Images: How gesture and facial expressions help the audience understand what is happening. 2) Music/Sound: What type of mood the music seems to set when it starts and stops. 3) Words: What types of things people say and whether what they say helps further the story. Play a clip from WILLIE WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (YouTube- Part 4), starting as Charlie passes some parked cars and sees a coin in the gutter (this scene starts roughly 31 minutes into the movie and lasts roughly 3 minutes). Stop the clip on the close-up of the front of the golden ticket. Ask students to talk about the elements listed on the board, as well as the items they were asked to look and listen for. Ask them for specific examples of each element and how they thought it furthered the story. E.g. 1) Images: Charlies many emotional facial expressions and the shopkeepers hand gesture asking for payment. 2) Music/Sound: The use of music when Charlie sees the coin and again when he learns that there is still one golden ticket

Mr. Bean movie clip, computer, whiteboard, worksheet, science workbook, internet connection

remaining. 3) Words: The moment when Charlie overhears the crowd saying that there is, after all, a golden ticket yet to be found. Tell students that although filmmakers use all these different elements to tell stories, in this lesson they will focus specifically on how filmmakers use pictures to tell stories. Ask them where they think the word movie comes from. Tell them it is short for moving picture. Tell students that they are going to watch a scene from a silent movie (students may need clarification that a silent movie is a movie without sound). Tell students that as they watch, they should think about what is happening and how they are able to understand the story even though there is no sound. Tell students to watch for facial expressions, gestures, props, the setting, and other visual clues that will help them to understand to interpret the story. Play the clip from Charles Chaplins THE GOLD RUSH (YouTube Part 4/5) starting when the Tramp (Chaplin) walks in to town with a shovel and offers to clear snow from the doorways for a fee. (This scene starts roughly 45 minutes into the movie. The clip lasts roughly 1.5 minutes). Stop the clip after the Tramp tosses away the shovel and
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exits the frame. Ask students what they think was happening and write their responses on the board: What season is it? Why was the Tramp shovelling snow? Did he want something in exchange for clearing the snow? Did the Tramp get what he set out to get? Was the man in the house angry or happy? Was the scene funny or serious? Are the two men friends? Who is the stronger of the two men? The smarter? How were the students able to follow the story? Play the clip again. This time, ask students to write down some key visual clues (such as facial expressions, gestures, descriptions of the setting etc. Go down the list of student responses to the questions. You may need to replay the clip and freeze frames. For each response, ask students what the visual clues were that helped them reach each conclusion. For example, if students said they felt the man in the house was angry, they might say that his facial expression helped them reach that conclusion, the snow and clothing of the characters helped communicate what season it was, etc. You might play through the clip and pause on items as you discuss them.
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Leave the list of the visual clues on the board and tell students to keep this list in mind throughout the lesson, as it is a good checklist of cues to think about when telling a story visually. Activity 2 Tell students that now that they have identified visual clues used by filmmakers to help the audience interpret a movie, youd like to discuss another communicative tool filmmakers use. Write the terms close-up shot and wide shot on the board. Tell students that it isnt just what filmmakers show, but how they show it, that affects a movies meaning. Explain that a close up sounds just like what it is, that the filmmaker shows something close up. Tell students that in a wide shot, the filmmaker shows things from further away. Ask students to think about what information these shots might convey. To help students understand this concept, show them an example of a scene from WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY that uses both types of shots. As you show the clip, turn off the sound so students pay attention to the visuals. Play the clip from WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY starting on the shot of
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the double doors as Wonka emerges from the factory to greet the crowd (This scene starts about 43.5 minutes into the movie and lasts roughly 2.5 minutes YouTube Part 5). Stop the clip when Wonka reaches the gate and says, Thank You. Ask students what type they think each shot is. If they are unclear, explain to them again that a close-up shows something close up, or at a very close distance, as if the viewer were very near to the subject of the film. A wide shot shows things from a distance, as if the audience is standing further away from the things or people in the shot. Show students the clip from WILLIE WONKA again. Ask them to raise their left hand every time they see a close-up shot, their right hand every time they see a wide shot. After it is clear that the students understand the concept of close-ups and long shots, show the clip again. This time, tell them to describe the types of things the director chooses to show in close-up shots versus in wide shots. Underneath the terms close-up shot and wide shot that youve written on the board, ask students to volunteer examples of each that they saw in the clip. After compiling two lists based on
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student responses, ask students why they think the director chose to use wide or close-up shots when he did. Record student responses. Some possible answers might be: 1) In wider shots, the audience can see action (someone walking around a house, running down a street, etc) and the general layout of the setting (where things are, how far apart or close thinks are to one another, etc). Wide shots can also show what two or more characters are doing at the same time. 2)Close-up shots help an audience understand what the characters are feeling, and make the audience pay attention to just one character or item for a moment. Activity 2 Tell students that filmmakers often plan out the pictures as carefully as they plan out what the actors are going to say or who is going to play each role in the film. Ask students if they can think how filmmakers might create a plan of the pictures to help make their movie. Explain that filmmakers create storyboards to help them plan a visual story. Show them a clip on How we make movies by Pixar Show students examples of storyboards. Ask them
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how these storyboards could be helpful to a filmmaker. Explain what storyboard is.( Storyboard is a visual plan of your project. Planning a project on paper before working at the computer can save time and frustration. A separate card or paper for each slide will help organise and prepare students for production on the computer. A storyboard should include the layout, text, graphics or drawn images, and sounds that are going to be included on the slide). Ask the students what is happening in the storyboard. As they are looking at the storyboards, ask them to refer back to the list of visual cues they created in the beginning, and to think about the two types of shots (close-up and wide) that theyve just learned about. Can they see examples of the visual cues in the storyboard? What are they? Can they see examples of close-up and wide shots in the storyboards? Ask them to list examples. Ask students to storyboard the following scene in five to seven shots: Bill walks into the classroom. He sits down at his desk. On his desk, he sees that someone has left him a card. Embarrassed, he looks around the room to see who has given the valentine to him, but no one is looking at him.
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As students create the storyboard, tell them to use both wide and close-up shots and to include some of the visual cues they listed earlier in the lesson. Break students into pairs and have students share their storyboards with one another and give one another feedback on whether there are enough visual clues to understand the scene. Creators should revise if others think the story is not clear through their storyboard. Then, have students explain why they chose the type of shots they did (i.e. close-up or wide shots) and how that was dictated by the story itself. Display the storyboards on a wall in your classroom. Allow students to view one anothers work. Bring the class back together as a group and ask them to comment on what was similar about the storyboards and what was different. Task: Storyboarding with Kid Pix Students learn how to plan a storyboard, create five slides, and save their slides in a special folder.

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