Voice and Choice: Writing with Explain Everything

Creator: Jake Lee (@teachingjake)
Suggested Grade Level: Elementary
Subject Area: English/Language Arts

Learning Objective

Students will build their writer’s voice while increasing their app and tech fluency by using Explain Everything, Chatter Pix Kid, and iMovie to publish a piece of writing.

Project Description

To begin, students will select a piece of writing that has been completed, edited with a teacher, and that they feel is ready to be published. Then, students will create an avatar of themselves by cropping their face out of a photo using the lasso tool in Explain Everything, drawing a body, and then saving it to their photos. Next, the students will create an introduction to their writing piece in Explain Everything by importing their avatar over a photo of their writing and using the audio to record an intro such as:  “Hi! My name is___________. This is is my story about….You are going to love it because…” Students can then narrate their story using their best expression and while animating their avatar. They just take a new picture, on a new slide, for each page. When finished, students can export their creation as a video to their Camera Roll. As an added bonus, students can record a conclusion to their story in the ChatterPix kids app to thank their readers for watching the video. Finally, students can bring all of these videos together in iMovie and even add background music, titles, and transitions. When finished, students can now share their projects with the world through a blog, YouTube, or Twitter.

Student Example

Extending the Project
When students see the amazing impact of adding voice to their learning through apps, it will take classroom learning experiences to another level. The 3 apps highlighted in this project can be used across subject areas to capture meaningful and powerful learning moments.

Here is a blog post that highlights how I created another, similar project to combine math and writing.