Plan for Effective Viewing of a Video

WHY A PROCESS IS NEEDED

Students must think through videos used for academic purposes beyond just the time it takes to watch a video. Processing videos allowsstudents to think, analyze and critically judge what they see. Another benefit ofteaching these thinking and observation skills is that they are transferableto comprehending other sources, texts and documents, charts, maps, etc.

SKILLS STUDENTS NEED:tied to common core

  • Being observant to key ideas and details
  • Summarizing the main ideaand relating examples
  • Citing and quoting accurately from a digital source
  • Determining and explainingpoint of view, detecting bias
  • Making inferences
  • Using targeted vocabulary words from authentic text

TEACHER QUESTIONS: It is all in the planning

  1. What is my overall purpose forshowing this video – beyond getting background knowledge?
  2. How will I introduce the video without giving too much information?
  3. How much of the video willI show, and how will I determine the starting and stopping points as I preview the video?
  4. How often will I stop the video to give students time to process information?
  5. What are the Essential Questions/enduring ideas? (Importanceof the ideas presented in video– the answer to “SO WHAT”?
  6. What do I want students to carefully observe and specifically note?
  7. What can students cite as the main idea/importance of the video?
  8. What can students cite as the examples (claims of evidence) or support for their ideas?
  9. How can students take notes about what they saw and heard, and how can you avoid the deadly worksheet?
  10. How will students discuss what they saw, what they now know and how they can use the information?

WHAT TO AVOID:

Think twice about using a deadly worksheet on which students answer a set of questions about who, what, where and why. It is not that all worksheets are deadly but a steady dose of them is detrimental to thinking.Consider how you will suggest students take notes or cite claims; use the video for research purposes in class, or DBQs.

Remembering that “comprehension should not be silent.” How will the lesson be structured to avoid student isolation?

STRUCTURE THE DIALOGUE

Determine how you will structure the dialogue between students and how students can assist each other in thinking through the video. Perhaps in pairs/triads one student can look for evidence while another looks for quotes for the main idea, and a third looks for sound reasoning, bias.

Determine what statements you want students to give to bring closure. This could be something like - “Before I thought,but now I think…. or“When looking for details it was helpful to…..”

Let’s practice together discussionwith………………………….

The first attempt with students can be a process of coordinated “think aloud”. Teacherposes a question, about the video. Students answer, and the teacher also may add, “ I thought ------when I saw ------, or I heard ------and I also observed…

Teachermight phrase this - Using your note sheet, what did you hear, see after………………………… share...

What did you observe when …………………………………?

Did you see any examples of bias? What were they?

What quotes were important to your understanding of the video?