I am currently sitting in a class of middle school ESL students who are working very diligently and quietly. (Forgot my iPod or we would have some tunes.) I occasionally get up and sweep the room to see if they are on task or need any help. They are doing exactly what I asked, so I sit and type a few words into this post, send out a tweet here and there, and  go back to see how they are doing.

Am I distracted? Are they not getting my full attention? Or is this what the new classroom looks like? I am there if they need me, I have prepared them for a task, and they are doing it.

We are in the middle of a very basic grammar overhaul, and I wanted to come up with some interesting, media rich activities that will help them understand the basic parts of speech as well as arm them with media manipulation skills. I think this is called technology integration.  Here is what they are doing:

• Downloading video clips from youtube and making sure they are iMovie compatible using Handbrake
• Editing clip down to 45secs and removing sound
• Describing what they see using a thesaurus to find interesting adjectives
• Adding the adjectives as text
• Adding voice over to describer the scene (Will most likely do this in Garageband for easier audio controls. Sorry iMovie 09)
• Adding a simple score they create for the background.
• Creating a short intro explaining what an adjective is and does.

Having some great discussions about grammar and language as they work. For example, “Yeah but… quickly? Is that describing the dog or the way it is running?  So is that an adjective? Right on. You got it. That is an Adverb!” Sorry, gotta run and see if all is okay….any feedback and on what do differently or things to add? Bringing the spirit of #ds106, web 2.0 and media remix culture to 6th grade ESL!