Earlier in the year our grade 8 Humanities students completed a project where they retold a chosen novel in a graphic novel form. Our two grade 8 Humanities teachers, Dave Scott and Jaime Groeller, recently compiled all the materials they used for this project into an “integrated inquiry resource.” If you have an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone, you can click here to get the ePub document that contains all the steps of the project, with videos and rubrics. Creating a Graphic Novel – Grade 8 Humanities Created by Dave Scott Jaime Groeller Below is an brief overview of the … Continue reading Creating Graphic Novels

At a recent PD day, our staff had a lengthy discussion about iMovies. We’ve been a 1:1 school for 5 years, and had Mac labs for years before that – so our teachers have been doing digital storytelling in various forms for quite a while now. As the examples and uses of iMovie have spread through our campus over the last few years, more and more teachers and students have been using iMovies as a way to demonstrate understanding. When used in the proper way, we feel digital storytelling is a very powerful and creative way for students to express … Continue reading Creating Trailers for Short Stories

Our grade 9 students recently completed a project where they were asked to take a complex idea (the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) and explain it in a short, simple and entertaining format. To accomplish this, they used the Common Craft video format. What is Common Craft? Here’s the description of what they do from their website: Our videos may surprise you. They’re short and simple. They use paper cut-outs. They cover subjects “in Plain English.” But lurking under the simple surface are lessons that have been crafted with great care. Despite our fun and lighthearted style, we take … Continue reading Explaining the Charter with Common Craft