The Magic of Silent Movies in Creative Writing!

I want to give a  SPECIAL "THANK YOU" to Adrianne Meldrum of The Tutor House for being a guest blogger today! She does, without a doubt, always have clever and spectacular ideas/activities to share. So, without further delay...
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There's something magical about silent movies.  Even without dialog, a story is conveyed.  How would the story be different if you could add dialog?  Using silent movies for a creative writing project or exercise could liven up your students creative juices.


I found three fun (short) silent movies that lend themselves well to adding dialog.  Two of them are old silent movies and the other is a modern day silent movie.  All of these videos are under a creative commons license. 


Divide your students into teams and assign a video.  Students will then work together to come up with dialog that goes along with the video.  They will need to come up with a title and then perform the voices for the videos.  Of course, you'll need to set some ground rules with no profane or inappropriate content allowed. 


You could also have students do their own voice over of the videos.  If you would prefer this method, please email me to receive an editable version of the video.

What kinds of stories do you think your students will come up with?


Video Sources: Video One, Video Two, Video Three


Adrianne Meldrum is a private tutor and author of The Tutor House, a blog dedicated to helping tutors find curriculum and business tips.

Every Teacher Loves Freebies, So....

You would be absolutely crazy not to check out Kids Cog Works' Blog Post which provides lists of AWESOME Blog Pages with FREE RESOURCES!! How great is that for a go to source? Adrianne Meldrum is the author of Kids Cog Works! She has amazing ideas! Visit her blog, and definitely bookmark and share her post!!   Visit her on Facebook too!

Adrianne, thanks for this ULTIMATE FREEBIES LIST!! 

FYI: There are 20 FREEBIE PAGES by some spectacular teachers and bloggers! Who knows the actual number of FREE items!!! Too many to count, that's for sure.... 

Adrianne also wrote an awesome guest post on my blog titled "Ka Pow!" Check it out!!I promise that you'll enjoy it!

Do you have a freebies page on your blog? I'd love for you to let me know that you stopped by and visited her post! What did you think?

Regards,

 

KA-POW!

Did you grow up reading comic books or the Sunday funnies? I did. My personal favorites were Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield. They are funny and kids can relate to them. Even super hero comics managed to find their way into my hands when I was young. I enjoyed the illustrations so much and the sound effects of the characters.I've discovered that struggling readers like comic books for a couple of reasons. The text isn't intimidating. The pictures catch their eyes. They don't seem as long as a book. When I introduce my struggling readers to Calvin and Hobbes, they fall in love with it. {So Do I} It's a fun and friendly text they relate to. Calvin and Hobbes have all kinds of imagination adventures in everyday situations. I especially like Calvin and Hobbes because the author and illustrator Bill Watterson uses language that is above where my students are. But because it's a comic book, they are willing to jump in and try those insanely big words. My 3rd grade student took a stab at the word "dictatorial impunity". The other plus is all of the grunts and groans and yells that require the student to access their phonics when they yell out, "WAARRGH!" If you have a student that continues to struggle with reading, consider getting some comic books into their hands. It just may change the way they feel about reading. Writing this blog post got me so excited about comics that I decided to make a freebie to share with all of you at Innovative Connections. It's got comic resources to help you find some great reads to share and a mini lesson where the students get to make their own comic strip. I can see the smiles now coming across your faces.... click here to download it right now. Adrianne Meldrum has a degree in Elementary Education. She currently tutors struggling readers and middle school math students. She is the author of Kidscogworks.com and creator of Brain Tower . Adrianne is the wife of an engineer and a mother to three very handsome boys.