VR films for creative writing & speaking
This morning I was watching my (almost) 10 year old watch youtube films on his computer. Nothing new I thought, the usual lazy Saturday morning at home. But it was when he started moving his youtube film around that I became astonished with what happened next. I watched as he was able to drag his Spongebob film into various parts of Spongebob's world.
"HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?" I asked.
He looked at me like I was old and continued to tell me that it was a VR film...what's a VR film I thought (feeling very old). Of course trusty old Google let me know that VR stood for virtual reality, duh, I know that term but have never seen it on youtube before.
He continued to show me around Spongebob's world. Taking me to all corners of his underwater house. What a great way to understand perspective I thought to myself...and the idea began.
This would be a simple way to get students to write (or speak) creatively. Since this perspective allows for students to create their own story based on which underwater adventure they choose within their own chosen virtual reality world.
All they need is a computer (or digital device), youtube, a pen and paper. Yes, I love the digitial world but sometimes I'm a bit 'old school' when it comes to having students write things down on REAL paper.
So what could they write about? Various things.
-what is in Spongebob's house
-what colours are used for different objects throughout Spongebob's word.
-what does Spongebob say about his own world and how does this create meaning to what the students are seeing?
...the ideas are endless.
Click the picture below to have your students create their own personal writing journey.
Once your students have had a chance to explore their way through Spongebob's world, they could also move their way through the National Geographic VR films. Allowing for each student to pick their own video and perspective to write (or speak) about. Click the picture below to browse through various VR films created by National Geographic.
*Update, I was able to use this lesson with an extra help class (students who aren't doing well in their normal class and come to me for extra English lessons). This particular lesson went amazingly well and students were very enthusiatic about these videos. The students especially loved that they could choose their own videos to watch from the National Geographic page since that they could choose their own animal/mammal's world to explore.
As a teacher, I also loved this exercise because it allowed for me to walk around the room and correct students vocabulary/spelling and grammar while other students were busy writing their stories down.
As an add on to this lesson, I wrote down 5 vocabulary words from their workbook and asked students to include these words in their writing. This allowed me to see if the students understookd the meaning of the words that they were meant to have learned in Unit 4 of Solutions. So not only were they writing about their worlds but they were busy with new vocabulary as well. I LOVED this exercise!
