If I Had a Superpower

What?

This project started simple and the students took it to a whole new level.  I always use a video of me pretending to have a super power for a story starter.  I show the video and then ask the class to make up a super power of there own.  This year the class wrote some very creative pieces and starting describing how they could film the powers like I did in the intro video.  I could not resist.  We spent some recesses and lunches filming the powers they wrote about.  The students were extremely engaged and creative.  They described what they wanted their power to look like and I did my best to make it happen.

Why?

This writing piece was apart of our fictional writing/reading unit.  The students were being encouraged to think creative.  They were asked write stories that would capture the readers interest and also reflect their own personality.  The video part is all about oral language.  Being able to film their power was a great motivator for the students to practice reading their work.  It was awesome seeing the students so engaged!  They also learned a lot about video editing and how special effects are created.

Materials

For this activity all you really need is an iPad.  I filmed all the movies using an iPad and apps.  There are a number of free apps available on iTunes that allow you to create awesome effects.  “Super Power fx” was the one we used to most.  It is so easy to use the students were able to film each others powers.  I did all the editing in iMovie.  It made it very easy to compile the videos and insert the audio.