German photo story project “Unsere Schule”

Learning environment:

A class of 10 year 3 German (L3) pupils have used an ICT software, called “Photo Story” to create an audiovisual presentation of their school. The aim was to motivate the pupils to use the learnt vocabulary and structures for a real purpose in an e-environment. The learning objective therefore was to enhance their computer skills as well as their German language skills.

Preparation:

First and foremost the class practiced new German vocabulary and structures in class in order to develop their language skills and in particular to be able to apply these in the ICT project. Also in preparation for the photo story project we took photos of the school grounds and facilities as well as the class rooms in the school. Those pictures were than uploaded on to the school’s intranet ready to be accessed by the pupils. Each pupil had then created their own photo story by downloading the photos on to the software and writing captions for each photo, including what kind of room it is, where in the school you can find it and what pupils and teachers do in there. For entering the competition we chose one photo story to work on as a group.

Execution:

After agreeing on whose presentation to use the pupils decided what room they would like to narrate. The students prepared and practiced their oral captions using their individual photo story project as a model. We added a music file to our project and wrote shorter captions for every photo. Each student then recorded their narration with a microphone onto one or two photos in the presentation. For the final photo of the main school building we recorded the whole class as choir to finalise our work.

Outcome:

The whole project was tremendous fun for the pupils. The motivation for learning German was boosted and it gave the learning and extra purposeful meaning. Using ICT in language teaching is a great way to motivate students and to build their independency in learning as well as improving their ICT skills.