Why introduce video making into your classroom?

• Students are able to use the Japanese they have learnt.
• Through the video making process, students can deepen their understanding of language, target topics and/or current social issues and trends in Japan.
• It provides an interesting platform for role-playing.
• It exposes students to a new medium of language learning, encouraging a hands on approach
• Comments and feedback received from viewers will promote student reflection or deeper thinking.
• To make a good video, students will need to consider scenarios, student roles, required props, lighting, editing techniques and so on. These thought processes will help students to develop team work, higher-order thinking skills and creativity.
• Students’ finished productions promote Japanese studies within a school.
• It’s fun and provides motivation for students learning Japanese.

Class Project: Video Making

• Teacher and students discuss the format (whole class or group work), content and style of the video, for example, a drama, ‘TV commercial’, cooking demonstration, puppet show etc.
  * The resource “Waku Waku roleplay” shows examples of various styles of video.
  
• Students discuss ideas for scenarios and how they will shoot their video.
  
• Groups decide their theme and video style.
  
• Allocate roles - the Goethe-Institute Australia web site has an excellent lesson plan resource for  allocating crewing roles.

• Students create a storyboard for their scenario.
  *The Story board sheet will help students to create their own storyboard. See Video Making Tips for more information on how to create a great storyboard. 
  
• Based on the storyboard, students develop a sequence of scenes for their video.

• For homework, students can learn about how they can do a great job in their role. The Video Making Tips page on this site is a great place to start.
  
• Students who have taken the role of 'Talent' (those performing in the video) have rehearsal for the shooting.
  
• Shoot the video, using Japanese expressions from the following list. *Useful expressions for making a video

• Although it is possible to shoot a film sequentially, making it unnecessary to do any editing at all, students with some technical aptitude can take this opportunity to express their talent by opting to edit the footage, making for a sleeker, more professional looking production.
• Fortunately there is a range of free yet very effective software available to use, making this option relatively accessible. 

For more information about the basics of video editing, visit this page.

• Students can show their videos to the class. This evaluation sheet will help teachers and students to give effective feedback and advice. Teachers can organize to screen students’ videos to the school community, for example at a Japanese culture day or language day.
• On the Goethe-Institute Australia web site, you can download a lesson plan for film making, crewing roles for students and basic film making tips. (http://www.goethe.de/ins/au/lp/prj/gsf/mov/enindex.htm) Although this is an example for German language, it can also be used as a guide to make Japanese language videos.